Welp, I don’t consider this particularly bold, but anyway…
Florida unseats Georgia in the SEC East
Does Dan Mullen beat Georgia before Kirby Smart wins his first national title as the Bulldogs coach? Yes.
And I bet Mullen wins a national title before Smart, too.
Count me among the Mullen believers. He is the best quarterback developer in the SEC, and with Kyle Trask leading the offense for a second season I expect the Gators to make a big jump as a top-5 contender nationally. The defense will be a top-of-the-line unit once again after ranking seventh nationally last season (15.5 points per game).
When Halloween arrives in Jacksonville, the better quarterback will win the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Trask will be that quarterback. Not Jamie Newman, who was impressive at Wake Forest but was average against winning teams last season: 15 touchdowns, 10 interceptions on a 54.8 completion percentage.
Florida snaps Georgia’s three-game winning streak in the series and marches to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game as Mullen guides the Gators to double-digit wins for a third straight year for the first time since Steve Spurrier’s six-year streak ended in 1998.
And here I thought Gus Malzahn was the best preseason quarterback developer in the SEC.
Get The Picture 
Didn’t a lot of the pundits say the same thing about Feleipe Franks last year at this time?
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Who are these great QBs Mullen has developed? Not only Feleipe Franks, but all those guys at Mississippi State? Can’t remember any of their names.
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Dak Prescott, the starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys.
Ring a bell?
Of course that is the list.
But what coach has more than one multi year starting qb in the league?
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When the NFL tees it up, I would assume Lincoln Riley will be on that list.
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Dabo will be soon.
My point is that “developing qbs” is the same bs that everyone says when they place coaching over talent.
No one develops NFL qbs. You might be lucky enough to recruit a few.
No coach develops nfl talent. They recruit it. Sometimes a kid decides to put in the effort and goes from a modest recruit to an elite player. But i don’t credit Fabris for David Pollock. I credit Pollock.
Now do certain coaches get more out of their QBs than others? Absolutely. Spurrier comes to mind. But how many of his guys became entrenched starters in the league?
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Good post … I didn’t think about Dabo with Watson and Lawrence. I do think Riley did develop Mayfield and Murray.
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Both were the No. 1 pick. I’d say that has a lot more to do with those players than with Lincoln.
For some reason neither of Lincoln’s qb’s at East Carolina were drafted, despite having very impressive stats.
I guess Lincoln got a whole lot better at the development thingy when he got to Oklahoma.
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Definitely disagree on Mayfield … if he hadn’t had the chance to play in OU’s system, he wouldn’t have had the chance to run up the stats and the honors that made him attractive.
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Derek, I agree with the gist of what you’re saying but Mayfield is not a good example. He was a walk on! Nobody recruited him. ( I know he did not walk on at Oklahoma, but at Texas Tech)
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I had forgotten Dak went to Miss. State. I guess that demonstrates what an amazing impact he had there. (Honestly I think that says more about Mullen’s amazing QB coaching than my recollection, which is that Dak, a fourth round draft pick–the 8th QB selected in 2016– developed a whole lot more once he got to the Cowboys).
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Maybe Jason Garrett is the guy who really developed Dak. Ever think about that, pundits?
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Never forget that Sideshow Dan the Clown and Dak Prescott are the reason why Fish Fry owns an Orange Bowl win.
A game Cousin Eddie came in ranked No. 8 and lost to the No. 10 team. Three straight top-25 losses to end his season with a win vs. Vanderbilt sandwiched in there.
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I read most of Marcello’s piece. Notre Dame with Book and the O line coming back have a chance to make playoffs? Right. Clemson has no competition and Bama has a favorable home schedule. Both almost lock for the playoffs? Sounds reasonable.
Then the Florida sunshine pumping up his ass? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UecRfBJ2LBM
Fuck those motherfuckers.
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“And I bet Mullen wins a national title before Smart, too.”
I’ll take that bet! Hope you’re bringing a lot of $$ because I’m all in on that one.
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How did Mullen get to be the QB whisperer? Isn’t Prescott the only QB he really developed? Wasn’t Tebow already a 5 star recruit? Who has he really developed, certainly not Franks or Emory Jones.
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Nothing as good as facts to dampen perception as reality.
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Since this dude has been indulging the medicinal based ganja for his glaucoma or lack there of….those ramblings are based on nothing coherent or reality based (cause he damn sure can’t see shit)…i say take a shot, you want to be one who predicted FU will do this or that, fine…don’t get pissy and all disturbed when you reminded of this bullshit in december….#FTMF
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In fairness, Nick Fitzgerald fared better in QBR, finishing second and fourth in the conference in 2016 and 2017, respectively. The case for Mullen is still grossly overstated.
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Nick Fitzgerald looked horrible that night in Athens in 2017.
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You would too if Roquan welcomed you to the SEC East.
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All I know is that he and Meyer made the most of top level talent at UF, and then he had Mississippi State punching WAAAAAAAY above their weight class most years. His talent situation right now at UF is somewhere between those two, but I do know that he’s already made chicken salad out of the chicken shit he inherited from McElwain, and if our team dismisses them like most of our fans do, we’ll definitely lose in Jax soon.
We’re a much more talented team with excellent coaching. But they’re plenty talented and well coached to knock us off if we don’t go in there well prepared. If there is any fan base that should understand how that can happen, it’s us. Over the past 15 or 20 years, few teams have more experience than Georgia when it comes to giving games away to lesser teams.
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This is the myth. He didn’t have Mississippi State “punching above” their talent. That is literally the lie.
Bill Snyder had Kansas State punching above their weight. They routinely beat teams they should have lost to.
Name me a team that Sideshow Dan the Clown beat at MSU that he should’ve lost to. You can’t, because he lost to the teams he should’ve lost to and beat the teams he should beat. He didn’t “coach them up.” He simply coached them. That’s it.
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How bout Georgia, LSU, Florida, and Auburn? Teams that historically should never under any circumstances lose to State. To say nothing of Ole Miss, Arkansas, and A&M, all of whom were peaking during that time period.
He completely changed the paradigm of who they should and shouldn’t have lost to, during a time when the West was consistently the toughest division in football.
We have no business losing to Florida. But if the team views them like you do, we will definitely lose that game, just like we lost to South Carolina in 2019.
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He never beat Bama. What the fuck are you talking about? While at MSU he was 0-9 against Bama.
That is NOT punching above your weight. He beat us in 2010 when we finished 6-7 and State finished 9-4. Again, that’s NOT punching above your weight.
He beat Auburn three times in 9 years at MSU. Every year his team had the better record. He beat LSU twice in 9 years. Every time his team either had the better or same record.
This is what I mean about the myth of Sideshow Dan the Clown being a lie. He doesn’t beat the teams he should lose to. He wins the games he should and that’s it. His record against the top-25 at MSU was 2-16.
TWO AND SIXTEEN.
Stop believing MuLLLen’s hype men in the media and start looking at the facts.
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If you’re dumb enough to think they only played 18 games against top 25 teams in 9 years in the SEC west I can’t help you.
Funny thing happens when you beat a top 25 team. They tend to fall out of the top 25. It was more like 7-35. Not great until you consider…. it’s Mississippi State, and nine of those were against Bama. Not going to get him into the hall of fame, but a damn good job.
But you’re right, beating Saban’s Bama is the baseline for coaching competency. What kind of moron can’t do that?
I get it. You think that if he cant win national titles at Mississippi State every other year and take down the greatest dynasty the sport has ever seen, then he must be absolute garbage. And that anyone who disagrees with you must believe Dan Mullen is the infallible lord and savior Jesus Christ come down from heaven above to coach college football.
Neither is true, but his 2020 Florida team is damn sure good enough to steal a win in Jax if Georgia’s players take them as seriously as you do. That’s the only point here.
Now you can go knock yourself out trying to convince me Dan Mullen can’t tell his ass from a hole in the ground; I’m done here.
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Wow. I can’t even COUNT the number of strawman arguments you’ve just created to shift the argument.
You’re an idiot who can’t argue the point so he creates his own arguments to “win.” That’s about the only thing I’m sure of right now.
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Mullen’s got a good resume. Check out this Twitter thread:
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And yet, his SEC record and record vs. the top-25 are both abysmal, which again proves my original point: He wins the games he’s supposed to win and almost never wins the games he shouldn’t.
People like Bratton, Fornelli, the guy at 247 or this guy here would have you believe Sideshow Dan is the SEC’s version of Bill Snyder. He’s not even close to being Bill Snyder.
And that’s what makes the Athlon guy’s ranking and all the other rankings that rank him so high ridiculous.
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I don’t know what “He wins the games he’s supposed to win and almost never wins the games he shouldn’t” is supposed to mean here, but his record as MSU doesn’t appear to bear that out.
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It does when you take his record vs. the top-25 and in the SEC into account.
I’m not saying he’s a bad coach. MuLLLen is a good coach, but he’s no genius and he’s not Bill Snyder. In the Big-12 of the 90’s Manhattan was even more difficult to win at than Starkville, and Snyder actually went out and beat the teams he was supposed to lose to.
At Mississippi State, Mullen was 0-9 against Bama, 2-7 against LSU, and 3-6 against Auburn. His biggest wins are against TAMU and Auburn teams that were ranked at the time but fell out of the top-25 to end the year. He did beat a top-10 LSU team that finished in the rankings, but come on Senator, the guy is not Bill Snyder. He wins the games he should, but doesn’t deserve the reputation he has in the media for “coaching them up.” When you “coach them up,” that means you’re beating the teams that are better than you. That’s not Cousin Eddie.
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I didn’t call him Bill Snyder. I said he’s a good coach.
And you’re the guy accusing folks of building straw men?
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Not you, but other have made the comparison, including the people who have made these rankings this year. That’s why I bring it up. I wasn’t the one to make the comparison. This idea that he “coaches them up” just doesn’t ring true under the weight of his record against the SEC and the top-25.
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When you say he wins the games he’s supposed to win and that’s basically it, I don’t see how that jibes with him having the best record, historically speaking, of anyone who’s ever coached at MSU.
As usual, I’m not saying this to change your mind.
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When you take into account the two extra games per year playing cupcakes, that very much inflates the record. It does that for everyone, all the way around, but it does make Mullen’s record look better than when you compare his record vs. the SEC as a whole and his record vs. the top-25.
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Corch, using your logic, Kirby Smart is just an average coach at best. How many games has Kirby won that he was not supposed to win? How many games has he lost that he wasn’t supposed to lose. I don’t see how you can criticize a guy for building a good team and using that good team to beat teams he is favored to beat. He is favored to beat them because he has done a good job building a good team.
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Is it Kirby’s fault that he built a team good enough to be favored in almost every game they’ve played since the start of the 2018 season?
To answer your question: the 2017 Notre Dame Game, 2017 SEC Title Game, and the 2018 Rose Bowl are examples of games Georgia was not favored to win that he won as the underdog.
However, that’s not the argument. Kirby doesn’t have a media-made mythical reputation as a coach who “Does More With Less.” If MuLLLen does more with less, like his legend proclaims, why was his SEC and top-25 records at MSU so terrible? That’s what “Does More With Less” means. Bill Snyder is a coach who did more with less. Shoot, even Fish Fry earned that reputation by winning the ACC and his division a couple of times. Mike Leach is a coach who “Does More With Less.”
My problem with Sideshow Dan the Clown is his unearned reputation as a genius who does more with less when he’s just a good coach who wins games he should win and almost never wins as an underdog. He’s the last ten years of Mark Richt’s Georgia coaching career. There’s nothing wrong with that, but he’s not on Kirby’s level, and he definitely not better than what Kirby has shown.
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Your first paragraph is precisely my point. Glad I could be of help.
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Except it doesn’t. My point is MuLLLen’s reputation is wholly unearned. Again, I never said he was a bad coach. I said his reputation as a coach who “Does More With Less” doesn’t match his actual performance vs the SEC and top-25 teams. Don’t know why that’s a difficult concept, but here we are.
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You are saying that Mullen is a bad coach because he is a good coach. So yeah, that concept is a little difficult for me to grasp.
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No, I’m saying all he is, is a good coach. He’s not a genius. He doesn’t do less with more. He simply does what he should with what he has. He wins the games he should win, and almost never wins the games he shouldn’t. He’s certainly not better than Kirby, and one of the reasons why is he’s a poor recruiter, which all these people always seem to forget is actually part of a CFB coach’s job description.
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I understand where you’re coming from and Mullen is a gator so fuck him. But if Kirby accepted the HC position at MSU tomorrow, how much success do you think he would have over the next 4 years? Do you think MSU would be in the same position as UGA is now? Or do you think he would have about the same success as Mullen had at MSU?
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I honestly believe by recruiting alone, he’d have more success than Mullen. If you gave Kirby 11 years at MSU, I’d like his chances of passing Auburn as the defacto third best team in the West behind Bama and LSU, and I do believe he’d be able to beat Bama at least once, which MuLLLen was unable to do even once.
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It’s a bizarre narrative. As best I can tell, it started with Tebow. If Tebow had never been at Florida, I’m guessing no one would know the name Dan Mullen today.
I mean, other than having success under Corch when he was an assistant, Mullen has done literally nothing in terms of record or post-season appearances to justify the accolades. But I’m fine with the narrative if it keeps him employed at Florida year after year on the promise of next year.
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And Tebow’s best season was his sophomore year. (Not mention that offense ran because of Harvin.)
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Mr. Marcello, what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
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How much did he really develop Pescott, or did he have most of those skills before he arrived? I honestly don’t know, and assume he certainly he helped Prescott some, so give him some credit for that. Now name another in his 11 years? Not a strong QB resume, average perhaps. As for Tebow, I would say the S&C coach did more for Timmy than Mullet did, and it wasn’t close. Tebow left FU haven taken no snaps under center, and with very poor passing skills. He flunked his NFL opportunity because of those shortcomings. Pretty sure he arrived in Gainesville capable of bulldozing defenses on 3rd and 3 from a running start on direct snaps, and he had a decent jump-shot pass even as a Freshman. Exactly what did Dancing Danny add to that raw clay?
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Well said.
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When I hear that Sideshow Dan is the quarterback whisperer and is phenomenal at developing QB’s I think of this line. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. Among psychologists something like this known as the “illusion of truth” effect. We all know that it is an illusion because there is NO truth in it. If he is so great, why did a “supposed” top notch recruit (Franks was rated as the fifth-highest ranked pro-style quarterback in his recruiting class and the 54th player overall) never develop at all? As the Senator pointed out, his track record has been pedestrian at best with an OCCASIONAL spike to upper midlevel. Mullen’s reputation is truly smoke and mirrors. When the curtain is pulled back in Jacksonville again we will see the truth as will the rest of the country (only Gator fans will cling to the illusion out of desperation to be relevant again)
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This Marcello guy is a clown. Notice how him or Michael Wayne Bratton or Tom Fornelli can’t actually articulate real reasons why they believe MuLLLen is a better coach than Kirby. He “just is” a better “developer” of talent and Kirby is just some kind of moron who called two bad trick plays during the same season.
That’s literally their reasoning. Fucking morons.
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This narrative about Florida suddenly being the team to beat in the SEC East is starting to develop a real “South Carolina 2018” vibe to it. Cannon shots sure to follow, I have no doubt.
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They know Georgia is well on top and are just trying to create a narrative to sell stuff.
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He’s late to the “florida is back” show.
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Florida is defiantly back!! Definitely back to no better than 2nd place behind the DAWGS as they have been for most of their miserable existence (other than a few anomalous years under Spurrier and Corch)
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Get back to me when Florida gets into the 20’s vs the UGA D. 7, 17 and 17 in their last 3 tries.
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To the tune of the Devil went down to Georgia in this case Jacksonville.
I`ll make a bet that Mullet will regret. Cause Kirby is the best he has ever seen.
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Keep it coming. I love reading all these articles about how Florida is going to win the East. I will make the beating we give them even more satisfying.
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To all the media:
Keep claiming “this is the year uf beats UGA,” odds are one year you will be right and you can pat yourself on the back and call yourself a genius.
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At this point, a bold prediction would be UF losing to UT. Pruitt’s D getting the best of Mullen (euphemism intended)
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It’s weird seeing so many pundits flock to this hot take while Georgia is coming back with a deeper roster (especially on defense). It’s possible Florida wins the East this year but it’s not the most likely scenario. But I’m not going to push back hard; I say let them keep piling on the burden of expectation on those handbags.
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I’m surprised 247 is one of the places where this is being talked about. If they really believe that, then all of the recruiting experts at 247 don’t know what in the hell they are talking about. I can’t think of one place on the field (maybe kicker) where I would trade our talent for theirs. Please, media, keep pushing the narrative that the Handbags are back.
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The only thing I’m 100% sure of is that the national media and even 247 are pretty much just doing this for the Dawg hate clicks. We tend to be pretty vociferous as a group. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.
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opinions are like assholes… everyone’s got one….some are just bigger than others.
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And most of them stink
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The only qb that will challenge this D would be a deeply experienced mobile SEC QB, combined with an established Power Run game by October. So unless Jones wins the start, AND their RBs get settled, Trask ain’t hanging a W. But then again, this guy fails to mention Florida’s lost a few key members of their D, after facing our 61st ranked total offense in the land and still lost! http://www.cfbstats.com/2019/leader/national/team/offense/split01/category10/sort01.html
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“97, not gonna debate your assessment of who challenges UGA’s “D” in 2020(?)…”Hello Newman” is one and after a bit of field position play on september 19th between little nicky and CKS, the bammer qb plus their oc might attempt to prove/establish a point….or might be forced to play catch up to UGA
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