I feel like the way the 2021 season has progressed so far has been a double bonus for long suffering Georgia fans like myself. Not only are the Dawgs playing stellar football, but Florida’s giving us a delicious case of regression (to the mean, one hopes). Even better, Andy Staples ($$) sums up the place Dan Mullen’s led the program and it’s perfect.
Mullen already has lost the bulk of Florida’s fan base. The rank-and-file doesn’t believe he’ll ever be able to win national titles with the Gators, and that group believes the job description requires at least competing for national titles…
Mullen has not lost Florida’s administration, though. Athletic director Scott Stricklin worked with Mullen in the same position at Mississippi State, and Stricklin always has taken a more realistic view of the program’s expectations at both of his stops as an AD. Stricklin knows SEC and national titles are obscenely difficult to win, especially with Nick Saban at Alabama. Stricklin can point to a team that has outgained every opponent despite losing three of its seven games. Stricklin has had to deal with fewer issues than he did when Jim McElwain was the coach, and Florida’s power base wants to see how Mullen does when the Gators’ football operations building is finished next year and Mullen is working with most of the same tools his SEC peers enjoy. Despite what the people on those barstools and in those barber chairs want, Mullen is safe barring an unexpected late-season meltdown.
How can you not love that, Georgia fans? If the football gods are really smiling on us, the Gators will lose in Jacksonville this weekend, win out the rest of the regular season, plus a mediocre bowl game, so Mullen can spend the rest of the offseason crowing about how his team improved upon their 2020 win total, all the while backed up by his boss. (He’ll probably have to replace Grantham, unfortunately, but there’s only so much good luck we’re entitled to.) Meanwhile, Florida’s lost its top two commits and has dropped to ninth in the conference in 2022 recruiting. The fan base will be thrilled.
If Anthony Richardson can fix all that, he’s got my vote for the Heisman already.
Get The Picture 
It sounds nice, but if Kirby (Kirb-stomps) FU on Saturday, which I hope we do, the calls for firing Mullen will become deafening.
Don’t get me wrong, I want mediocrity to reign forever in Hogtown…I just don’t see the boosters and fans allowing it to occur without at least trying a change at HC.
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Yep, I think it’s 60/40 Mullen doesn’t see next year as the gators HC. The bullgators got McElwain fired (I was told by one I was friends with the buyout emails were circulating nearly a week before he was canned); I hear they are almost there again with Mullen. Recruiting class is already in the gutter and his buyout actually works against keeping him. One more embarrassment and it’s a lock.
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I think Mullen would jump to literally NFL team that would have him. Everything I’ve heard is that was his plan last year, and it just didn’t happen bc he’s a weirdo in interviews.
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I think he can be an OC in the NFL but not a HC.
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His f*cked up offense doesn’t translate to the NFL. Just sayin.’
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More likely that Kirby will have him breaking down tape as an analyst and washing his car
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Spell I have always gotten a kick out of your picture….and those mullet jort wearing dicks think they look cool!
Flew out of Hobby Saturday for a work function in Jacksonville at the Hyatt on the river( gonna get torn up in a few days, literally). At Hobby I grabbed a burger and was sitting on the counter stool looking towards the concourse. What appeared before me I could not believe…a pair of blue jean shorts, on a man, the likes of I have not seen in years. As he passed I read the back of his blue T shirt….”Gainesville”
Fuck florida and all their red neck jort wearing fans!
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I had to grow up surrounded by them; thankfully, they are a lot less obvious these days with the continual Northern migration to our city and its fine beaches. Living in this state has become a lot more pleasant these last dozen years. Hell, I see as much or more Georgia gear/signage these days.
The hate still burns deep in me, always will. FTMF and their dumbass fans.
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Man, that SI story that dropped about their women’s hoops coach is ROUGH.
Are we certain Stricklin is completely safe himself?
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Are we sure they are us with Richt or us with Donnan?
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I don’t think they are recruiting well enough to be either.
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I don’t know. Donnan recruited some great players but Brett Millican was our leading rusher in 2000.
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Damn. There’s a name I haven’t thought of in about two decades.
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But, but, but…
He’s a quarterback whisperer, the best game day corch on the planet, can out scheme anyone, AND he can wake surf!!!
What the hell do the ditch lizards want??
Someone to coddle a murderer??
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The QB whisperer leans down low and whispers to the kid lying horizontally on the field, “Hang in there kid, Kirby will be pulling his starters soon and you won’t see Jordan Davis again this year. Unless you go pro, maybe forever. Did you hear me, kid? Kid?”
Kid, “FYMF”.
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And we’re going to take those two recruits.
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They’re both on defense, right? It’s got to be that those kids can see the writing on the wall, Grantham will be shown the door at the end of Nov.
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Grantham may be shown the door before the 1st of November.
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I don’t see why the Florida crowd is so upset. You got what you paid for. And for the record, Mullen is closing the gap…..with Vandy.
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Mullen has totally lost for now the internet/call-in what have you done lately crowd. What matters are the votes of those paying his salary and funding the new facility. No matter the rest of this season he’s safe with them. Grantham’s only job saving hope is a win and strong defensive showing this weekend. Is Grantham in the final year of his contract if so problem is easier solved.
Mullen’s perhaps only redeeming quality is loyalty to his staff and players. That loyalty to Grantham and Emory Jones seems to become more deep seated as their failures mount. Hang in there Dan, Toad Grantham has a master plan that surely is too complicated for anyone outside the inner circle to understand.
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One of my brother in laws is a hardcore Gator fan, and his dad is definitely a Bull Gator. I need to add that both of these guys are very smart and understand football.
They have always thought Mullen was a bad hire, but there was nobody better interested in the job. They’ve given him a chance, but they’re not falling for that coaching up 3 star shit.
Mullen is a dead man walking. After this season he will fire Grantham and get the vote of confidence from Strickland. Getting rid of Grantham won’t fix anything immediately, so Mullen will field another meh team in 2022 and be fired.
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I can get on board with this. One more year of poor recruiting will add one more year to rebuilding–and that’s IF they can get a coach that can close the gap once Dan is gone.
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Why did Chip Kelly dance with them and then take the UCLA job? On paper everything is better at UF, but a guy who has been in the business for years saw something that made him run.
The Gators have to fix that before they can get an elite coach.
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That’s easy. One job is in Los Angeles and the other is in the steaming, mosquito infested hell-hole of north inland Florida. One job is full of pressure and recruiting against the likes of Saban, Kirby and Kiffin. It is also in the toughest conference to win in and the easiest conference to have a real-estate sign appear in your yard if you lose.
I’d take the UCLA job over the FU job too.
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Have you ever been to Westwood or the UCLA campus? If I had visited there before I graduated from high school, I would NEVER have gone to UGA. As good as the scenery is in Athens, the scenery in Westwood is OFF THE CHARTS.
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tod,
I completely agree with your forecast of Mullen’s future. With USC and LSU open already it’s easy to say give him another year while we see who we can get next year.
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…and if Manny Diaz can win enough at UM, Dan won’t know who to hire to replace TG. I am so rooting for the canes right now.
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They’re us with Goff. Stuck in the last decade, not quite realizing a new sheriff has ridden into town from Athens, they see the losses coming but don’t quite realize it’s not a fluke, not an anomaly.
Ray IS a DGD, a great player but not a great coach. He recruited ok, just couldn’t get over the HUMP, had a good offense, but never hired a decent DC. It’s just now dawning on the gator folks who thought history started in 1990 that this is really much more the historical norm for them. 2008 is fading fast in the rear view mirror. If we thump them this week, expect more of them to start figuring that out.
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I’d say they are more us with Donnan, McElwain was their Goff. They are beginning to suspect that Mullens can’t get it done and needs to go but they are hoping against hope that the things he says about being “this close” and “a few plays away from 7-0” are true and things are about to turn around. A lot of what he says sounds remarkably similar to what we heard and said during the Donnan years. A bad loss to us Saturday could be the final nail in Mullen’s coffin. Florida doesn’t put up with losing to rivals quite as easily as Georgia does. A win against us and the Florida faithful will be back in love with Mullen and convinced he has turned things around and championships are on the horizon.
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I’m not sure I would say a guy who won the East twice compares to Ray Goff the coach. Otherwise, I would agree with your point.
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I think he’s Goff..by his own admission.
We called CRG, “One play away Ray” because he often was..esp in big games.
Mullen just basically declared that in all of MFU’s losses, they were one play away from a win.
He may be right, and against Bama that is impressive enough to be considered the GMVOAT..but against Kentucky and LSU?? It never should have come down to that.
If he’s a great coach (which he isn’t) he’s putting away those teams away with relative ease..not scratching and clawing for that one play that didn’t save him.
FTMF.
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Who won the East twice? Mullen won it last season for the first and only time and Donnan never won it.
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I’m talking about McElwain.
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Yep. It’s setting in with the over 40 crowd that those 15 or so years were the aberration and not the other way around. Those born in the mid 80s are still clinging to their false hopes and dreams.
Both of these statements are delicious in different ways.
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This season has been awesome and watching the Gators struggle just makes it all the better.
That being said beating these guys Saturday is critical to maintaining the upper hand in this rivalry.
Lose and we’ve eliminated all margin for error in our quest for the CFP and Dan mullen is 2-2 against smart in his time at Florida including the last 2. Smart also drops to 3-3 against Florida. It also continues a trend going back to 2008 where each team alternates winning 3 games in a row in the series (2008-10, uf, 2011-2013, UGA, 2014-2016, uf, 2017-2019, UGA, 2020-??).
Win and we’ve won 4 of the last 5 and 2020 remains the only time Dan mullen has ever beaten Kirby.
In short win and 2020 is an anomaly/ outlier, lose and it’s a trend.
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Good post.
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Does AR also defend the run and pass?
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More importantly, the inside draw?
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Does he have good health insurance?
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I find their faith in Richardson pretty funny. I think he clearly has more natural ability than Jones, but against actual opponents (if you want to count Vandy as one of those), he’s 15/26 for 200 yards with 3 TDs and 3 INTs, and he’s run 17 times for 73 yards. Never has more been made of a handful of plays against FAU and South Florida.
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Never has so much been expected from so little ….
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Mullen is from western Pennsylvania. There is some speculation that Penn State will offer him the job if they lose Franklin.
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Why? So he can suck there like he sucks at Florida. Hire him as an OC but a HC?? Not a Franklin fan (and yes the abomination on Saturday was hideous), but anyone who can produce a winner at Vandy can coach (certainly better than Mullen).
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Don’t say that: I’m from Western PA. He’s from Drexel Hill which is adjacent to Philadelphia. I think it would be funny to also laugh at him at Ped State.
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Mullen would fit right in at State Penn. He looks and acts the part.
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I live in Jax amongst many gators. If we win Saturday, Mullen will not be the coach of the gators in 2020. UF doesn’t sit around if they see the writing on the wall.
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How bad do you think the loss needs to be for Mullen to get canned next week?
Because that’s the real question this week.
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It’s not going to happen after this week. Losing to the number one team in country sucks but it’s expected. Mullen needs to win the rest of them or he is in danger of being fired.
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You’re probably right, but I don’t know. The AD’s posture right now agrees with you, but I’m getting a very “head in the sand” kind of vibe from a lot of these folks and a lot of these UF articles. They kind of seem to ignore the imminent beat down about to happen in Jacksonville and the huge psychological effect that’s going to have on the fan base/boosters. The “gap” seems to be looked at as kind of a theory at this point, given last years win. That’ll (almost certainly) look a lot more like the aberration it truly was after this week. All of the goodwill built up from last year will be immediately washed away and the true state of the program laid bare for all the world to see.
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This week’s articles about Dan Mullen’s job are good reading. But next week’s articles on the subject… those will be sublime.
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Man, all the optimism in this thread is freaking me out.
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Ditto. I feel very nervous just like last year. I suppose that is PTSD from 2002.
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I can’t disagree. There’s zero chance we lose. There was zero chance Muschamp would win his last year in Gainesville either.
Still, we’re kicking the shit out of this Florida team.
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Win the cocktail party and pickup a couple of their recruits who just decommitted; now that would be a great weekend.
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I agree. That would be so fine!
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And then the lamentations of their women, if any.
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At one point I thought / hoped the game would be close enough to keep Quasimodo around – I have since changed my mind. I want to see a beatdown so sever Gator fans won’t allow their children to view the carnage.
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I want to hear Kirby announce that UGA has filled it’s roster for next year and doesn’t have room for anymore scholarship players or portal refugees from programs like Florida’s. But since he loves and enjoys recruiting so much and is so good at it, he’s going to recruit for FSU from now until signing day.
He should make the announcement on the 247 site.
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If you will go back to my preseason prediction made on this blog I said then that FU would lose 4 games in the regular season ( Alabama, Georgia, LSU and either UK or Mizzou). If we are really lucky the Turds will lose the bowl game too. That’s not far fetched. I’m also predicting several of their better players will sit out the bowl.
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P.S. I would really love to see an unmotivated FU in a bowl against a highly motivated G5 team like Coastal Carolina. Coastal would blow the doors off the Turds!
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I’m extremely worried about this game. SP+ and similar metrics have this as a one score game. Florida’s losses have all been in games where they “should” have won on a play-by-play basis. And they’re going to pull out all the stops to try to get us. We should be sweating this!
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You can’t be scared all your life.
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The word for today is “schadenfreude”
scha·den·freu·de
/ˈSHädənˌfroidə/
noun
pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.
“a business that thrives on schadenfreude”
The Senator’s blog is usually my first stop on my daily perusing of UGA football. Today I was too busy gleefully reading Gator and Dawg message boards across the land.
#FTMF
https://tenor.com/view/grinch-meme-grin-gif-12994505
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Georgia wears white on Saturday. Georgia will win Saturday.
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Me thinks our boy Todd will be out and Manny D will be in. He’s surely getting the axe at Miami and worked with captain clown at Miss State back in the day.
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I started following Miami when Richt went there, and I’ve continued to a lesser degree since he left. Diaz’ defenses are usually pretty good at creating havoc, but at the cost of good fundamentals. It doesn’t help that now he’s trying to be the HC and DC all in one. I think we’d chew up his defenses even more than Grantham’s.
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But but but he’s the portal master AND the QB Whisperer! He’s an offensive genius sorta like Fish Fry Johnson but in a different way! Who needs ‘cruitin’ when you’ve got a genius like him! He takes ordinary players and molds them into first round NFL picks!
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Florida sucks.
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