Why in the world would Dan Mullen jump back into the rat race that is college football coaching?
“He’s one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever met, that’s why,” a former assistant coach under Mullen told me. “He’ll race you from the counter at the (convenience) store to the car — and pull and grab and bang shoulders the whole way.”
Yet somehow, that competitiveness never worked its way into the recruiting process, even as Kirby Smart called him out on it.
The process of Smart building the monster at Georgia included a demoralizing beatdown of Florida in 2021, when Smart said players win games and no one can “outcoach talent” — a direct shot at Mullen and his “QB guru” and play-caller reputation.
Hayes takes that and, incredibly, gets to this:
Tide coach Nick Saban is in the market for a new OC and quarterbacks coach/play-caller, and of those on the market — or, really, at other colleges or in the NFL — he’s not going to get a better, more motivated candidate.
Kirby Smart, you see, knocked out Dan Mullen, too.
Forget about how it ended at Florida, with his inability to recruit at a high level colliding head on with an underachieving quarterback duo that couldn’t stop throwing interceptions.
I think Matt misspelled “unwillingness” there in his last sentence. Or maybe he’s taking his own advice about forgetting.
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