A word of advice for Florida Gators coach Dan Mullen:
Don’t let this happen again next year.
Or it could very well be your last Florida-Georgia game.
Georgia 34, Florida 7.
So much for those of us who thought Mullen’s offensive imagination would come up with a game plan to at least keep the game close on Saturday against Georgia’s dominant, dynamic defense. Instead, Mullen’s Gators got a bad case of rope burn in the World’s Largest Outdoor Tug of War Party on the banks of the St. Johns River.
“The rope is slipping right now in this rope pull,” Mullen admitted about his program. “As the rope slips, you can either drop it or grab tight, hold on, dig in your heels and start pulling in the other direction. Dropping the rope doesn’t fix anything. What fixes it is grasping the rope, holding on and squeezing as it’s burning. … We’re not where we want to be, and it’s s on me to get it fixed.”
This performance was embarrassing and exasperating for Florida fans, who watched the Gators get out-played, out-coached and out-talented by the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, whose fierce defense turned UF’s previous sensational backup quarterback Anthony Richardson into the confused, discombobulated freshman quarterback that he truly is.
There have been those fans and pundits in the media who believe Mullen is on the hot seat this year, which, of course, is ridiculous. As I’ve pointed out many times, he took over the mess that Jim McElwain left behind and took Florida to three New Year’s Six bowl games in his first three seasons and nearly beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game last year.
To think UF athletic director Scott Stricklin would pull the plug on Mullen only a few months after giving him a contract extension and making him the second-highest paid coach in SEC is nonsensical. Dan Mullen will keep his job no matter what happens the rest of this season – unless, of course, a photograph surfaces of him naked on top of a dead shark or making up a whopper of a lie about getting death threats from UF fans.
Next year, though, all bets are off. We all know how impatient SEC fans and athletic directors are. Ask Ed Orgeron, who has been forced out at LSU just two years after winning the national championship. Ask former UF coach McElwain, who was fired a year after taking the Gators to two consecutive SEC Championship Games. Ask former Georgia coach Mark Richt, who was fired despite averaging nearly 10 wins per year and having the fifth-best active winning percentage in all of college football.
Personally, I believe the impatience level in college football is insane, but it is what it is. I still believe Mullen is one of the top coaches in the game, but as the great Bill Parcells once said, “You are what your record says you are.” And there’s no denying that Mullen’s record is trending downward. His Gators are 4-4, and he’s 2-7 in his last nine games against Power 5 opponents.
He’s been second-guessed by fans and media all season long about starting junior Emory Jones over Richardson, the exciting freshman who has made explosive plays with his arm and his legs in spot duty this season. Mullen’s stance has been that even though Richardson is explosive and exciting; he doesn’t always make the right read or throw the ball to the right spot.
After finally giving Richardson his first start Saturday, Mullen should have come out in his post-game press conference and said to the assembled media: “Now do you guys know why I didn’t want to start him?”
Richardson’s mistake-marred first half turned a 3-0 Georgia lead into a 24-0 rout by halftime. In a 12-plan span, three Richardson turnovers — a fumble deep in Florida territory, another interception in Florida territory and a 50-yard pick six — led to three Georgia touchdowns that all but put the game away.
It should be noted that the Georgia player who recorded the pick six was Nakobe Dean, one of the Georgia’s myriad of five-star recruits. Meanwhile, Richardson’s two other huge mistakes — getting stripped of the ball at UF’s 10-yard-line and getting intercepted at UF’s 36 — were caused by Georgia linebacker Nolan Smith, who was the No. 1 recruit in the country coming out of high school.
It’s no secret that Florida is simply not in Georgia’s weight class in the personnel department, but then, again, maybe nobody else is either except for Alabama and Ohio State. Still, since Mullen took the job, he has talked endlessly about restoring the “Gator Standard” of winning SEC and national championships. To do that, he must recruit at a championship level — something he has not shown that he can do.
It’s certainly not a good sign that Mullen has lost two of his top recruiting commitments in the last 10 days. He and his coaching staff better grab that rope he was talking about earlier in this column and start pulling in some big-time prospects.
“I will say something about me,” Mullen said, “I don’t drop the rope. I’m not going to let you rip it out of my hand. You can drag me around by my face if you want, but I’m going to squeeze it and not let any inch of that rope go.”
I hate to say it, but Smart is dragging Mullen around by his face on the recruiting trail, and on the field Saturday the Gators got dragged around on their faces by the Dawgs.
Don’t let it happen again next year, Coach Mullen.
Or it might just be your last Florida-Georgia game.
