GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Ron Zook had Mississippi State. Will Muschamp had Georgia Southern.
For Dan Mullen it could be Samford University.
The Gators’ 70-52 win was anything but a victory. It felt more like the beginning of the end of Mullen’s time in Gainesville.
Florida entered Saturday on a three-game losing streak and looking to make quick work of the overmatched, undersized Bulldogs. Instead, the alma mater of Bobby Bowden went toe-to-toe with the Gators like the late coach’s FSU Seminoles.
“We definitely sweated a little bit in the first half,” senior tailback Dameon Pierce said. “That was unexpected.”
The 122 points are the most ever scored between two teams in the Swamp. The Gators’ final tally was the highest since a 70-19 win in 2008 against The Citadel — a performance Mullen struggled to recollect despite calling plays that day for Urban Meyer.
“We scored 70 against The Citadel?” he said. “Hmm ...”
Saturday’s game could stick with Mullen. After all, Samford, a 35.5-point underdog picking up a $525,000 game guarantee, made history.
The Bulldogs (4-6) scored on five of six drives and returned a kickoff 98 yards for a 42-35 lead, marking the most points scored against Florida during a half.
Nebraska hung 62 on the Gators during the 1995 national title game and Alabama scored 52 during the 2020 SEC title game. But two of the best teams in the modern game’s history did not best the Bulldogs.
Mullen’s team made Samford, an FCS school from the Southern Conference, look like a Southeastern Conference power.
A reported crowd of 70,098 look on restlessly.
“Hey, I’m sure that’s what people were thinking,” Mullen said. “What’s going through my head? We got to play a four-quarter game. And I’m thinking, ‘We can score, and in the end we can make more plays than they will hopefully to pull this out and win.’”
The saving grace was Samford’s defense, a slow-footed group that could not match the Gators’ speed in space as Mullen’s squad compiled 717 yards.
“We never doubted that we would lose the game,” Pierce said. “It was just a matter of how we were going to win.”
Florida opened the second half with a 49-yard touchdown by Malik Davis off a screen pass followed by an interception by safety Mordecai McDaniel on the Gators’ 30-yard line. A 7-yard touchdown catch by tight end Kemore Gamble soon capped a 9-play drive. Florida then grabbed a 56-42 lead on a 13-yard catch by Pierce, the fifth of six touchdown passes by Emory Jones.
When the Gators stopped a quarterback run by Liam Welch at midfield on fourth-and-2 with 3:58 left in the third quarter, the momentum seemed to have swung to Florida for good.
Instead, Samford continued to embrace the role of spoiler behind Welch, who finished with 465 total yards (400 passing) and 5 total touchdowns.
“They’re an offensive football team. They score points and have some good players,” said Mullen, whose 2016 Mississippi State outlasted Samford 56-41. “Their quarterback, he made some throws now. Their receivers had to go catch it. He had to scramble around.
“They made plays.”
After a spectacular diving touchdown catch by Montrell Washington, coach Chris Hatcher caught the Gators off guard with an onside kick. A 33-yard field goal by Zach Williams cut the lead to 56-52 but proved to be the Bulldogs’ last gasp.
Whether his team’s latest lackluster effort proves to be Mullen’s undoing remains to be seen. A visit to Missouri and Nov. 27 date at home against Florida State are likely to determine the 49-year-old’s future.
Saturday’s performance ended in victory, but felt eerily like the low point of Gators coaches of the past.
Zook lost at Mississippi State in 2004 and was fired the next day. Muschamp lost to Georgia Southern in 2013 and was given another year and fired in season.
Whatever fate awaits Mullen, never did such a showcase of offensive fireworks feel like such a dud. Happy to see the Gators (5-5) return to the win column, their coach refused to pan the performance.
“We’re enjoying the win because it’s hard to win,” he said. “We’ve faced plenty of adversity and not come out on the right end of it, so I don’t want to say that so it’s kind of disrespectful to our guys, their guys and the game of football.”
