Another day, another dismissal.
Another Florida flop.
Another Gator gaffe.
First, Will Muschamp.
Then, Jim McElwain.
And, now, Dan Mullen.
On the Sunday that University of Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin fired Mullen and announced he is getting ready to hire the program’s fourth head coach in the last eight years, the one question we should all be asking is this, “Why do the Gators keep whiffing on football coaches?”
I know, I know, this isn’t just a Gator issue; it’s a college football issue. The fact is, it’s not that easy to find great coaches. Just ask Texas, USC, Nebraska, Miami and other former powerhouses that have fallen on hard times. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that you can count the number of great college football coaches on one hand: Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley and Kirby Smart. And guess what? Those coaches aren’t coming to UF.
Which is why firing Mullen is a huge gamble. After all, he has been moderately successful until this season, but , then again, so were his two predecessors. And that’s what’s so astounding about UF’s string of failed head coaches: They all started out with a bang and ended with a bust.
Muschamp won 11 games in his second season, was in the running for the national championship and took the Gators to the Sugar Bowl. A year later, he was 4-8 and losing to Georgia Southern.
McElwain went to two straight SEC Championship Games in his first two seasons, and a year later the program was a dysfunctional mess. He was fired in his third season after going 4-7.
Then came Mullen, who went to three consecutive New Year’s Six bowl games and nearly beat national champion Alabama in the SEC Championship Game last season, but now he is gone, too, after losing nine of his last 11 games to Power 5 opponents.
“The University of Florida is a place you should be able to have a high level of sustained success over a consistent period of time,” Stricklin said when explaining some of the reasons he fired Mullen. “To do that, you have to have a lot of little things in place. People look at losses as a cause to get rid of a coach, but a lot of times losses are symptoms of other issues.”
In other words, the car might look great on the outside until you check underneath the hood and see it’s not been maintained very well. I believe that’s been the issue with both McElwain and now Mullen; they didn’t change the oil or replace the spark plugs and simply drove the car until it broke down on the side of the road with smoke coming from underneath the hood.
This might sound harsh, but, in my mind, McElwain and Mullen did not treat the demanding job of coaching the Gators with enough respect. McElwain let the strength and conditioning program become such a joke that UF players were seeking out personal trainers to get themselves in shape. Mullen was such a bad recruiter when he was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator at UF that Meyer wouldn’t even send him out on the road to recruit Unfortunately for UF, Mullen’s recruiting skills didn’t improve much as the head coach, which is why the Gators’ are currently recruiting at UCF’s level.
There is more to being a head coach than drawing up a game plan, putting on the headsets and calling plays. The head coach is the driving influence for every element of the organization. Being an $8 million-a-year college head coach is a multi-faceted job that requires not just being a play-caller but a program-builder.
It’s time for Stricklin to do a deep dive and not only hire a coach, but a connector; somebody who can be the ultimate conduit to all the different phases of a successful program; somebody who knows how to get his message across to players, recruits, even fans and media; somebody who is adept at not only constructing game plans but building relationships.
When you look at the top coaches in college football, they all connect with their constituents. Swinney and Smart, in particular, come to mind. Saban, of course, is in a league of his own, but those who know him will tell you he takes great time trying to build relationships with recruits and players.
Mullen was without question one of the best offensive minds in college football, but he simply did not have the interpersonal skills nor the desire to build bonds within UF’s own building and out on the recruiting trail.
Now it’s up to Stricklin to find the right coach who can.
Based on Florida’s track record over the last decade, that will be easier said than done.
