Dan Mullen is an aggressive football coach and play caller. He's gone for it on fourth down 68 times in 43 games as the Florida Gators' head coach. His aggressiveness has, at times, been called into question but it's who he is as a football coach.

That's why his decision to go conservative before halftime in Lexington was so puzzling.

Florida had all three timeouts, leading Kentucky 10-7 when Wildcats quarterback Will Levis was sacked by Zach Carter. There was 2:43 left in the half. To be fair, a few seconds would run off before Mullen could get the attention of an official to call timeout, but let's call it 2:40 left when timeout is called. That would leave Florida with plenty of time and two timeouts to at least try and get into field goal range — Jace Christmann had already converted a 51-yard kick in the half.

Mullen didn't. He sat on his timeout and Kentucky was able to take another 40 seconds off the clock, give or take, punting the ball with just 2:07 left and Florida's drive started with just 1:56 left.

Why didn't Mullen call a timeout prior to the punt?

"Any time you get in a situation at the end of the half, we had the ball at the 12-yard line with two minutes to go on our own 12. They have three timeouts. So, obviously … I view that sometimes, especially in college football, you’re on an advantage at the defensive side of the ball there, right," Mullen explained on Monday. "You pin them in deep. You have three timeouts. That was a big change in the game last year. We pinned them deep, under two minutes left in the half, we used all three timeouts, forced a punt, and ran the punt back for a touchdown - really turned the course of the game."

Even after that Florida did attempt to move the ball. Mullen dialed up a screen to Justin Shorter but it only went for two yards. Jones found Trent Whittemore for a gain of nine on the second play but now there were only 57 seconds left and Florida was on its own 24.

Then, conservative. With the clock running after the ball was set Jones handed the ball to Malik Davis.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

So when Mullen says "By the time we get the ball into range, up to about the 30, there’s about under 30 seconds left in the half." It's because he chose to go conservative. Whether you believe his reasoning from the first quote is up to the individual.

Mullen was asked again, later in the press conference, about the decision not really jiving with his normal aggressive playcalling nature.

"We went out there looking for explosive plays. I think Emory had to check it down a couple of times and all of a sudden we really hadn't moved the ball very much and the clock's under 30 seconds. It wasn't like we weren't going to look to take a shot. Two of those plays we called to see if we can take a shot down the field. They bailed everybody back, we checked it down. Now you're looking at the clock and you're a play away from having to punt and they potentially get good field position."

Essentially, Mullen didn't want to call a timeout prior to the punt because Kentucky also had three timeouts and was likely to pin Florida deep. If Jones is sacked on the first play, or if Kentucky could quickly force a three-and-out, it would set them up to get the ball back with time to score.

At the end of the day, Mullen's decision to go conservative before halftime, whether you agree with his reasoning or not, didn't win or lose the game but it was curious to see a change in philosophy on the fly.