Dan Mullen speaks on recent negative press
TAMPA, Fla.-- It's safe to say it's been a tough run for Florida football the last few weeks.
From arrests, to sexual battery investigations, and high profile transfers, Gators head coach Dan Mullen would love to put the last month behind him.
"Obviously when you look at the situation that goes on, to me it's really disappointing for us when we have individuals, whether it's a student-athlete or a staff member, make a decision that really negatively affects them but also shines a little bit of a negative on the program," Mullen said. "To me that's really disappointing, because we spend a lot of time on decision-making with our guys.
"How to make good decisions in life, how to make good social decisions, and how to better themselves in life, so when these type of things happen obviously it's very disappointing for us."
Otis Yelverton was the first. The assistant director of player personnel was arrested on April 23 and charged on aggravated cyber-stalking - after he allegedly verbally threatened his ex-girlfriend.
According to Mullen, Yelverton is on administrative leave as they wait to go through the legal process.
"I like to make sure processes play out for individual," said the UF head coach. "Obviously it is a very sensitive type of thing for those types of deals."
A week later on May 2nd, police reports showed that Jalon Jones was being investigated for two alleged sexual assaults that occurred one week before the spring game.
Jones played in the spring game.
Mullen told reporters in Tampa that the team had incomplete information prior to the game, however, Jones was suspended from the team after the spring scrimmage and as soon as the team had more information on the case.
"I think reports were coming out to us at that point, but within that situation, as reports get to you, we try to turn them over and follow the university protocol that we have and the campus protocol that we have," Mullen said. "Which I think we immediately tried to follow the campus protocol with everything that happened. When we got the details of the situation, we immediately with him suspended him from team activities until we could get all of the information that we needed."
Four days later, defensive back Brian Edwards was arrested and charged with first-demeanor misdemeanor battery after allegedly grabbing his girlfriend by the neck when she tried to leave his apartment.
Mullen says Edwards is currently taking classes but is not participating in team activities. Just like in the case with Yelverton, Mullen is waiting for Edwards to go through the process.
"Even though you may like to rush to judgement immediately, you do like to let processes play out before I rush to judge their futures - before they go through the legal process or anything else."
The bad press wasn't over. Two days later, these reports played a role in Chris Steele's decision to transfer away from UF.
The former five-star entered the transfer portal and decided to transfer to Oregon this past week. Although homesickness did play a role in his decision, Steele and his family were also upset that he could not change rooms because he was uncomfortable with living with Jones.
The Gators could not accommodate's Steele's request until the summer, however, with the police reports becoming public in May, the family decided to part ways with the program.
"I think with Chris and his situation, we discussed with him and his family a lot of things that went into the decision he was going to make to go back to school on the West coast," Mullen said. "There are a bunch of things that went into that decision. I don't want to go into all of them because they were really a private conversation between us and his family. I think those are tough decisions for family, and I'd rather leave a lot of those things privately."
Joined by his wife, Megan, the Mullens journeyed to California to have some time with the Steeles.
"Megan and I went to California to sit there and help him with what he was going through and support him with what he is going through," explained Mullen. "We were there to support him if he wanted to come back to Florida. We were there to support him how to move on from that and into the future."
There is no question, Florida had a lot of bad press the last few weeks. However, after winning ten games and seeing a few of his former players succeed in signing NFL contracts, Mullen is looking towards the future. He wants to make sure the program continues to move in the right direction on and off the field.
"Obviously you reflect on a lot of different things that go on in the program," Mullen said. "And we're always trying to evaluate ourselves to make sure we do things better. I don't know differently, but how we're doing things better.
"In every aspect of the program we're trying to evaluate things and how we do things better. In these situations I look back and we're constantly trying to educate our guys on making good decisions in life, and we're going to continue constantly doing that. That's really important to me and that's a major part of coaching and the development of these young guys; in our program it is. That it's not just football, it's every aspect of life."
***Michael Phillips was at the even and media availability and contributed to this report **