With the Florida Gators on a bye last week the coaching staff used the time to hit the road recruiting, all of them except head coach Dan Mullen.

That caused an uprising among fans and message board posters at the preceded lack of effort that Mullen was giving to recruiting but Mullen was unable to be on the road thanks to NCAA sanctions.

Dan Mullen received a one-year show cause from the NCAA after it found that his Gators football program violated recruiting contact rules on two occasions, and that Mullen "did not promote an atmosphere of compliance," the Division I Committee announced last December. Mullen was found to have made in-person contact with a recruit (linebacker Sav’ell Smalls) during a period where he was not allowed to do so, a Level II violation in that off-campus recruiting contacts are not allowed until after a football prospect’s junior year of high school.

Due to the nature of the 2020 season and recruiting cycle being affected by COVOD-19 restrictions, Mullen's one year off-campus recruiting sanctions were pushed back to 2021, a Florida spokesperson confirmed to Gators Territory.

Florida is on schedule to complete the remaining penalties by December of 2021. At that point Mullen will once again be able to hit the road to recruit.