GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Dan Mullen walked up to the podium with a bit of a swagger on Wednesday afternoon for his National Signing Day press conference.
"As you wrap up signing day and get ready to catch your breath it's awful nice to be able to go home and have it be 80 degrees out here in Florida," said the jubilant Gators head coach. "That's why it's great to be a Gator. Exciting day for us. A lot of good things happened today."
I would be excited, if I picked up four playmakers like: Rivals100 players, Kaiir Elam and Khris Bogle, and Rivals250 players, Arjei Henderson and Diwun Black.
"You look at some of the additions we had today are huge for us, huge for the future," said Mullen.
True.
Florida did fill some holes with the additions, however, they did not add just bodies just to take up scholarships, they added two new commits that were Top 100 players - moving the Gators to No. 8 on the Rivals team rankings.
"Good," said Mullen. "I want to build a program that's consistently ranked in the Top-10. I think this, very rarely do you see teams maybe that are going to go compete for championships that are unranked, unranked in the college football playoff. Unranked, unranked, in just regular seasons. It's teams, you're in the Top-10 consistently and that you have that year where you go make the playoffs and you're winning championships and so we want to consistently be a Top-10 program in every aspect."
Fill their needs? Check.
Put together a top 10 recruiting class in only his first full recruiting cycle as Florida's head coach? Check.
Beat Alabama (for the second consecutive year) for a talented defensive end they coveted and also beat out SEC rival, Georgia, for one of the best cornerbacks in the 2019 class? Double check.
"It just shows the direction that we're headed as a program," said Mullen about beating his SEC rivals on the trail for Top 100 players. "I think the commitment our staff makes at recruiting, the quality of coaches that we have that are able to recruit, we spend a majority of today meeting and watching and recruiting in the 2020 class already and preparing for this time next year. So I think that's huge for us and those are, right now those are the teams that played for the SEC championship this year and that's the level we want to be on. So being able to win those recruiting battles is going to help to hopefully beat them on the field as well.
"We are here to build and bring back a program that competes regularly for championships and you've got to have good players to do that," added Mullen. "If you go back and you look at the championships in the mid-2000s here, there were an awful lot of talent on those rosters. So recruiting is a major part of it. Developing, coaching, all of that is a big part of it. But also having the talent and a lot of that comes into recruiting."
Think about this: Florida beat out Georgia for Elam and Alabama for Bogle, at the same time they were in the middle of a coaching search for both a cornerbacks coach and a defensive line coach.
In the end Mullen turned to Torrian Gray at cornerback and David Turner at defensive line.
"I'm really excited about the guys that we have brought in on our staff," said Mullen. "You have a high position need, and you bring in new coaches at that position and you immediately you address that.
"They're two great additions that have the ability to make us better immediately and long-term here in our futures."
Although the Gators picked up a lot of star power on Wednesday, according to Mullen, they also added players that will help with his plans to change the culture around the program.
"When you look at a Diwun Black that comes out and says, what do you feel about your commitment to Florida? I'm committed for infinity, I think is his one tweet was," explained Mullen. "But really talented players and really excited for our future for the guys that are joining the Gator family."
