Homegrown: Mullen ends UF's decade-long drought of Gainesville signees
Former Florida coach Urban Meyer once told the media that a nightmare scenario for his program would be a standout local athlete signing elsewhere and then coming back to beat the Gators.
Each one of Steve Spurrier’s 12 teams at UF featured at least one scholarship player from Gainesville, Fla.
After Meyer’s 2008 class included GHS defensive end Earl Okine, Florida’s third 352 signee in five years, the football program signed just one hometown product over a 10-year period (GHS receiver Chris Thompson in 2013).
That drought ended under coach Dan Mullen and his staff, who’ve landed back-to-back Gainesville recruits in the last two cycles: Buchholz WR Trent Whittemore and Eastside QB Anthony Richardson.
In the coming years, UF’s passing game could feature an Alachua County connection for the first time since Doug Johnson and Travis McGriff were setting school records in 1998.
In a three-part series this week, Gators Territory will look at how Mullen recruits his own backyard and profile Whittemore (Wednesday) and Richardson (Thursday).
Up first, Mullen’s approach and thoughts on homegrown talent and perspective from former Florida WR Chris Doering and the high school coaches for Whittemore and Richardson about local athletes trying to make it to UF.
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SEC Network analyst and former Florida wide receiver Chris Doering did some housecleaning during the COVID-19 shutdown and stumbled upon a box of old newspapers.
Inside were articles and cutouts from his playing days, including one sports section that featured the Gainesville Sun’s All-Area Team. Doering’s son, Tyson, noticed a familiar face.
“Hey, there’s Coach Whit,” Tyson said, referring to his head coach at Buchholz.
In the photo, he was Bobcats wideout Mark Whittemore.
“Mark and I were the all-area receivers in 1990,” Doering said. “We were friends, came out of high school the same year. So I’ve known Mark forever and think very highly of him.”
Doering was a star player for PK Yonge, while Whittemore shined at Buchholz. The two trained together during the offseason.
“He and I would actually work out a little bit in the summers,” Whittemore said. “That was back before everybody was 24/7 football. But I remember how good Chris was. He’s one of the great ones to put on the Gator uniform.”
Whittemore earned the same opportunity Doering did: a preferred walk-on spot with the Gators. His father, Mark Whittemore Sr., ran track at Florida before being drafted to fight in Vietnam, and his uncle and grandfather attended UF as well.
Whittemore chose a different path, committing instead to Central Florida. As a senior in 1994, he became a dynamic duo with Knights WR David Rhodes.
“I decided instead to take the scholarship to UCF, and so thankful that I made that decision,” Whittemore said. “I enjoyed that experience of being a Knight down in Orlando. But living here in Gainesville and playing football, I definitely dreamed about playing in the Swamp.”
Doering decided to pay his way to pursue that same dream, going from walk-on to star receiver at UF. He is one of several 352 products who played for the Gators during the Spurrier era, including brothers Willie and Terry Jackson, Johnson, McGriff and Mike Peterson, who was born in Gainesville and attended Santa Fe High.
Florida’s 1995 class included Jackson, McGriff and Peterson, all of whom were drafted in 1999. Their success was huge for the area, Doering said, because it gave the youth more local players to look up to.
“When I was kid, it was a rarity when somebody from PK Yonge or Buchholz made it to UF,” Doering said. “You kind of looked at those players like, ‘If they can do it, so can I.’ It’s almost like they were an inspiration doing something that really hadn’t been done that frequently.
“Willie Jackson coming out in ’89, they offered him really late. I had to walk on. So for a long time, we were just overlooked. But let’s be honest, it’s a long shot for anybody to go play at Florida. They’re signing 25 guys in the whole country. It’s pretty far-fetched, but it really seemed even further for us Gainesville guys.”
Cedderick Daniels was the co-defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator at Gainesville High, his alma mater, when Chris Thompson went through his recruitment in the Class of 2013. The 6-foot, 170-pound receiver camped at UF several times in hopes earning a scholarship offer, but kept coming up short.
“It was a headache, honestly,” Daniels said. “You watch a kid go to camp year in and year out, destroy it every time and not get an offer. I remember being there with him and Stefon Diggs at the same Friday Night Lights camp in 2011. Chris showed out and ran a 4.37 at the camp. We thought it was going to happen that night.”
It didn’t, and that was the last camp of the summer. The offer never came during his junior season or the spring of 2012, so Thompson had to wait another year to get in front of the UF coaches.
He worked out twice for them during their June camps, but they wanted him to attend FNL yet again to showcase his improved hands under the lights in the Swamp. Thompson didn’t drop a pass that night.
The Monday after FNL, former coach Will Muschamp asked Thompson to come meet him on campus.
“We were sitting down in the office and I’ll never forget it,” Daniels said. “Muschamp was like, ‘How does it feel to be a Gator?’ I’m looking around the room like, ‘Damn!’ They offered and he literally committed on the spot. His mom was smiling from ear to ear.
“He just kept going there to camp until they couldn’t tell him no anymore. Local talent will always be overlooked if they don’t show up to camps. When kids don’t get offered by Power 5 schools, the Power 5 school in your city is not going to take you seriously.”
Daniels was tabbed as Eastside’s coach in Dec. 2015 following seven years at Gainesville High. After completing his second season with the Rams, he and his staff received a visitor at the school.
“When Dan Mullen got hired, he did something a lot of coaches don’t do — he came by,” Daniels said of Florida’s coach. “It was him and (offensive line coach) John Hevesy. They came by and Coach Mullen was like, ‘I’m just here to meet all the coaches. I’m letting you guys know that I’m going to recruit the area.’
“That was a cool moment. Like I said, normally you get an assistant coach. But when the boss man pops up, it’s special.”
And Mullen was a man of his word.
His last two recruiting classes have featured a prospect from Gainesville, signing wide receiver Trent Whittemore in 2019 and quarterback Anthony Richardson the previous cycle. Doering was frustrated seeing Thompson be the only local signee from 2009-18 because he said those players, if they’re scholarship worthy, add value to the roster.
“I do believe there’s value to having guys who grow up in Gainesville and know the history, love the program and have that desire to represent the Gators. It just means a little bit more to us,” Doering said. “Those are good guys not only in terms of what they’re able to do on the field, but what they do in the locker room and how they promote that love to the rest of their teammates. So I do believe there’s a value in that and I think Dan Mullen recognizes it.”
GHS product Vernell Brown was a senior captain for the Gators in 2005, Mullen’s first year as UF offensive coordinator. Meyer called Brown the “Face of Florida Football” because of his commitment to the program he grew up wanting to play for.
Mullen hired Brown as his director of player development in Feb. 2018.
“There’s something about that, when you have that extra pride in there and what it means to be a Gator,” Mullen said after signing Whittemore. “That’s great to have in the program, guys who believe in that. I think those are guys that end up being great leaders, not just great playmakers, talented guys. They end up having a little bit of leadership in them because of what it means to put on that uniform and that helmet.”
WEDNESDAY: 'Freakishly athletic' Trent Whittemore draws Chris Doering comparisons