Looking into Dan Mullen to NFL rumors
Sitting in the bowels of AT&T Stadium a tired, uninterested Dan Mullen looked down at a stat sheet for several minutes before looking back up to field questions on a Zoom call. His Florida Gators had just been embarrassed on national television and had to watch the Oklahoma Sooners celebrate, laugh, and Gator Chomp a 55-20 Cotton Bowl victory.
It had been a long year for everyone but especially so for Mullen. Without dragging you too far down the rabbit hole, there was the 90,000 people in the Swamp comment that earned him a talking to from both of his bosses, UF President Kent Fuchs and Athletic Director Scott Stricklin. Then, less than a week later, Mullen contracted COVID-19 along with more than 60 of his players, staff, and assistant coaches. Florida would have highs, namely beating Georgia, but also finished the season with three consecutive losses, including this last one to Oklahoma. Oh, yeah, there was also a long NCAA probe into several Florida recruiting violations that Mullen was hit with a show clause for, but, at the very least, he was able to deal with that privately.
So, the sullen look on Mullen’s face could be explained away by stress or exhaustion but surely, Mullen, the coach who infamously challenged reporters to a thumb wrestling match because he was so competitive would not be happy with the outcome.
"I viewed this game that wasn't the 2020 football team that you saw,” Mullen said. “I mean, there were about 25 guys missing off the 2020 football team out there tonight.”
Sure, the list of players unavailable for the game was long but that’s been a recouping theme this year for every team in the country. What happened to the coach in 2018 with the competitive spirit in everything he did? Surely he’d get back to that during the post Cotton Bowl presser.
“That's how I kind of view this game,” Mullen said. “I view the last game the last team the 2020 team played was 11 days ago.”
That’s a far cry from Mullen back in 2018. Following Florida’s 2018 loss to Missouri, Mullen was asked how the Gators would respond to the loss?
“I’d be really disappointed if people don't wanna play for themselves. They keep score. Someone wins and someone loses. I don't care what we’re doing. If you wanna thumb wrestle me right now I’m gonna kick your ass. You know what I mean,” Mullen said. “If you wanna come on up I got you. You wanna go run stadiums? I’ll kick your ass. If you’re gonna keep score, and someone’s gonna win and someone’s gonna lose, I wanna beat your ass. If you don’t have that attitude in the locker room we gotta problem.”
He’s talking about a competitive nature, something that, at the time, he was trying to instill in a team that had won just four games the year before. That fire had been seen in 2020. His aforementioned “pack the Swamp” comment came after a loss to Texas A&M. Mullen rushed the field to scream at an official, helping to incite a brawl against Missouri, costing him $25,000 in a fine from the league office.
Where was that guy now?
In the weeks prior, and even in 2019, Mullen was asked several times about his potential desire to coach in the NFL. He had never expressed an explicit desire, but now, a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter last Sunday said Mullen open to an opportunity in the NFL.
Why now?
Well, for one, the off-field headlines Mullen has created throughout the 2020 season often overshadowed the success Florida was having on the field and certainly didn’t endear him to the administration. Mullen’s other comments when asked about the future of the NCAA with new rules either already instated or are on the way are of note.
College football as we know it will be very different over the next several years,” he said. “It’ll be, I don’t want to say it’s going to be better or worse, it’s just going to be different than what a lot of college football is used to. The world is ever-changing.”
Does Mullen actually want out or could this be a tactic during contract negotiations?
Mullen just finished year three of a six-year contract. Schools generally want to have their head coach on a four-year contract, in part to prevent other schools from negatively recruiting their school, so Mullen would be in line for an extension soon.
Having his agent, Jimmy Sexton, float his name as a serious candidate would give Mullen leverage, leverage he may have thrown away with some bizarre actions throughout this year.
Mullen is on a reported, very long list, of coaching candidates that the New York Jets will be interested in, so if gaining leverage in contract extension negotiations was the goal, mission accomplished.
The question, however, is impossible to answer unless Mullen comes out and does it himself. Does Mullen really want out at Florida? Is the pressure of winning at the rate that the fan base wants causing him to crack? Does he think NFL fan bases will be nicer? Not likely.
Or, and probably most likely, is this all a negotiation tactic that will eventually end up with a contract extension and raise for Mullen?