In his first interaction with the University of Florida student body as head coach of the Florida Gators, Dan Mullen seemed to make it a point to be as honest and open as as he could be, while also throwing in a bit of humor.
Basically, he was being himself.
UF’s ACCENT Speakers Bureau hosted an hour-long event Tuesday night that allowed Ted Spiker, the chair of the department of journalism, to interview the newly hired head coach.
Mullen, who had his signature visor on throughout the course of the event, spoke on a wide range of topics that included his time as a football player, what he learned from Urban Meyer and the greatness of Tim Tebow.
Equipped with funny one liners and energy that carried over from the Gators’ first practice with full pads, Mullen provided the audience with an authentic version of himself that never wavered.
The state of the team
Although he has not had much time to acclimate himself with his players on the practice field, Mullen feels confident in the direction of his team. Besides their abilities on the field, Mullen praised his team for how they responded to the coaching change and how they have bought into his program.
“I like our corners,” Mullen said. “I think they’re very talented, both C.J. Henderson and Marco Wilson are very talented guys that play well. The offensive line, I think, has looked better than maybe I thought it would look at this point, but we still have a long way to go. Our running backs run the ball well. So there’s a bunch of guys. The thing that’s impressed me the most about the team is the lack of resistance.”
Although most of the players on the team were not recruited by him, Mullen said that he has not received any push back from them. This has been especially true in the weight room, where there has been noticeable improvement from the team as a whole.
Nick Savage, UF’s director of football strength and conditioning, has implemented a workout regimen that has led to the players losing 3.5 percent body fat on average in a seven-week period. On top of that, Mullen also said the players have averaged a 35-pound increase in their bench press and 55-pound increase in their barbell squats.
“That’s a result of no resistance,” Mullen said. “We’re asking guys to do things and they’re trying as hard as they can to do that. Because of that, I can see a lot of progress.”
Reminiscing about the good old days
Mullen has obviously been focused on his current team and what he can do to get the Gators back to prominence, but that did not stop him from reflecting upon the glory days of the program.
Spiker asked Mullen about a few memories he had from Florida’s run of two championships in three years. Mullen highlighted one key game from the first championship run in the 2006-2007 season that helped them reach the pinnacle of success.
In the third-to-last game of the regular season, Florida had a home game against South Carolina that looked to be the Gamecocks’ game to lose. Mullen talked about a couple of key blocks that saved their season.
“We’re playing South Carolina here in The Swamp. We blocked an extra point earlier in the game, so we’re up 17-16,” Mullen said. “They tried a field goal and we blocked the kick to win 17-16 on their game-winning field goal attempt. Jarvis Moss gets up, I mean, got a fingertip on the ball. Good thing he had long fingers. I’ll be honest with you, I only was here for four years, but I don’t know if, in those four years, it was ever louder in that one moment when he blocked that ball.”
A couple of years later, the Gators were able to return to the championship game after finishing with a 9-4 record and no bowl win in the year prior. This was supposed to be a great time for Mullen, but the stress of his new job at Mississippi State prematurely ended any celebrations.
“At the end of the game, in the national championship game playing against Oklahoma… Tebow jumps up and throws a jump pass to David Nelson to kind of seal the game,” Mullen said. “John Hevesy, our line coach, is sitting next to me. He starts punching me in the box, ‘We just won another national championship!’ Clock expired, I run down the field, grab the crystal ball, my wife is there to take a quick picture of me and we get on a plane flight and go to a team meeting in Mississippi the next morning. I didn’t really get to enjoy that very much.”
There were a lot of good times for Mullen during his short time at Florida, which included a prolific offense and one of the most dominant quarterbacks in college football history. He emphasized at the end of his speech, however, that the tempo for his new era will be set in the spring game and that he wanted to see the student body attend the game on April 14th.
Impact of partnering with the Jordan Brand
Three months ago, the Gators announced their partnership with the Jordan Brand. Mullen believes that this will facilitate recruits being attracted to the program because of the brand’s marketability.
“For one, I think it’s going to be a big benefit for us because kids think Jordan is cool,” Mullen said. “There’s a lot of the sales that goes into recruiting, and what you’re trying to do really is sell your program. The Jordan Brand is going to help in recruiting because you can market the Jordan Brand.”
Mullen also said that on top of attracting high school prospects to the program, the brand was well-received by his players.
“After one of our first week of workouts, Jordan sent us an introductory pair of the Flyknit Jordan 1’s, the blue and black,” Mullen said. “And each kid on the team got one. You would’ve thought every kid won the lottery. It was like the greatest Christmas morning.”
This moment with his players demonstrated to the coach how much of an effect this partnership will have on the Gator community as a whole.
“That showed me that it’s going to be a pretty good branding opportunity for us in the future,” Mullen said. “We’re going to use that as part of our branding strategy in not just recruiting, but in motivation for our team, in marketing to the student body and then marketing to the Gator Nation and our fan base everywhere.”
Lightning round of questions
Toward the end of the interview, Spiker asked a list of questions to Mullen that were a combination of questions from Twitter and ones he created. Mullen turned a question about his favorite morning beverage into a three-minute story, but we will save you the time on that anecdote.
Here are five of Mullen’s best responses in the lightning round of questions:
Percentage chance Tebow plays in the MLB: “100 percent.”Favorite athlete you haven’t coached: “Michael Jordan.”
Who on the team could you beat in a foot race?: “If we’re hitting a five-mile foot race, I’ll beat anybody,” Mullen said. “Because they’re all like Ferraris. I’m probably more like a plug-in Kia. I got great mileage… I get some miles to the gallon. But I can beat a bunch. I feel pretty good about the offensive linemen and defensive linemen. Not in a short spring though. The longer we go, the more people I’ll beat.”
Who wins in an Oklahoma drill: Tebow or Dak Prescott?: “That would be a rough one. That would be a stalemate. I’ll be honest with you, I was going to go with Dak because he’s playing and he’s got a big ol’ rear end, but Tebow’s pretty jacked up… I would go Dak because he’s playing, but it’s hard though because Tebow with the baseball thing is training so much. It would be a fight to the death, I’ll tell you that much. I don’t know if either of them will budge. It would go for a pretty long time.”
Who wins in an Oklahoma drill: Mullen or Meyer?: “Me. I’d kick his rear end.”
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