Florida coach Dan Mullen joined the Pat McAfee Show Wednesday to discuss a variety of topics, including student-athletes returning to campus, when the college football season could start and expectations for his team in 2020.
Mullen didn’t shy away when asked if the Gators will run the table.
“I expect us to go undefeated this year,” he said. “I’m not guaranteeing it, because I'll be honest with you, I have two national championship rings here at Florida and we didn't go undefeated in either of those two seasons. We still won national championships.”
Of course, that is not an official prediction from Mullen. He has this mindset going into every season, and thinking any other way is a loser’s mentality.
"When I look at our schedule every year, I assume we are,” Mullen said. “If I looked at it and said, ‘Hey, I don't see us winning that game,’ I guess I'd tell the coaches, 'Hey, why don't you guys go home? We're not going to win this one anyway.’ So this time of year you assume you go undefeated every year. I plan on winning every game we play.
“If we don't say stuff like that, nobody has anything to talk about. ... People have to understand, there's a big difference between confidence and cockiness. When you sit there and you say, ‘Hey, we expect to win the game this weekend,’ that's not cockiness, that's your confidence in, ‘Hey, I'm going to work hard and prepare the right way.’”
That preparation begins Monday when players start reporting to UF for voluntary workouts, followed by incoming freshmen on July 1. Mullen revealed that not all returning players will be coming back to campus next week.
“I’m great with that,” he said. “Guys are kind of in a routine at home, they feel comfortable with their settings, they feel they're going to be able to take care of themselves there. Even though we can come back and have voluntary workouts, we're still going to be in Zoom meetings that we're using. For us, hopefully it continues to progress in that direction.”
Florida is scheduled to open its 2020 slate on Sept. 5 against Eastern Washington. The college football season could be delayed and/or shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down the sports world in mid-March and has claimed more than 100,000 American lives. There’s also a possibility of games taking place with limited capacity or no fans at all.
Mullen is optimistic based on the reopening in Florida, but didn’t want to speculate Wednesday about what September could hold.
“As far as the pandemic, we were in a much different place here in the United States March 1 than we are today. So for me to say this where we’re going to be September 1, I think is really irresponsible,” Mullen said. “To sit there and say, ‘September 1 we’re going to have this percentage of fans in the stand’ or ‘we’re going to start on this day exactly,’ that’s so far off into the future.
“I think people have reopened in a very responsible manner. And you haven’t seen a huge spike in cases. ... I’m interested to see where we’re going to be a month from now. We’re in a different place today than we were a month ago. I want to see where we keep going. And as long as we’re responsible, I don’t see why we can’t start football on time and hopefully have fans in the stands.”
Mullen said COVID-19 is an adversity that everyone is facing and many people are uncomfortable with so much change happening. He noted how missing spring football and summer conditioning will make it more challenging for players to get ready for the season.
“Any time you’re faced with adversity, you have an opportunity to get better,” Mullen said. “Hopefully we're a team that has handled adversity as well or better than any other team out there. And if that is the case when we do kick off hopefully in the fall and that foot hits the ball, we've dealt with adversities as a team, we've found a way to get stronger, we've found a way to continue to get better and we come out ready to go play football when we get on the field.”
Some other excerpts from Mullen’s interview with McAfee.
On how COVID-19 has impacted recruiting:
“It’s gone a little bit crazy in recruiting. One of our guys said I think there’s over double the commitments now than there were this time last year. I don’t know that that’s a healthy thing, because guys can’t get to campus, they can’t have this exposure. Everybody’s worried about all the different things and how this is going to play out and that nervousness, instead of going through recruiting. Saying, ‘Hey, I got to know the coaches, build the relationship, came to campus, I have a great feel, I’m comfortable with that environment and I want to play for this coach.’ We’re doing virtual tours. We’re flying around campus on Google Maps and other stuff. Hey, let’s go over to this building and virtually talk to these people. It has been very different, I’ll say that. It has been very, very different. It’s been a little bit crazy. You’re on the phone a lot more probably because guys have more time on their hands. But that’s just the reality of it right now within recruiting.”
On navigating through the transfer portal:
“I think this: It is what it is. So our job as a coach is to adapt to it. So one of the things is, how do we use it to our advantage? And we’ve had guys transfer in that have made major impacts on our program. And so I think that’s just the way it is. I’m not a big quit guy. So I don’t want it to become a crutch for guys, saying, ‘I’m not starting right away and this is hard and coach wants me to work hard to earn it here, so I’m just going to transfer over here.’ I don’t like that aspect of it. So there’s always going to be unintended consequences to something that’s good. Somebody that’s going to say, ‘I earned my degree from this school, I’m going to be a backup, I’ve got the opportunity to go start somewhere else, this wasn’t the fit I thought, I have these extenuating circumstances, I need to go back home’, that’s what it is for. And when it’s used properly I like it. I think one of the things we have to be really cautious of with the transfer portal as we look moving forward with the NCAA, is some of the numbers don’t add up.
“If you look last year, there were more people in the transfer portal than there were scholarships available, and that’s not including our incoming freshmen that we already signed. So these guys are going into the portal and it’s actually hurting a lot of people. Is there a way to count numbers, as far as recruiting restrictions, different for transfers? A 1-for-1. If I have a guy leave Florida and go in the transfer portal, I can sign a guy out of the transfer portal. Scholarships are all equal. Opportunities are met for different opportunities for kids that are out there. Instead of, we signed 25 in this year’s recruiting class and we don’t have any spots available. We had three kids leave for the transfer portal, but we can’t replace them because I’ve already filled my signee number for the year. So I think there’s some balance of things that we’re going to have to get to moving forward into the future.”
On the ‘The Last Dance’ documentary:
“I'm sure everyone watched the Jordan special. Episode 7, that last two minutes, I think there's probably a lot of people that were maybe even offended by that, when he said, 'Hey, there's a price for winning.' As a competitor and somebody involved in sports at an extremely high level, that defines who we are and what we do. People that are offended by it, that's you. I feel you, but that's probably why you're not that high of a competitive athlete, because that's one of the greatest things I've ever heard. It was a special show.
“I want Jordan’s on my team. I want guys that are going to go out there and want to win. ... I saw that and I’m like, I want a guy to sit in my office when I’m getting ready to recruit him and I want him to say what Jordan was saying then to me and I’ll say, ‘Hey, we want you to be a Gator.’ I want a team of those guys, those ultra competitors.”
You can watch Mullen's full interview with McAfee here.
