What’s This ‘Mullens-To-Texas’ BS??!

I mean, it IS “BS”, right?
I just do NOT take it seriously.
It all started with “URBAN MEYER to Texas” rumors, and his supposedly being interviewed at luxury Hill Country golf resort here at Horseshoe Bay (ALL MAINLY based, believe it or DON’T, on examination and comparison of on-air shots of Urban being interviewed, and photos of the supposedly SIMILAR CHAIRS, drape-patterns and general decor INSIDE the ROOMS at that resort!)... and continues to conveniently deny the simple fact that NO “Coaching search” is currently, officially “under way” (and BY THE WAY, not so long ago no honorable or self-respecting “person of integrity” would let himself be PUT IN THE POSITION of EMBARRASSING A COLLEAGUE PROFESSIONALLY IN THAT WAY...
But at this point (based on his behavior that last year-plus-or-so with US) I’D have to say, “with the possible exception of Urban Meyer”.
As for OUR Coach, I’d like to think that (1) Dan is happy here, (2) If money were a factor OUR people would have already made upping his contract an immediate “thing” behind-the-scenes THIS VERY MOMENT, because (3) He is OUR GUY, he’s happy here—a mutually superb “fit” as a Gator!
End of story...except for one more note:
It wasn’t SO long ago when NO one with an IOTA of integrity would be interviewing for another guy’s job THAT HADN’T EVEN COME OPEN YET!!!
But this is “Urban Liar”! Do I need to repeat the litany of HIS “past performances”??!
I am NOT naive enough to outright “deny all POSSIBILITIES” here.
So given who, how and “the times we live in”, maybe it is ME, and not “Longhorn fans”, who are currently “living in denial”!
However, for the moment, I stand pat with my “first, gut-LEVEL reaction”:
No way!
There’ll be others. Here we go:
Next...

GEEZ—Calls are pouring in from various local Longhorn fans here who have a pretty good idea where I would stand on all this! I woulda had this come down on me here no matter WHAT!
Well, I’m shutting it down, right here and now! It’s a “NON-Story”, Longhorns. Mainly just illustrates what you DON’T have.
Until you get yourselves TALENT, and a COACH, FUCK RIGHT OFF!
Period.
Good night, and farewell.
(Not that my phone will stop ringing!)
(Yikes. I was TRYING to show a certain “empathy” for these people.
They need SOMETHING—something I don’t HAVE, apparently...not at the moment. Got enough to handle worrying about OUR guys!
ENOUGH!)

Mullen should stay where he is (plus I know he knows a guy who took that job, didn't work out well for him).

Leakfan12 said:

Mullen should stay where he is (plus I know he knows a guy who took that job, didn't work out well for him).

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Damn right!
He’s a Gator now. It’d be disappointing to see that torn up over money I’m pretty sure we are willing to pay him if it WERE a factor (we HAVE it, after all).
And it’d be a MISTAKE on HIS part, for the sake of HIS success, satisfaction and happiness TOO.
I doubt he is going anywhere. Wouldn’t be surprised if we “goose” his contract some in ANY event, though...Fact is, I had a feeling that was coming after this season regardless.
Way things are, there are only ever a handful of “hot coaches”—and just as few PROGRAMS that have any crack at landing them...and THEN only under a certain set of circumstances. In fact, in many cases these programs may well be deluding themselves—overestimating their own desireability and/or “reach”: They THINK they are in a position to “have anyone they want”, but all too often (for a variety of reasons) that isn’t currently necessarily the case.
Texas, while having lots of money, a high national profile and fertile recruiting grounds, they have a number of other “current modern drawbacks” that could limit access/attractiveness to the few specific individuals whom they’d go after NOW: Timing is EVERYTHING in such a “search”, after all.

(Meyer may well be going to UT in any event: He IS the kind of “smooth sleazeball” who would stab a fellow Coach in the back in exactly this way, as we have personally seen and experienced ourselves! On the other hand, though, his not being able to bring enough of his “preferred support team” in with him—currently ensconced loyally at Ohio St—might be too much of a stressful risk for him: He may think twice risking failure now...He’s well paid and got a nice, smooth life as a “respected commentator” and “successful senior statesman of The Game”, after all).

Plus recruiting in Texas isn't the same as recruiting in Florida (Charlie learned that the hard way). Plus Mullen building something here. Honestly, Texas can have Meyer.

Leakfan12 said:

Plus recruiting in Texas isn't the same as recruiting in Florida (Charlie learned that the hard way). Plus Mullen building something here. Honestly, Texas can have Meyer.

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Good point...All too often nowadays they are seemingly equated equally—and it just isn’t so:
Oh, they may take “highschool football” a little more seriously in all these dusty little towns on the plains where they’ve got little ELSE to focus on or distract themselves with and/or socialize around, whereas in FLORIDA it’s more about “what comes next”, where it might all lead—getting rich and getting OUT—which in turn makes the recruiting and their continued “education and development” (more the latter than the former, if truth be told I’m sad to say—all the more reason ALL these kids’ “lives as professionals” ought to be more formally and PRACTICALLY “recognized” upon signing with a program, imho; but that’s a discussion for another time) all the more important and formally focused on, followed more closely in Florida.
For most of these Texas HIGHSCHOOL athletes THIS is the “high point” for them. It’s no accident (nor in this case an inaccuracy) that “Friday Night Lights” was about TEXAS, not Florida...and if we Floridians are honest with ourselves about it, we already KNEW that was so.

This happens every year. Do not worry about Mullen.

Escambia94 said:

This happens every year. Do not worry about Mullen.

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I know you’re right. This one bothers me LESS THAN EVER this time, happy to say (and know it’s true!).

@Leakfan12,
That line about “Mullen building something here” keeps coming back to me...I think you are onto something extra-important here:
Mullen is in it for the long haul, knows how to DO it here and intends to not just CLIMB that hill, but to BUILD INTO IT—establish and leave his mark here for a long time to come. Which is fine with ME: The more I see, the more I find myself “ALL IN” with this guy...and the more he appears to be with US.
I see us not only having great success in coming years under Coach Dan, but it coming in different ways, with different KINDS of teams, built to succeed in different ways, with varied kinds of line-ups! He’s that kind of coach, who gets the “best guys he can”—then adapts accordingly to different skill-sets.
The mark of a “great Coach”, you always HEAR—but few have the talent, the timing AND the “courage of their convictions”!
With patience will come a long run of repeated, varied rewards for years to come!

In a somewhat related story, South Carolina did interview Brian Johnson for their head coaching position (Shane Beamer got it). It's Texas, they're going to bring several Brinks trucks to whoever they want. However, will they get a new guy. Will they fired a guy who went 6-3 (they have one more game left against Kansas, so they will more than likely go 7-3 which is a good record)?

It is usually a good sign when other schools or the NFL come after your coaches. That being said, Dan Mullen has been rather fortunate with his coaching staff staying relatively intact for long. That streak will end this year due to the large number of positions that will be opening up.

Leakfan12 said:

In a somewhat related story, South Carolina did interview Brian Johnson for their head coaching position (Shane Beamer got it). It's Texas, they're going to bring several Brinks trucks to whoever they want. However, will they get a new guy. Will they fired a guy who went 6-3 (they have one more game left against Kansas, so they will more than likely go 7-3 which is a good record)?

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You make a good point; Personally, I WARNED SEVERAL died-in-the-wool Longhorn Fans among colleagues here in Austin that THAT was EXACTLY what they were getting INTO three years ago—that (in cutting loose Charlie Strong to “grab while he’s still available” Tom Herman) they were prematurely firing an honorable, determined and talented defense-minded Coach just as he was about to turn the corner after cleaning house and finishing up the bulk of the required “dirty work and heavy lifting”, in favor of Herman, “an unproven-at-this-level quantity whose likely HIGH END may very well be no better than” what Strong had already achieved here.
That is EXACTLY how things have turned out...and now, though they undoubtedly have “wheelbarrows full of cash”, there are a plethora of openings but NOT necessarily a whole lotta “can’t miss” candidates for all the possible pending positions!
Now what, guys?
Is there a “PLAN C”?

Escambia94 said:

It is usually a good sign when other schools or the NFL come after your coaches. That being said, Dan Mullen has been rather fortunate with his coaching staff staying relatively intact for long. That streak will end this year due to the large number of positions that will be opening up.

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Bottom line here is that you are right—have BEEN “right” all along here:
Mullen is where he wanted to get to, and WE got the guy we needed and wanted.
We BOTH “win”—and our futures are bright! I foresee a classic, “dynamic balance” as competition is joined between us and Alabama at the top of the SEC. The only question is, HOW LONG does that hold?
Again, I believe OUR Coach is here NOW and in it for “the LONG haul”;
There is no way to say how much longer Saban remains where he is...
How much more does he have to gain or prove to ANYONE, including himself, where he IS at this point?
And even if he feels he has “plenty more years left” in this Brave New World, is it enough to fulfil him In Tuscaloosa?
Or are there new “Worlds” to conquer out there?
Only he can know or answer.

Herman is gone but UTexas hired the Bama OC.

Sigh. Every year we are going to hear rumors of coaches leaving, and most of them are bad rumors. Yes, Dan Mullen has been vetted by multiple college and NFL teams. This is a good problem to have. Yes, there will also be rumors of other teams poaching Gator coaches. Those are more likely to be true, because these coaches are making names for themselves. This is to be expected at the University of Florida.

I don’t know WHAT to make of the “CH-CH-CHANGES!” lately announced—either the weird “back’n’forth” between the Texas AD and what has by now developed into a “STRING of hirings” there—not just the moves themselves, but the way in general it was done. As to its specifics, well, they’ve mishandled BOTH their LAST two big changes (did Charley Strong at least make out ALMOST as well as Tom Herman in the aftermath of HIS “roughing up”?)...Though the details are debatably “uneven” to say the least, there have always been (and CONTINUE to be) high-quality suitors ready to step up with cash and an attractive position to offer Steve Sarkesian, HERMAN’S replacement this time, each time HE has been the “heir apparent”. His subsequent record has yet to be a formidable improvement upon “coming out of the at-large BULLPEN”!
As for back here in Gainesville and the SEC, Coach Dan has “pulled the trigger” apparently vis a vis the Defensive side of things—but retained Todd Grantham, instead seemingly sweeping clean most of his DC’s staff, one would assume with Grantham’s implied agreement and approval. What do Y’ALL make of that?
Enough? Effective? What does it say—to their team and all of US??! Who we get in their places, and how that in turn affects both personnel and scheming (in the months and SEASON ahead) will presumably make ALL THE DIFFERENCE in where we’re headed as a team and program, and how fast we’ll be likely GETTING THERE FROM HERE.

Escambia94 said:

This happens every year. Do not worry about Mullen.

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I am similarly “neutral” about the LATEST such muttering—the ones emerging from NFL East and NYC about Mullen SUPPOSEDLY “not averse to entertaining overtures from” the Jets—serious, concrete ones that they intend to discuss and possibly extend to him
after the weekend's games are all in the rearview.
I mean, I gotta say I UNDERSTAND the reasons why the GM (and certainly desperate FANS of ANY floundering pro franchise) would at least “take a flyer on” the idea that a currently “on the rise”/“hot topic” experienced young College Coach with the kind credentials ours has been accumulating would find himself repeatedly at the center of such discussion. Do we put the slightest STORE in ANY of it?—aside of course from the fact that these “top market” pro franchises have “starting money” to offer in any such negotiations that immediately virtually DWARFS most common College contract discussions—at least as far as the MONEY is concerned.
Tell me, E—: Should we be worried?
Oh, eventually, if given the opportunity we more or less promised and continue to extend and look forward to, after a period of great success and multiple tools to the CFB Playoffs there WILL come a time when he’ll begin to look for and SENSE “out there, in the great BEYOND” additional challenges and perhaps a commensurately BIGGER SRT OF POTENTIAL PAYDAYS—but that time and those POSSIBILITIES are neither necessarily all out there, nor what he is currently chasing or dreaming of NOW. What do YOU think?

Here are some rumors that I am ignoring:

• UF administration is not happy with Dan Mullen
• Dan Mullen is leaving for the New York Jets
• Dan Mullen is leaving for the Atlanta Falcons

Escambia94 said:

Here are some rumors that I am ignoring:

• UF administration is not happy with Dan Mullen
• Dan Mullen is leaving for the New York Jets
• Dan Mullen is leaving for the Atlanta Falcons

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Why are you posting this here? I don't want to know this either. Also, I pretty sure those teams would have pro coaches (though Lincoln Riley could be a good one). Not into college coaches into the NFL.