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Do we fire Dan Mullen?

DRU2012

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I am serious this time: I am asking the question in frank, “what is best for the GATORS?”-fashion now.
And, y’all may be surprised to hear, I am NOT so sure I can come down in the affirmative at this time.
In my view, it comes to this:
Has he lost the locker room?
Has Mullen lost the TEAM?
There are signs that he has—and IF he has, then that’s likely that.
But is it all so simple and straight forward? Because, if we fire him, who do we replace him with? And we damn well better get THAT right!
But the fact remains, in the end: that choice means a long, slow road back, where things likely get WORSE before they get better, no matter what.
We’re gonna need better recruiting IMMEDIATELY, regardless...and as for “better defense”, well, we are ALL fearful that today’s “performance” indicates that
(1) Mullen hasn’t got a handle on turning THAT ONE around either, and
(2) He MAY have lost at least THAT portion of the locker room, anyway—which may be the most damning reason of ALL to make a change at the top.
But, as I’ve noted elsewhere: maybe “the top”, in this case, isn’t “high enough”: Perhaps it is time to make a clean sweep, and replace the AD as well!
What do you think, my Gator brothers?
 

DRU2012

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Not yet. Mullen has zero margin. One loss and he is done. Even then there is no guarantee.
Even after TODAY’S melt down?
And do you really believe we’ll likely win out against these last two opponents?
It sure looks like Coach has already LOST a big chunk of his team.
I expect us to lose a growing number of our already less-than-dazzling prospective recruiting class, along with a similar attrition through the transferring portal from here.
I’m starting to think we’ll need a big turnaround EVERYWHERE in order to even BEGIN to find HOPE again somewhere, somehow from here!
I WANT so BADLY to be wrong.
Make your case, E—.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
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Even after TODAY’S melt down?
And do you really believe we’ll likely win out against these last two opponents?
It sure looks like Coach has already LOST a big chunk of his team.
I expect us to lose a growing number of our already less-than-dazzling prospective recruiting class, along with a similar attrition through the transferring portal from here.
I’m starting to think we’ll need a big turnaround EVERYWHERE in order to even BEGIN to find HOPE again somewhere, somehow from here!
I WANT so BADLY to be wrong.
Make your case, E—.
Yes. The offense performed great. The defense played like it had no defensive coordinator, which is why Mullen supposedly wanted to wait until the end of the season to fire Grantham. Nobody—including Kent Fuchs and Scott Stricklin— expected the defense to get better after firing the DC. Who knows what they wanted to see, but they probably saw enough in a defense that in the first half surrendered 42 points and made halftime adjustments to limit the other team to 10 points. That shows the team did not quit.

Now the Gators have to repeat this 2-3 more times—play solid defense without a DC. That is the mark of a decent head coach if he can pull this off. Who knows? Maybe he will fail in the last few games of the season and he will be fired anyway. Or Mullen may turn a corner as Dabo Swinney did years ago and save his job.
 
Last edited:

Leakfan12

VIP Member
I'm 50-50 with this.

Against: He's coming off a season where he one shoe throw away and also a fumble after an interception from the Playoffs

For: 52 Points Against Samford and He's 5-5 currently and I'm unsure about the Mizzo and the FSU games.

If the Gators doesn't make a bowl, he's done.
 

DRU2012

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Yes. The offense performed great. The defense played like it had no defensive coordinator, which is why Mullen supposedly wanted to wait until the end of the season to fire Grantham. Nobody—including Kent Fuchs and Scott Stricklin— expected the defense to get better after firing the DC. Who knows what they wanted to see, but they probably saw enough in a defense that in the first half surrendered 42 points and made halftime adjustments to limit the other team to 10 points. That shows the team did not quit.

Now the Gators have to repeat this 2-3 more times—play solid defense without a DC. That is the mark of a decent head coach if he can pull this off. Who knows? Maybe this will fail in the last few games of the season and he will be fired anyway. Or Mullen may turn a corner as Dabo Swinney did years ago and save his job.
I'm 50-50 with this.

Against: He's coming off a season where he one shoe throw away and also a fumble after an interception from the Playoffs

For: 52 Points Against Samford and He's 5-5 currently and I'm unsure about the Mizzo and the FSU games.

If the Gators doesn't make a bowl, he's done.
And I follow BOTH of your respective takes.
As I said up top, I’m not necessarily so all-fired convinced we SHOULD “Fire the Coach!”...In fact, I hope like hell E—‘s first-of-the-two above scenarios, where the previous season’s “up til the LSU-game” performance, and THIS year’s uneven start but seeming beginning-to-find-ourselves match-up against Bama at that point still leaving us a solid Top 10-ranked team and program at the very least hints at what might just as quickly be recovered.
Anyway, so far he remains at least somewhat “protected” by the seeming vacuum of viable alternative candidates out there at the moment.
A whole other approach might be required.
Nick Saban ain’t coming here, at ANY price, friends—even if there WERE a desire or substantial enough positive motivation of any kind (for him OR us!)...
Anyone else with anything LIKE that kind of promise jump to anyone’s mind?
Until a FEW such possibilities seem more quickly and easily at hand it may just be over-reactionary “fan-centric” talk—and about as effective as, say, firing your DC in the MIDDLE of the season turns out to be!
But in the long run, maybe we’re focusing on firing the wrong guy: Again, I propose we at least for the moment turn the spotlight on the AD.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
Remember that in 2010, Dabo Swinney fired both of his coordinators and turned the program around after a losing season. That was in year 2.5 for him, but his AD believed in him. It took Swinney 6 more years to win his first national championship and 2 more after that to win a second—all this while hauling in recruiting classes ranked between 10 and 29. Swinney did not start hauling in top 10 classes until a decade at Clemson. Before responding with “but this is Florida not Clemson”, remember Florida has not won its own conference since 2008. Clemson has won its conference 7 times since Florida’s last SEC championship.

Maybe Mullen does not turn into the next Swinney, but Fuchs, Stricklin, and the board of trustees think he might. I might be the last Mullen supporter left on these forums and on Reddit, but I really believe Mullen can turn this around by making two major hires—DC and OC. Throw in a better OL and DL coach and recruit size on both sides of the line and the Gators are back in the championship conversation in a year or two. Scrapping everything puts us back 4-8 years.
 

DRU2012

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@Escambia94, (@Leakfan12, too, since we’ve all pretty well arrived at the same general lonely place)
You’re almost certainly right—especially that last part about “setting the program back 4-to-8 years”...
Admittedly I’ve been shooting my guns in the air and howling at the moon here last day or two—and given TODAY’S experience it should come as no surprise that it hasn’t brought much in the way of “adequate satisfaction”!
No, the truth is presently a difficult pill to swallow.
I recommend y’all see Zack Ragan’s article on “A-to-Z Sports”, entitled “If Florida Gators Fire Dan Mullen, Their Coaching Search Could Quickly Turn Disastrous”.
It well captures and describes a situation that was already difficult, and through fate and circumstance has now turned perilous. I suppose that as things stand, it may be best to going with what amounts to “risking an extra year tacked onto that ‘several years’, for a chance at us somehow getting back on track, at least returning to ‘contender’s status’ and being in MUCH better shape a season or two later when maybe a better field of future candidates are available to choose from...”, instead of “deeper still” should we act precipitously now.
Maybe we make that change above him at AD meanwhile as well.
Meanwhile, NONE of that’ll mean ANYTHING without seriously successful (and near-immediate) upgrades in recruiting and Defensive prowess.
Does our Coach truly grasp this? While maybe he let loyalty and a sense of personal honor obscure his clarity of thinking when it came to his longtime colleague and DC Grantham, but he has seemed to have a strange BLINDNESS when it comes to the importance of recruiting in the college game.
The onset of change resulting from new rules governing “the transfer portal”, etc, and an admitted skill with making timing and resulting availability of certain players a practical advantage these last particular few seasons has helped to moderate those failings—but it seems to be catching up with him (and US!) now.
Anyway, I recommend y’all skimming that article; It may be the best warning out there as to why we need to be “carefully conservative” in how we negotiate these problems now.
 

Escambia94

Aerospace Cubicle Engineer (ACE)
Moderator
There are plenty of articles from the more levelheaded writers that think Florida’s best option is Dan Mullen at head coach as long as he makes the two most important hiring decisions of his life next month—OC and DC. This will signify that he is becoming a CEO type of coach and he is not stagnating as an OC playing head coach.

I would hope that his special assistant Paul Pasqualoni is giving him similar advice. Paul is a former head coach at Connecticut and Syracuse whose duty title is “special assistant to the head coach “. Nobody seems to know what that means. I hope that it means he leans on this guy for advice on managing a football team as a CEO.
 

DRU2012

Super Moderator
Staff member
Super Moderator
There are plenty of articles from the more levelheaded writers that think Florida’s best option is Dan Mullen at head coach as long as he makes the two most important hiring decisions of his life next month—OC and DC. This will signify that he is becoming a CEO type of coach and he is not stagnating as an OC playing head coach.

I would hope that his special assistant Paul Pasqualoni is giving him similar advice. Paul is a former head coach at Connecticut and Syracuse whose duty title is “special assistant to the head coach “. Nobody seems to know what that means. I hope that it means he leans on this guy for advice on managing a football team as a CEO.
I hadn’t focused on or considered ANY of that, E—!
God, I hope there is really something to it:
Frankly, it is the first narrow (but nonetheless SHARP and BRIGHT) ray’o’light that has broken through the gloom of late. I’d forgotten Coach P was even here and part of the equation now, to be honest.
This could be important—our one current saving grace!
 

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