Dan Mullen at Florida. Credit: Gainesville Sun
By Sean Keeley on

The University of Florida fired Dan Mullen in 2021 and he’s been owning them on social media since.

Much has been said of the Florida Gators football program in recent weeks as Bill Napier’s time as head coach seemed headed towards its conclusion, sooner or later.

While there’s been a lot of conjecture around who will be next, there’s also been ample opportunity for the guy before Napier to get his licks.

On Saturday, ESPN’s Matt Barrie shared an AFLAC trivia question on X asking “When was the last time Florida and Mississippi State finished a season with double-digit wins?

The answer: 2014 for MSST, when they went 10-3 under head coach Dan Mullen, and 2019 for Florida, when they went 11-2 under, you guessed it, Dan Mullen.

The former UF coach, now an ESPN college football commentator, shared the post.

It’s not the first time Mullen has taken to social media to make a point about his tenure in Gainesville. After Florida got blown out at home by Miami in their home opener, Mullen reshared another post by Barrie that pointed out he took the Gators to three New Year’s Day bowl games before getting fired in his 4th season, in contrast to Napier, who seems likely to finish with a losing record in all three of his seasons.

It doesn’t hurt that Mullen’s rep is getting a bit of reclamation in response to how bad things have gotten in Gainesville. On College GameDay, Kirk Herbstreit dedicated a segment to essentially questioning why Mullen was fired in the first place.

While we appreciate Mullen’s attempt to remind people Florida performed well under his watch, it’s important to remember things did go off the rails in the 2021 season. His reputation for not being a good recruiter was well known. With the Gators sitting at 5-6 and 2-6 in SEC play, Mullen was fired. Interim coach Greg Knox coached the final two games of the season — a win over Florida State in the regular season finale and a loss to UCF in the Sasparilla Bowl.

Still, we love petty trolling in college football. So as long as Florida stinks, we welcome the last guy to coach them to bowl games to continue liking and sharing posts that make him look good.

[Sickos Committee, Matt Barrie]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

View all posts by Sean Keeley