Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
College FootballESPNBy Sam Neumann on

Regarding Dan Mullen, Kirk Herbstreit might be trying to rewrite history.

Things are bad in Gainesville as Billy Napier and Co. continue to reach new lows. While Nick Saban doesn’t feel the onus should be on any of the head coaches who have followed Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer — at least not solely — Herbstreit asked Saturday what was so bad about the Mullen era in The Swamp.

Well, first of all, Mullen did not like to recruit very much. Don’t just take our word for it or those in Awful Announcing’s mentions; just ask Kirby Smart. Mullen just wasn’t recruiting at the level appropriate for a University of Florida football program. And that’s why he last coached at the collegiate level in 2021.

The ex-Mississippi State head coach’s tenure at the University of Florida started with a bang but ended with a whimper. During his first two seasons in Gainesville, he led the Gators to at least 10 wins, two New Year’s Six bowl victories, and back-to-back top-10 finishes.

After narrowly losing to Alabama in the 2020 SEC Championship game, Mullen saw his team’s performance and his tenure, for that matter, take a nose dive. With a series of upset losses to unranked opponents, which saw Florida at 5-6, on the outside looking in at a potential bowl berth, Mullen was dismissed.

But in retrospect, Herbstreit didn’t think it was that bad.

“They need to think about those four coaches, and you start to think about it a little bit more because consistency and guys understanding what the offseason programs are like, that continuity is so important to have with Florida,” he says. “And it’s amazing, I didn’t realize; I just assume that Florida has great facilities. I didn’t realize they just finished their facilities a couple of years ago.

“I go back and think about the Dan Mullen era… What was so bad about the Dan Mullen era? I mean, they were winning a lot of games. They played against (Nick Saban) in the SEC Championship. I’m sure they’d love to have that era back. It just looks like a team right now; the last couple of years, they don’t have the athletic ability you expect to see in the SEC — especially at the line of scrimmage. They don’t have the defense. And I think they’ve lost their confidence overall.

“Think about this: this program in the last 10 years, they averaged 7-5. Florida Gators, 10 years, 7-5. It just doesn’t make sense to my brain. My brain still thinks Florida, and I think about competing for the SEC East, winning the division, and getting to the SEC title.”

Notably, Herbstreit’s comments seemed like he was attempting to change the narrative about how Mullen’s tenure ended in Florida. And that was called out in response — and the reactions — to him asking if that certain era in Gainesville was really all that bad.

Mullen’s early success may have masked deeper issues, like his reluctance to recruit aggressively, which is critical for any program in the SEC, not just Florida.

As the reactions to Herbstreit’s remarks show, Gator fans’ frustration runs deeper than wins and losses. In today’s SEC, which now includes Texas and Oklahoma, without sustained recruiting excellence and consistency, short-term success doesn’t guarantee long-term viability—and that’s what ultimately led to Mullen’s downfall.

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About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann