Culture Shock, Part I: inside the Florida Gators’ implosion under Dan Mullen

Thanks @62gator! As we discussed, this deserves its own thread because it's more about the program and what Coach Napier faced when he became our head coach. It was so much worse than most even imagined.

 

I have to give Grantham credit. He didn't want to get caught up in the BS. He wanted the players focused on football.
Turns out he was right. BLM came and passed.

 

Wow! Very insightful article... I knew what was happening, but reading that article puts it into a whole different perspective...

 

DAMN!!!

 

That is a really really tough call dude. First, Grantham was clearly a flaming asshole who disrespected his own players. We all have our opinions of the whole BLM thing and anything said beyond that dooms this to TH — but TG’s job was to be a mentor to players and disrespecting something that lots of his players valued was clearly the wrong thing to do. But to your point, this issue pales in comparison to everything else in that article. What a damning review of Grantham, Hevesy, and Mullen.

So this is what Billy Napier inherited? Hell in my book he gets at least 2027 to turn this around. What a freaking disaster

 

I will get to the story later. Thanks for posting.

IMO, we can belabor all the things wrong, such as Mullen not wanting to be "the bad guy" and getting rid of some supposed friends, Grantham being mainly a prick because he made things WAY too complicated (unless it was his propensity for being too predictable), Hev for being a damn lazy recruiter, and Mullen who is essentially a very smart idiot (he was so smart, he was oblivious).

But to me, THE biggest WTH is laid at Stricklin's feet. Unless he walked into a meeting and he saw the BIG contributors selecting Mullen and he didn't have enough political capital at the time and decided to just go along, he was THE best person to know whether Mullen could be up to the task. That also includes talking to historical figures within the admin and AA that knew how he was during his OC tenure. IMO, Stricklin blew it BAD.

 

Perplexing isn't it. Tough job, no doubt. Dan seemed to be the "right" guy as compared to say Chip and Frosty years 1 and 2.

That lasted all of 2 years. Only thing that saved year three was Kyle and that group of recievers.

I suppose it takes special people to run such a large organization and to deal with the nuance of recruiting young men.

 

Hard read but I think most of us knew that we had two coaches that needed to go in 2020. The buck stops at the top and IMO Stricklin should have forced Mullens hand when he wouldn't make the tough CEO type decisions.

Billy seems to be running things much more like an organization and hopefully with time things will get turned around. Hope we see some improvement this year on the field, regardless of the W/L record.

 

Non of this story was surprising. I feel bad for the players. Curious what the AD was doing during all of this. Met mullen when he was here as the OC. Dude is different. Never, ever saw him as HC material and was shocked by the hire. Reading the MS boards was certainly foreshadowing for anyone that cared. It is all on the HC for not doing his job.

Go Gators
Best of luck to CBN

 

Hard to argue with this tea. That is, after all, Stricklands job and most would agree the most important hire he is responsible for.

 

Lol... I was right about Grantham all along, but he was more caustic and inept than I even thought he was.

He and his coaching method is a clear case for someone that does NOT know psychology, trying to use it on his own players, that has no business trying it on human beings... backfired miserably.

 

Grantham always seemed to be a miserable SOB who thought he was smarter than everyone. Mullen is a lazy SOB who KNOWS he's smarter than everyone.

A shame we don't have bosses who care enough and are sharp enough to see BS and not put up with it. Pretty damning for Sam Strychnine.

Glad we have an excellent staff now and Stricklin I guess is just watching.

 

A lot to read and take in. Thanks for posting this, it makes the shit that went down to us non-insiders make sense.
Not that I have any personal knowledge but it seems like BN is exactly the opposite in terms of respecting his players and caring what they think and feel. If our players are treated with respect (even if there is SOME yelling on the practice field) then they are more likely to give it their all and I appreciate that even if it doesn't translate to undefeated seasons.

 

Well the article confirms what many posted about Gratham and Hev over the course of their tenure.

Sad - Lost the locker room. Guess we have FULL confirmation of why the bowl against the Sooners was so damn ugly.

I liked FF but the article indicates the staff KNEW Trask was fantastic (the players knew it) but Mullen would not play him until the injury.

Well this explains what I thought all along, the Locker Room was lost. The defense certainly played "lost".

Life goes on, we seem to have a head coach that really values the relationship between staff and players.

Better days are ahead.

 

Grantham never should have been allowed on the coaching staff. period. end of story. should have been the stipulation when hiring Dan, no Grantham.

 

This is why we need an AD for football Operation only... too vet the assistant coaches like Hevesy and Grantham when we get a new head football coach. That would be one of his duties...

Coach Grantham should have never been allowed to coach in Gainesville... period!

 

I didn't see your post until I posted my thoughts... great minds... Lol

 

I defended mullen for a long time- I'm sorry guys.
I love a creative offense and we had this.
But everyone was right- he's just not a CEO. He's an OC being paid like a head guy.

One of the worst indictments of Mullen was that none of his assistant coaches (after 21) even got a lateral job.
All got demoted- usually big step downs. (Brian Johnson left before 21.)

It is funny that the 2 coaches most hated by the fans were the worst. (Grantham and Hevesy.)