Hated the hire, but recognized there wasn't much available that were coming to UF. Appreciated his offensive improvement, it was always the other stuff that was concerning.
I was lukewarm to Mullen’s hiring but, I warmed up to him pretty quickly after his first two seasons. But man o’man did the warts begin to show in year 3. He set us back. Period. The Shoe Throw was the first indication I had that the program was in trouble and it went downhill from there. Glad he’s gone and glad we hired CBN.
Mullen, THE quarterback whisperer, THE brilliant offensive mind, still isn't employed by any CFB team. There's something there about him not being there.
That was the clear indicator that there was a discipline issue. Compounded the next week when Marco started. No consequences for his actions.
He must've called himself the quarterback whisperer, otherwise it was misapplied to him. Brian Johnson was the QB whisperer as evidenced by how poorly the QBs played after he left and proven by what he's done with the Eagles. Meanwhile, Dan relegated to where he is with, apparently, no interest at all from the league.
Sorry, but my first reaction when I heard about the hire would get me banned if I repeated it here verbatim. TBH, I tried to be a good Gator and give DM a chance, and things did seem to be going well for a while. As it turns out though, my first reaction was quite appropriate within that moment.
I thought we had a 2nd Spurrier. And that feeling was confirmed in the first 2 seasons. Spurrier did well at Duke, but even in his best season they were 7-4. Still- it was Duke! It was a great accomplishment at that school. So I thought Mullen was the same way- he did well at State for State, and he would shine here. He would concentrate on the offense, and recruits would come. Maybe not like they do at UGA, but we would get what we needed. (Like Spurrier did.) I heard ppl ragging on Mullen- but (pre-internet) the hate for Spurrier was much worse. At least in my circle up here in SC. Everyone hated Spurrier. So I shrugged off the negative comments about Mullen. But yes- 2 items that I should have noticed... 1) The rumor on these boards was that Foley didn't want Mullen back. 2) The lukewarm endorsement from Tebow in Tebow's autobiography. In that book Tebow LOVES everyone he's ever met. (It seems.) But his words for Mullen were lukewarm at best. That should have been my red flag, but I drank the Kool-Aid after we won the Peach Bowl.
ESPN article, so maybe all the ESPN articles arent hit pieces as some think. I didnt really read anything new, but at least the article noted the team's youth which is hopeful for the future.
Napier seems like a guy who really REALLY understands the big picture. The most encouraging thing to me, apart from recruiting, is the fact that the biggest contributors on this team seem to be guys recruited by Napier and his staff. Most of those guys are still young. Let them age and develop a bit, supply the team with depth and numbers moving forward and there's a lot of promise there. But I don't think we can hang our hat on any side of the ball right now and that concerns me. We're a team that needs to scratch and claw to manufacture wins against almost everybody in the conference right now. That's not a recipe for championships, but we're also early in the rebuild. We have to let the man cook and see what happens. Certain things just need to continue to get better, but I think even Napier himself would agree with that.
Mullen could've been that guy if he wanted to be. His offensive mind is elite in today's college football. Just not a likable politician and he didn't seem to have the discipline to recruit at the level required under Florida's standards. And that's probably not a fun part of the job, but it's certainly a critical one.
I'd also like to add that this article had perfect timing. We need to remember this on Saturdays because the next few weeks are going to be rough folks. Be ready for pain.
Yea, I disliked the Mullen hire also based on rumors of his personality while at UF and the fact that Foley didnt hire him when Meyer left. It just seemed too easy for the former MSU AD to hire him. Tho some excused it, he was never a great recruiter. Yea he won some games at MSU, had one really good season where he won 10 games, but he never really got over the hump there in 9 seasons and had a losing SEC record. Of course, I root for the team no matter the coach and like most I quickly got on board the bandwagon when he said all the right things upon arrival, won 10 games in year one, then 11 in year 2, but was totally dumbfounded when it all fell apart so quickly.
If you’re not going to personally do it, you better hire some killers to do it for you. The more that comes out, the more it seems Mullen just didn’t grasp this and thought he could just out scheme everyone. Mac seemed to be learning this towards the end of his tenure and I do think he put effort in himself, he just wasn’t great at it. The pressure still broke him though.
As soon as McElwain's recruits weren't there and he had to rely on his own, he was in over his head. His recruiting skill was in keeping with his adeptness in evaluating and hiring assistants. He really wasn't good at much in my opinion. As far as his play calling, does anyone remember the spinner that showed virtually everything Tebow with some Percy thrown in? Even with that, it was RPO so Tebow made the final decision each play.
