Dan Mullen comments to the press

78

Founding Member
Dazed and Confused
Lifetime Member
Jun 9, 2014
19,745
27,635
Founding Member
Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ...
 

Swamp Donkey

Founding Member
7-14 vs P5 Fire Stricklin First
Lifetime Member
Jun 9, 2014
78,161
109,975
Founding Member
So... zero tolerance except for 5 stars like Jeffrey Simmons.

Ughhhhh
 
Last edited:

BMF

Bad Mother....
Lifetime Member
Sep 8, 2014
25,399
59,221
Dan Mullen speaks out on the recent wave of negative press

Dan Mullen speaks out on the recent wave of negative press

TAMPA, Fla. -- Speaking to the media for the first time following a run of recent negative headlines for his program, coach Dan Mullen was admittedly frank.

The news lately hasn't been great.

"Obviously when you look at the situation that goes on, to me it's really disappointing for us when we have individuals, whether it's a student-athlete or a staff member, make a decision that really negatively affects them but also shines a little bit of a negative on the program," Mullen said. "To me that's really disappointing, because we spend a lot of time on decision-making with our guys."

The Gators, of course, have had several of those of late.

The first came when assistant director of player personnel Otis Yelverton was arrested on April 23 and jailed on a third-degree felony charge of aggravated cyber-stalking after allegedly leaving a voicemail for his ex-girlfriend threatening to "blow up" her car after harassing her with at least 40 calls, texts and Facebook messages.

Yelverton is currently on administrative leave, with Mullen waiting to see the legal process play out before making a decision on his future.

Shortly after that, police reports surfaced of two alleged sexual assault complaints against freshman quarterback Jalon Jones on May 2. Jones had already agreed to leave the program in the wake of that incident, though he had played in the team's spring game a week after the alleged assaults.

Mullen said the team had incomplete information on the incident at the spring game, though they had begun to hear of the matter. Jones was suspended from the team following the spring game.

"I think reports were coming out to us at that point, but within that situation, as reports get to you, we try to turn them over and follow the university protocol that we have and the campus protocol that we have," Mullen said. "Which I think we immediately tried to follow the campus protocol with everything that happened. When we got the details of the situation, we immediately with him suspended him from team activities until we could get all of the information that we needed."

On May 6, defensive back Brian Edwards was arrested and charged with first-demeanor misdemeanor battery after allegedly grabbing his girlfriend by the neck. Mullen said Edwards is not with the team right now but is taking classes still.

But the alleged violence against women is something that is very troubling for Mullen.

It also played at least a minor role in the news on May 9 that top-rated early enrollee Chris Steele was entering the transfer portal. Though homesickness played a major part in the decision to leave Florida, Steele was also upset after requesting to change dorm rooms because he was uncomfortable living with Jones, his roommate.

That change was going to be accommodated in the summer, but Jones' subsequent involvement in the alleged sexual assaults soured the Steele family on his situation at Florida even further and provided him with a chance to potentially secure a waiver to play immediately elsewhere. Steele announced he has transferred to Oregon on Tuesday.

Mullen didn't speak much on the Steele situation, but he made it clear his transfer was about more than just him being upset with the room change request.

"I think with Chris and his situation, we discussed with him and his family a lot of things that went into the decision he was going to make to go back to school on the West coast," Mullen said. "There are a bunch of things that went into that decision. I don't want to go into all of them because they were really a private conversation between us and his family. I think those are tough decisions for family, and I'd rather leave a lot of those things privately."

Regardless, the recent run of bad news has hurt the perception of a team that won 10 games in Mullen's first season.

And rightly so, as some of the missteps certainly haven't been good. But Mullen isn't angry as much as simply disappointed.

"Obviously you reflect on a lot of different things that go on in the program," Mullen said. "And we're always trying to evaluate ourselves to make sure we do things better. I don't know differently, but how we're doing things better.

"In every aspect of the program we're trying to evaluate things and how we do things better. In these situations I look back and we're constantly trying to educate our guys on making good decisions in life, and we're going to continue constantly doing that. That's really important to me and that's a major part of coaching and the development of these young guys; in our program it is. That it's not just football, it's every aspect of life."
 

Musclepug

never go full retard
Lifetime Member
Aug 4, 2018
7,694
26,048
Great quote....

Gators Football (@GatorsFB) tweeted at 8:32 PM on Wed, May 15, 2019:
"I always hope we are a better team at the end of year than we were in the beginning of the year. If we can play with #RelentlessEffort and passion than we can be successful." -- @CoachDanMullen

#GoGators | @FloridaGators
#GatorGathering | @ufalumni

#GatorsTogether Gators Football on Twitter
()
 

SeabeeGator

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
Jan 2, 2018
7,032
10,100
I’m disappointed in Dan. Otis should be gone and the hole his administrative leave has left should be filled. Our recruiting needs a major facelift, starting with shady staff and crappy assistant coaches.
 

Swamp Donkey

Founding Member
7-14 vs P5 Fire Stricklin First
Lifetime Member
Jun 9, 2014
78,161
109,975
Founding Member
Though homesickness played a major part in the decision to leave Florida, ."
:rolleyes4:

JFC @goldkamp? Really?

That spin died the day that Steele went to a school 1000 miles from home.
 
Last edited:

T REX

Founding Member
Well-Known Member
Jun 24, 2014
10,107
7,389
Founding Member
Mullen said the team had incomplete information on the incident at the spring game, though they had begun to hear of the matter. Jones was suspended from the team following the spring game.

"I think reports were coming out to us at that point, but within that situation, as reports get to you, we try to turn them over and follow the university protocol that we have and the campus protocol that we have," Mullen said. "Which I think we immediately tried to follow the campus protocol with everything that happened. When we got the details of the situation, we immediately with him suspended him from team activities until we could get all of the information that we needed."

I really think this is a problem. Steele was begging to get out of there and then you are getting reports that the same kid that your prized recruit is trying to get away from is also in some kind of trouble. Sorry, but this doesn't jive for me. Either you are just clueless to what's going inside your program or you chose to turn your head the other way. Neither one is good. JJ doesn't put on a uniform until you FIND OUT what is going on. The onus is on our staff to get complete information and not let him put on that Gator uni until you get all the facts.

DISAPPOINTED.
 

BMF

Bad Mother....
Lifetime Member
Sep 8, 2014
25,399
59,221
I really think this is a problem. Steele was begging to get out of there and then you are getting reports that the same kid that your prized recruit is trying to get away from is also in some kind of trouble. Sorry, but this doesn't jive for me. Either you are just clueless to what's going inside your program or you chose to turn your head the other way. Neither one is good. JJ doesn't put on a uniform until you FIND OUT what is going on. The onus is on our staff to get complete information and not let him put on that Gator uni until you get all the facts.

DISAPPOINTED.

You're probably right....but this was probably handled a few levels below the head coach - such as an "assistant director of player development" or some sh*t. And that person chose not to bring it to a higher level. It's similar to the military where you try to handle conflicts/problems at the lowest level possible. We don't know what Steele told the assistant director, he could have just said, "I don't like Jalon, he's an a-hole!" and not expound on it. So the assistant director said, "Okay, we'll move you at the end of the semester because there's a ton of paperwork, blah, blah, blah..." Sure, it's not excusable since it escalated, but the way Steele broached it was probably nonchalant "ok man, that's cool I can wait". (I'm just taking a stab here, it could have happened the complete opposite).
 

soflagator

Senior Member
Lifetime Member
Sep 4, 2014
21,140
78,758
:rolleyes4:

JFC @goldkamp? Really?

That spin died the day that Steele went to a school 1000 miles from home.

It's as if you enjoy being on the wrong side of an argument. This has been addressed at length, including quotes from one of our players about distance being a major factor. Mullen himself has publicly stated that there was a desire to get back to the West Coast. If that isn't even remotely true, he gets killed when/if the Steele's ever decide to go on record about his transfer.

I've mentioned Tabor. What about Grimes? He moved and was granted a waiver to be closer to his sick mother.The distance from Fort Lauderdale to Columbus is 1134 miles. From Lauderdale to Gville is 314, or roughly 1/3 the distance. He's still a 5+ hour drive away. But everyone agrees, that it's a lot better than the alternative.

The others thing no one is pointing out is where exactly was Steele supposed to go? He's a 5*, so he's not going to a G5 school. So Usc and Ucla are the most obvious. No 5* defensive player in his right mind would line up to play for Chip Kelly. And few people actually feel like Helton has more than a year still in LA. Not to mention, he rejected them twice which means he clearly wasn't sold on the Trojans. That leaves basically Stanford and Cal, and who knows if he had the grades for either. Oregon is the hot team in the P12 and was the closest of all his finalist(outside of Usc). There were posters on Rivals saying he was Eugene bound the day it was announced he was in the portal. It made the most sense.

If he'd gone with the gamecocks or Sooners(his other finalists) you'd have a very valid point that it had nothing to do with location. As it is, we're getting into semantics with Goldkamps wording, and using the "omg, 1000 miles" argument despite it being debunked repeatedly. Bottom line, he felt way more at home on the West Coast and Oregon checked all the remaining boxes.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.