Mullen: Talent isn't UF's issue, it's work ethic and buy-in

T REX

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I’m really having a hard time following where you are going with this. Maybe I missed it but I honestly can’t recall very many pulling for DM during the selection process. Many were very vocal with their dislike for him. The initial reaction upon announcement wasn’t any better. It seemed almost universally everyone had another guy in mind. For me it was Frost. I can’t stand Chip Kelly and I was glad he walked away from the table but I’m still disappointed we didn’t get Frost.

So we got Mullen. What is it you want GatorNation to do? Rise up as one and boycott the program? Publicly denounce him at every turn? Ridicule players that sign with him? Make his experience here as miserable as possible so maybe he too walks away early? You keep saying that folks are “rationalizing” his performance. It seems to me more like folks who also didn’t have him as their preferred choice simply recognizing he has done well so far and they are trying to inject some positivity while at least giving him a chance to prove himself here. What choice do they really have?

Or is it as simple as you just want everyone to publicly agree with you that Dan Mullen was no Nick Saban at MSU? That he took over a mediocre program and failed to take them to the pinnacle of college football? That he could not consistently beat the very best teams in college football with that program? I’ll plead to all of that.

But he’s still our coach. I like what he’s doing. I think he’s going to move us forward significantly. Will he become Saban? I don’t know.....but I know nobody else has become Saban either. He’s our coach and I’m supporting him. Why wouldn’t I?

Look...he‘s just another in a very long line who has failed to move Mississippi State to the pinnacle of college football. Eventually they are going to find the guy who will take that recruiting hotbed of talent and turn them into perennial champions.....just not in our lifetime.

I never said anything close to what you are saying? Boycott? LOL. Hyperbole much? No one has said that. And yes, tons of excuses have flowed about his poor record against ranked teams. I thought he did well for a transition class too. There are positives. It's the folks that need to make him appear better than he really was at MSU. Like he did something remarkable there when in fact he was ho-hum at MSU. That's all. I don't think I have said one time on here not to support him. He is our coach for better or worse.

Also, some of the comments about him are literally word for word things that were said about Mac when he was hired. QB guru...took a crappy school and turned them around...etc etc. What's done is done.
 

itsgr82bag8r

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Marine1

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Bottomline isnt it? He is doing well so far and he landed like 4 times the bkuechippers he landed at Cowbell in a transition class. Even a pessimistic donkey can imagine him doing much better next class.

The next two classes and whether or not he can grow as an offensive playcaller will tell the tale. I do hope SOS can enlighten him some, just push him to be less conservative.

One of the points I liked was that he is either just younger or just older than Scott Frost. It is easy to forget that.

However, we shouldnt be pretending he has some spectacular record. He just doesnt. And some of those losses at Cowbell were terrible and they werent in his transition year either.

Absolutely agree to all.
 

Marine1

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I never said anything close to what you are saying? Boycott? LOL. Hyperbole much? No one has said that. And yes, tons of excuses have flowed about his poor record against ranked teams. I thought he did well for a transition class too. There are positives. It's the folks that need to make him appear better than he really was at MSU. Like he did something remarkable there when in fact he was ho-hum at MSU. That's all. I don't think I have said one time on here not to support him. He is our coach for better or worse.

Also, some of the comments about him are literally word for word things that were said about Mac when he was hired. QB guru...took a crappy school and turned them around...etc etc. What's done is done.

I never said you said any of that. I was “asking” you where you were going with all of this? “Asking” you what you wanted from GatorNation.

I just never saw any real strong push for DM from anyone. I’m not seeing anyone that is claiming he has earned the right to be considered an elite coach yet. I see a bunch of folks who would have preferred somebody else but now are put into a position of trying to defend “their coach” (the one they never really wanted) because some just can’t stop reminding us how he didn’t win big at MSU. I think we get it.

I would propose we get through the first series of the O&B game before we meltdown over picking the wrong guy. Seriously, I just think we have to let him coach and see what he produces here. The fvvcking wheels will fall off in record shattering time if our team does not win 10 games this year. He really will not be given any window by the base.
 

BMF

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My biggest problem w/ the Mullen hire is the $6 million salary. He was making $4.5 million at MSU. Did he say to Stricklin, "I'll take the job, but you have to pay me $6 million."? I know we're in the day and age of ridiculous salaries, but I think $5million would have been more than reasonable, it would have been a 12% raise, and he could have seen a bump in pay when he earned it (i.e. producing on the field). Instead, we dumped $6 million in his lap, upped his assistants salaries (since we literally hired almost his entire MSU staff, they all got raises from their previous job)....all for an 8-4 coach.

Other than that, I'm in a wait and see mode. He's done a great job w/ everything so far (I'm not even butt-hurt over Seider like some of you guys). I think he can easily become a 9-10 win coach at UF....I'm just not convinced he can become a championship coach at UF, yet.
 

SCColaGator

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My biggest problem w/ the Mullen hire is the $6 million salary. He was making $4.5 million at MSU. Did he say to Stricklin, "I'll take the job, but you have to pay me $6 million."? I know we're in the day and age of ridiculous salaries, but I think $5million would have been more than reasonable, it would have been a 12% raise, and he could have seen a bump in pay when he earned it (i.e. producing on the field). Instead, we dumped $6 million in his lap, upped his assistants salaries (since we literally hired almost his entire MSU staff, they all got raises from their previous job)....all for an 8-4 coach.

Other than that, I'm in a wait and see mode. He's done a great job w/ everything so far (I'm not even butt-hurt over Seider like some of you guys). I think he can easily become a 9-10 win coach at UF....I'm just not convinced he can become a championship coach at UF, yet.

Money ain’t a thing in cfb anymore. Winning is all that matters. Guarantee Mullen pulls a Natty or shows the promise of winning one no on would care if we paid 20 million. Boosters would sell children to finance that.
 

BMF

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Money ain’t a thing in cfb anymore. Winning is all that matters. Guarantee Mullen pulls a Natty or shows the promise of winning one no on would care if we paid 20 million. Boosters would sell children to finance that.

I agree...but we still overpaid. Especially after paying the buyouts of Butters, Muschamp, Nussmeir, Roper, Nord, Shannon, and a few other dud coaches.
 

Swamp Donkey

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I see you didn’t include anything other than passing yards. This in spite of you KNOWING they ran the RPO exclusively.

But hey, carry on.
Lulz. Search his name (top right in the link) for him or any QB. That is the page is the one that comes up. Its the stats that QBs get graded on.

Personally, I dont GAF about what kind of running back any QB is. The running backs should be the running backs.

Btw, what happened to the "3000 passing yards per year" thing some were pimping anyway? It disappeared again.

I also call it a RPO offense. There is no pass or pass option in 80% of the plays.
 

Swamp Donkey

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Money ain’t a thing in cfb anymore. Winning is all that matters. Guarantee Mullen pulls a Natty or shows the promise of winning one no on would care if we paid 20 million. Boosters would sell children to finance that.
Booaters arent involved. Tv money and merchandise is where the money is. Boosters are peanuts now.
 

GMDGator

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I never said anything close to what you are saying? Boycott? LOL. Hyperbole much? No one has said that. And yes, tons of excuses have flowed about his poor record against ranked teams. I thought he did well for a transition class too. There are positives. It's the folks that need to make him appear better than he really was at MSU. Like he did something remarkable there when in fact he was ho-hum at MSU. That's all. I don't think I have said one time on here not to support him. He is our coach for better or worse.

Also, some of the comments about him are literally word for word things that were said about Mac when he was hired. QB guru...took a crappy school and turned them around...etc etc. What's done is done.
Besides constant pessimism, what do you want to share here? You and others are just looking for the opportunity to say... "I told you so" the minute he shows one chink in his armor. What good does that bring? Do you support the Gators or long to be right? JFC, accept him as our coach, or move on.
 

TheDouglas78

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My biggest problem w/ the Mullen hire is the $6 million salary. He was making $4.5 million at MSU. Did he say to Stricklin, "I'll take the job, but you have to pay me $6 million."? I know we're in the day and age of ridiculous salaries, but I think $5million would have been more than reasonable, it would have been a 12% raise, and he could have seen a bump in pay when he earned it (i.e. producing on the field). Instead, we dumped $6 million in his lap, upped his assistants salaries (since we literally hired almost his entire MSU staff, they all got raises from their previous job)....all for an 8-4 coach.

Other than that, I'm in a wait and see mode. He's done a great job w/ everything so far (I'm not even butt-hurt over Seider like some of you guys). I think he can easily become a 9-10 win coach at UF....I'm just not convinced he can become a championship coach at UF, yet.

BMF this is exactly where I am. We overpaid, and now we will see. I'm not excited about the hire, but I don't hate it either. It does feel like we settled, we swung and missed at least twice then made a panic hire. I like what he has done so far, but I'm not overjoyed by it. Hopefully he can prove he is better than his record, but I don't see the evidence to say he will.
 

soflagator

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My biggest problem w/ the Mullen hire is the $6 million salary. He was making $4.5 million at MSU. Did he say to Stricklin, "I'll take the job, but you have to pay me $6 million."? I know we're in the day and age of ridiculous salaries, but I think $5million would have been more than reasonable, it would have been a 12% raise, and he could have seen a bump in pay when he earned it (i.e. producing on the field). Instead, we dumped $6 million in his lap, upped his assistants salaries (since we literally hired almost his entire MSU staff, they all got raises from their previous job)....all for an 8-4 coach.

Other than that, I'm in a wait and see mode. He's done a great job w/ everything so far (I'm not even butt-hurt over Seider like some of you guys). I think he can easily become a 9-10 win coach at UF....I'm just not convinced he can become a championship coach at UF, yet.

I think we overpaid as well. As to the reasons, I think it can be stated as both a positive and a negative.

To the negative first, I think the publicity of the Kelly courting--partly Stricklin's fault, and partly just the nature of things now--painted UF as the spurned party. It also consumed enough time that our immediate next option(Frost) had to be rushed, which also received public attention. So yeah, Mullen was holding the cards and he and his agent played it well.

To the positive, while all the above is correct, Stricklin did at least have the sense to understand that an extra few million was probably better than the perception of yet another turn down and a panic-stricken drift into "tennessee coaching search" territory. I honestly don't know where we would've gone next at that point, had Mullen said no. But I can imagine, whatever the name, we would've ended up over paying that person as well. Might as well bite the bullet, stop the bleeding, and at least take on someone you think you know.
 

gatormandan

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Mullen is overpaid BUT I am glad we are finally willing to pay for a HC. If Mullen fails we are much closer to paying the proper salary for a top tier coach. There is nothing we can do except sit back and watch how this all unfolds.
 

TheDouglas78

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Mullen is overpaid BUT I am glad we are finally willing to pay for a HC. If Mullen fails we are much closer to paying the proper salary for a top tier coach. There is nothing we can do except sit back and watch how this all unfolds.

If Mullen fails we are all also paying another "overpriced buyout".
 

soflagator

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If Mullen fails we are all also paying another "overpriced buyout".

But I think the difference here is that you at least know Mullen understands how to coach. We're not staring down a 2013 or 2017 type season with someone that we now discover is completely in over their head. If you can win 7-8 games at Msu and in the West, you can win 9-10 here. As I've stated numerous times, he certainly was not my first choice. But I really don't see us having to fire him after just a few years. So in that respect, I think Frost, Norvell or maybe even Kelly may well have carried a greater risk as far as future buyout possibilities.
 

BMF

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But I think the difference here is that you at least know Mullen understands how to coach. We're not staring down a 2013 or 2017 type season with someone that we now discover is completely in over their head. If you can win 7-8 games at Msu and in the West, you can win 9-10 here. As I've stated numerous times, he certainly was not my first choice. But I really don't see us having to fire him after just a few years. So in that respect, I think Frost, Norvell or maybe even Kelly may well have carried a greater risk as far as future buyout possibilities.

Agree. I think Mullen coaches here at least 12 years, at least. I just hope it's not a Mark Richt situation and he can get over the hump. I'm not greedy, I'd like to see us win the SEC East 2 out of every 4-5 years and win at least half of the SECC games we make it to. So, over 12 years if he can get there 4 to 6 times and win 3 SEC titles I think that's reasonable. (Meyer went to the SECC 3 times and won it twice in 6 years).
 

TheDouglas78

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But I think the difference here is that you at least know Mullen understands how to coach. We're not staring down a 2013 or 2017 type season with someone that we now discover is completely in over their head. If you can win 7-8 games at Msu and in the West, you can win 9-10 here. As I've stated numerous times, he certainly was not my first choice. But I really don't see us having to fire him after just a few years. So in that respect, I think Frost, Norvell or maybe even Kelly may well have carried a greater risk as far as future buyout possibilities.

I think Mullen is the most risk adverse out of the group, but I also think he has the lowest ceiling of the group. We know who he is, he is a guy that will get us 7-10 wins a year, get us to the SEC Championship game. Maybe win it... but he isn't a guy you think will give us the ability to be in the conversation for a National Title year in and year out.

Do I think he will fail as much as our last two coaches? No. No where close, he knows how to run an SEC program.

Do I think we will reach the heights we reached under Meyer or Spurrier? Highly unlikely.
 

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