WOW…say it isn’t so!
UF’s Dan Mullen heavily involved in Gators’ $85 million football facility on track to open in spring ’22
EDGAR THOMPSON
GAINESVILLE
June 8 at 6:28 PM ET
Coach Dan Mullen’s vision for Florida’s burgeoning football facility did not include waterfalls, bowling alleys or a focus on the bells and whistles that have generated buzz and headlines for other schools.
Mullen regarded the $85-million project with an eye-eagled efficiency, putting functionality at the forefront of the 142,000-square foot Heavener Football Training Center.
Rather than leave all the floor planning and design nuances to the architects, one of college football’s keenest offensive minds put his energies into helping develop the best blueprint for the Gators.
Channeling his inner Frank Lloyd Wright, Mullen said he gleaned ideas by visiting other schools and even corporate headquarters of successful businesses.
“As a football coach, Dan Mullen is a tremendous facility planner,” UF athletic director Scott Stricklin quipped Tuesday.
Tuesday’s “topping out” ceremony was a celebrated step toward the facility’s scheduled completion in the spring of 2022. The final structural beam was autographed by Mullen and others on hand before being placed by a crane above the building’s eventual entrance.
Mullen’s wheels had been turning for years leading up to the moment.
A dozen seasons as a head coach in the SEC, including the past three in Gainesville, have equipped the 49-year-old coach with plenty of ideas and insights about how to maximize the massive building attached to the south end of the indoor practice facility and situated where baseball’s McKethan Stadium used to be.
“All our years of thinking about what we do on a daily basis for the football players within our program, how do we maximize all of that?” Mullen said. “Not just with having an unbelievable facility that’s state of the art, but is extremely efficient and is going to help guys develop.
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An architect, for example, might not fully consider how to fit 100 supersized 18- to 22-year-olds into a meeting room or make a hallway able to accommodate a trio of 300-pound-plus offensive linemen walking side by side.
“Our guys are probably not normal human beings,” Mullen said. “So when you design a hallway or you design a door or you put a chair in … and (the architects) are like, ‘Oh.’ I say is max capacity like 450 pounds and they’re like, ‘Excuse me?’
“We have big guys here.”
“Mullen said he summoned 6-foot-6, 354-pound Stewart Reese, 6-foot-5, 346-pound Ethan White and 6-foot-5, 432-pound Desmond Watson to serve as models.
This heavy-handed approach by Mullen steered plenty of other decisions in a different direction.
The team meeting room originally designed to capture Gainesville’s natural lighting has been moved to the building interior, where the room will be used mostly in the dark. Mullen’s office now sits in the far southwest corner of the facility where he can bask in the Florida sunshine while viewing the practice fields.
The meeting room now will have multiple exits, too, rather than a single door. This will allow players to clear out quickly, get to work and maximize the 20-hour week mandated by the NCAA. The indoor practice facility eventually will have a door to a 13,000-square foot weight room.
“When we met with a lot of the architects for the design of the building, they’re viewing things in an aesthetic way,” Mullen explained. “Our decision of coming in, a flow of people. We need to get from here to here and this is the fastest way. When we walk out of the meeting, how do we get people from the meeting, to the locker room, to the field in an efficient manner as possible. When they leave the field, these are the things that they need to do: boom, boom, boom.
“How do we create and move that?
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Despite Mullen’s input and involvement, HOK, the largest U.S.-based architecture-engineering firm, and Gainesville-based Parrish McCall Constructors Inc., have done the heavy lifting to shepherd along the project. The COVID-19 pandemic compounded their challenge.
The football complex originally was scheduled for completion following the 2021 season, but has since been pushed into the spring of 2022.
Yet, much has changed since the project originally was proposed as the centerpiece the University Athletic Association’s master plan announced in the fall of 2016, just weeks before former athletic director Jeremy Foley retired.
That $60 million stand-alone was proposed as a 135,920-square foot facility north of the track stadium and west of the football practice fields, without interfering with McKethan Stadium. Set for completion during the summer of 2019, the plans were doable, but not ideal.
Stricklin recalled Tuesday executive athletic director Chip Howard came to his boss’s office one day to suggest razing the baseball stadium and moving it across campus to make room for the football facility.
“I looked at him like he had three heads,” Stricklin said.
Stricklin quickly warmed to the idea.
The change in plans paved the way for UF baseball’s new state-of-the art, $65 million Florida Ballpark, sitting a little more than a mile south of McKethan’s location.
Mullen said the Heavener Football Training Center will be worth the wait.
“I’m not the most patient person in the world,” Mullen joked. “But when I first got here and Scott and I talked about a facility over there in another location. All our discussion was not how fast we can do it, but can we do it right.
“So, everything has been to make sure we do it the right way — to make it the premier facility in the country.
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Mullen is quick to note the football program plans to share the wealth with other athletes on a campus boasting one of the nation’s top overall athletic programs.
A 30,000-square foot outdoor amenity area will feature a basketball court, a 3,000-square football leisure pool and 3,500-square foot lawn. The training complex also will feature a barber shop, virtual reality gaming centers and golf simulators.
While some of these touches could be viewed as garish, Mullen said the setup should foster a sense of community among athletes and have a positive influence of his program.
“The whole wow factor for us, one of the big ones, was to design that for all sports to create great student- athlete interaction, so that our players can be around Olympians and world record-holders and national champions,” Mullen said. “They can all interact and grow and learn from each other.
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Most of the facility will be set aside for Mullen’s Gators, the reigning SEC East champions. He’s eager to see how the training complex shapes his program’s future.
“This is going to be awesome,” Mullen said. “I can’t wait to get in here. They’ll be no school in the country that will be able to compete with what we have in football.”
