There’s no denying the wonders Dan Mullen has worked in his first three seasons in Gainesville. He inherited a squad that went 4-7 in 2017 and hadn’t seen competent offensive play in nearly a decade. In the time since he arrived, the team has won two New Year’s Six Bowls, and Mullen developed a record-setting quarterback in Kyle Trask.
But the Gators are still far from the pinnacle. The program hasn’t made it to the College Football Playoff since the system was instituted in 2014, and the team faces what will be a crucial year for Mullen in 2021.
Still, UF paid Mullen like a top-five coach with his contract extension. Is he living up to that? Well, according to these coaching rankings from Sporting News, not quite, but he’s still among the nation’s top coaches.
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Mullen ranks eighth, right behind Georgia‘s Kirby Smart (No. 7). He also ranks behind two other SEC coaches: No. 5 Jimbo Fisher and No. 1 Nick Saban. Here’s the rundown for Mullen.
Mullen holds the No. 8 spot for the second straight season, which is proof that breaking through for an SEC East championship is not enough among the top-10 coaches. Mullen has led the Gators to three straight New Year’s Day Six appearances and established a heated rivalry with Georgia, but both schools remain a step behind Alabama. Such is life in the SEC.
Keeping up with the Alabamas of the world is no easy task, but to do so you need to recruit at an elite level. That’s an area Mullen still lags behind in, as his best classes (2019 and 2020) finished just ninth in the country.
Seeing Mullen behind Smart won’t be something Gators fans like to see, but considering the latter has taken the Bulldogs to a national championship game, it’s understandable. Mullen scored his first win over UGA last year, an indication the balance of power in the SEC East could be shifting.
But for that to continue, Florida will need to take down a Georgia team that is once again getting a lot of offseason hype. Though 2021 will be a bit of a rebuilding year, Mullen can’t afford a major dropoff if he wants to remain in the top 10 of this list and potentially move up.
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