The Florida Gators are conducting a national coaching search after firing head coach Billy Napier on Sunday. The Gators are 3-4 in their bye in Week 9 before they’re set to play No. 5 Georgia on Nov. 1.
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The Florida opening is expected to be one of the most prestigious jobs in the college football carousel this year. The SEC program has invested in NIL and in renovating Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
However, former Florida head coach Dan Mullen has a cautionary tale for any prospective coach set to interview with the Gators. Mullen told Dan Wolken of Yahoo Sports that the Gators were reluctant to give him the resources he felt the program needed to win, and he has a hunch that might have been the same issue for Napier.
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“I think we’re six months apart, we’ve won at very high levels, won where it’s hard to win, won where you should win,” Mullen said of his time in Gainesville. “Then all of a sudden it doesn’t look right and, yeah, quick trigger and you’re gone. But I also look at — and maybe I don’t know the specifics of (Napier’s) situation — whatever that’s going to cost them, are they going to give the next guy a lot more than they gave him, as far as resources?
“Me, right? I mean, like, everything was, ‘No.’ And then everything I asked for, they said, ‘Here you go’ to the next person. So what’s the plan to make it better? Not that than what? They doubled the salary pool (for Napier) to hire coaches and staff members. I was always told no. Everything was no.”
Mullen went 69-46 at Mississippi State before he took over the coaching job at Florida in 2018. He went 34-15 overall and 21-14 in SEC play with the Gators before the program fired him after going 5-6 in 2021.
When talking about why he took the head coaching job at UNLV, Mullen again suggested that he was asked to do the dirty work at Florida, having to build everything from “scratch.”
“I wanted a place where I didn’t have to start from scratch,” Mullen said of why he chose UNLV. “I mean, I had nothing like this at Florida. I built one of these at Florida, right? I had to. I got there, raised every penny, and built the whole facility. There is nothing like this there. And so, like, I don’t want to go somewhere where I just start from scratch.”
The change of scenery has been good for Mullen, who is off to a hot start with the Rebels, going 6-1 before the bye in Week 9.
The Gators are not in good shape and need the help of an elite head coach to return the program to prominence.
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