It’s been a pretty rough stretch for Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators. While the Georgia Bulldogs have ascended to the top of the SEC heap, Alabama remains Alabama, and SEC schools like Ole Miss, Kentucky, Auburn, and Texas A&M are making moves, the Gators are moving in the wrong direction.
After a solid start to the season and a close matchup with the Crimson Tide, the Gators have lost three of their last four games and find themselves at 4-4 on the year. While a bowl game still feels very doable, that’s not good enough for a program that expects to compete for SEC titles every year.
So what does Dan Mullen planning to do about this in terms of getting recruiting back to where it needs to be for Gator Nation? Don’t ask. Literally. At least not until the season’s over.
The video of this is even worse 😳 https://t.co/Pb5pUllKAd pic.twitter.com/5VvVrGIjM2
— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) November 1, 2021
“We’re in the season now,” Mullen said at his Monday presser. “We’ll do recruiting after the season – when it gets to recruiting time we can talk about recruiting.”
That comment, albeit taken slightly out of context, did not go over very well on social media afterward.
Dan Mullen, like me, preferred the old NCAA Football video game when recruiting was only an off-season part of dynasty mode. https://t.co/EtwSccz7jN
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) November 1, 2021
Nick Saban and Kirby Smart think about recruiting every single day. Seriously.
Dan Mullen evidently doesn't want to be bothered with it during the season. https://t.co/8j5qcahSdM
— John Talty (@JTalty) November 1, 2021
Y’all just now figuring out Dan Mullen has no idea what he’s doing with regards to recruiting???
It took some asinine comment for you to come to that realization?
— Brooks Austin (@BrooksAustinBA) November 1, 2021
Also: can someone tell Dan Mullen his season is over. This is literally the time to talk about recruiting the most if you're the head coach at Florida.
— Ari Wasserman (@AriWasserman) November 1, 2021
Dan Mullen has a reminder set on his phone for Dec. 14 that just says “do recruiting” https://t.co/AOUGSevVWr
— Joey Jones (@JJonesinGTown) November 1, 2021
Mullen was apparently so disturbed by the ability of reporters to ask him about recruiting that Florida canceled media appearances beyond his required one for the rest of the week.
And the #Gators just canceled all remaining media availability this week outside of Dan Mullen on the SEC teleconference…
— Thomas Goldkamp (@ThomasGoldkamp) November 1, 2021
Context or not, it’s a really bad look for Mullen, who appears to be digging his own grave in Gainesville with every loss and every bad comment, especially as Florida’s SEC rivals appear to be lapping the Gators.
