Gators HC Dan Mullen Talks Crowd Noise, Will Call Liverpool's Jürgen Klopp

At home, the Florida Gators will allow 17,000 fans to watch their games during the 2020 season.

That's far below the energy level that Ben Hill Griffin Stadium usually provides. At a maximum capacity of 88,548, the stadium will only be 20% full, meaning crowd noise will be unlike anything that Florida, and head coach Dan Mullen, have seen in some time.

"I think we’ve had more than 17,000 at all the spring games I’ve been as a head coach," Mullen told the media via Zoom on Friday night. Asked about the last time his home stadium had a crowd of 17,000, Mullen said "probably Eastern Michigan when I was at Bowling Green." A reporter found the attendance for that game listed at 12,974, which Mullen called "a complete lie."

Mullen was frustrated by the lack of a crowd at the Eastern Michigan game: The home-field advantage wasn't really there. Mullen, then a quarterbacks coach, and head coach Urban Meyer's Bowling Green team was 8-2 and had ranked No. 20 in the AP Top 25 two weeks prior, before a two-game skid. Despite a measly crowd, Bowling Green handily defeated EMU, 63-21.

For obvious reasons, a reduced crowd is to be expected and should be understood amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, when it comes to the standard gameday experience that players are used to, things will take some adjusting.

"I think it’s going to be a little awkward," said Mullen. "Almost have like scrimmage feels than game-day feels, so I think that will be an adjustment."

The SEC has yet to clarify what the rules will be regarding artificial, pumped-in crowd noise, something Mullen has wanted more information about for some time in order to prepare the team in practice. His current understanding is that noise will be allowed until the center puts his hand over the ball before the snap, which is standard.

Before Florida kicks off its season on September 26th, against Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi, and the Gators home-opener on October 3rd against South Carolina, Mullen and the team will monitor how the NFL conducts artificial noise and how teams handle the situation. Mullen is a noted Liverpool Football Club fan, saying that he'll be calling team manager Jürgen Klopp for advice.

"It will be interesting with the NFL when they get to play to call some of their guys. We’ll talk; I know we will. We’ll talk to some of their guys about how they felt about it. I got to call Jürgen Klopp and see what he thought. I don’t know if he’s got time for my call, but it didn’t hurt Liverpool winning the [Premier League] title this year."

Liverpool was named Premier League champions on July 26th, in front of a crowd of zero.

One of the biggest issues of limiting fans, Mullen claims, is the students being hung out to dry. Detailed ticket information has yet to be released, but pairing UF's over-35,000 undergraduate enrollment and boosters and long-time season-ticket owners taking up a chunk of the tickets, the students that make up the university will be left with limited options.

“What an awful deal for students right now," said Mullen. "A lot of students come to Florida because I want to be there in The Swamp on a Saturday with the place going crazy. So hopefully this all gets solve and a year from now we get back to The Swamp being The Swamp like the students made it last year.”