Thursday’s Thoughts: Mullen Must Finish 4-0

It was midway through the third quarters Florida was down at home to South Carolina 31-14. Quarterback Feleipe Franks seemed on pace to have the second awful game in a row.

Then, you heard the boos. The mostly-filled Ben Hill Griffin Stadium echoed with boos directed at the redshirt sophomore quarterback. Coach Dan Mullen’s first season as Florida’s head man was in dangerous territory.

Something had to happen, and fast. Then, a Lamical Perine, Kadarius Toney and Franks touchdown later, Florida had pulled off the miraculous comeback to win 35-31. A throttling of Idaho, Florida State and Michigan later, confidence in Mullen had never been higher.

And nine games into this season, confidence in Mullen is still high. His seat out of all the second-year coaches is by far the coolest. But, how he finishes this year is the most important story of his early career as head man at UF, and here’s why.

The Georgia game in Jacksonville was the first time that I, and many others that follow the Gators felt that Mullen genuinely didn’t call a great game. And that’s not some huge slight, Nick Saban has called bad games before.

But, this year does not allow for three losses and a New Year’s Six birth. And since UF made the Peach Bowl last year, a bowl below an NY6 would feel like a downgrade, and it would be.

So, with three extremely winnable games to finish the regular season, the orange and blue have to come out victorious in all three for the real critics to stay quiet.

Truthfully, UF has no business losing to any of its remaining teams: Vanderbilt, Missouri and FSU. And that makes them all that much more important. No realistic person is heavily criticizing Mullen after one tough loss to a ridiculously talent UGA squad.

But, a loss on the road to Missouri? God forbid a loss to the Seminoles? Obviously, I don’t foresee losses in those games happening, I’m just arguing that because they’re should-win games, they’re also must-win games.

And lastly, UF has to win its bowl game. If for nothing more than recruiting, the taste left in the mouths of fans, recruits, players and coaches alike has to be a flavorful one. It has to make the national spotlight favorable on the program.

If Florida lost one of those, the narrative could shift to Mullen’s struggles on the recruiting trail, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham’s inability to get off the field on third down, the lack of running game this late into the season, go any direction you want.

If the Gators win out, the narrative remains that Mullen is vastly outplaying his roster and it’s just a matter of a few big-time recruits to make the Gators elite again.

Gator fans, if I told you after last season, your team will go 11-2 this season instead of 10-3, still make an NY6 Bowl and win it, would you be content? You should be. Mullen getting better with an exponentially worse offensive line is impressive.

But that only happens with no hiccups for the rest of 2019. No eggs can be laid. Even just one loss changes the narrative on this team dramatically.