Florida coach Dan Mullen was a key figure in Gators' national title win over Oklahoma

Florida coach Dan Mullen has beaten Oklahoma before.

Well, Mullen’s quarterback beat the Sooners.

In the 2008-09 Orange Bowl, Mullen was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator — sort of — and his quarterback was Tim Tebow.

Now Mullen has his own Florida team, and his own Florida quarterback, and although there’s no national championship at stake when the 7th-ranked Gators play No. 6 OU on Dec. 30 in the Cotton Bowl, Mullen’s memories of that game 12 years ago remain vivid.

“I know it was a crazy time for me,” Mullen said Sunday, “because … I was the head coach at Mississippi State and then came back to coach the game and call the game as the coordinator for Florida.”

On Dec. 8, 2008, the final BCS standings were revealed, and OU was No. 1 while Florida was No. 2.

Mullen, 48, took the Mississippi State job on Dec. 11, then stayed on staff in Gainesville to help Meyer with the game plan. The game itself wasn’t played until Jan. 8, 2009, so Mullen was moonlighting for a full month.

“I do know this,” Mullen said, “I don’t know if I’ve been more exhausted. Maybe this year is more exhausting with everything we’ve been through this year.”

Mullen’s recollections of that warm night in South Florida begin, of course, with an epic quarterback duel. On Meyer’s side, Tebow, the 2007 Heisman winner. On Bob Stoops’ side, Sam Bradford, the 2008 Heisman winner.

“I do remember that game being a lot of a big-time game full of talent,” Mullen said. “You have two Heisman Trophy winners playing each other at quarterback. I think guys that are still scattered around the NFL, all over the NFL with great players.”

Bradford’s bunch set an all-time NCAA record with 702 points and became the first college team in history to score 60 or more points in five consecutive games.

“It was one of those games that, I’m sure everybody came in thinking they’d averaged 60 points a game,” Mullen said, “but it came down to the very end, the ability to play defense — and the Florida defense came up pretty big.”

The game was tied at 14-14 in the fourth quarter, but Florida pulled away to a 24-14 lead thanks to two goal-line stands. On one, Chris Brown was stuffed on four straight runs up the middle. On the other, Bradford’s slant pass deflected off Manny Johnson’s hands and was intercepted.

“I remember the big goal line stand and the turnover at the goal line to stop them,” Mullen said. “And then, Percy Harvin coming off an injury, putting up — I think he only could play for about three quarters but put up huge numbers (9 carries, 121 yards and a touchdown, plus 49 yards receiving) for those first three quarters.”

Florida got a field goal to extend the lead to 17-14, then Bradford was intercepted again after a big hit dislodged the ball from Juaquin Iglesias.

It became Tebow Time after that.

“Tim Tebow carried the team home in the fourth quarter,” Mullen said, “did a little jump pass (to David Nelson with 3:07 to play) to win the game and to kind of put the game away at the end. So, it was pretty special.

“For me it was a special moment. I got to run down to the field, hold the trophy for about 30 seconds, get a picture with my wife with the trophy and get on the plane and head to Starkville, Mississippi.”

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