Florida’s new coach isn’t running from the massive expectations that come with being the Gator coach. Instead, he’s trying to elevate them.

“There’s a process for us to get the program exactly where we need it to be — which to me is a championship level program,” Mullen said during his Monday media availability.

When asked why he’s made such an effort to get the student body fired up for the spring game, Mullen said he believes the energy of college stadiums starts with the student body each and every Saturday.

“If we pack our stadium, it starts with our student body creating the energy and the excitement. Our fan base, if we have all these people out there, as a player you are going to play harder. That’s a huge part that’s going to lift up the team is the energy,” Mullen said. “You feel the energy from the stadium around you to lift up your level of play. It’s easier to go hard, naturally, you just go faster.”

The Gator coach is also well aware that to win big in college football, the conversation begins and ends with recruiting. To acquire the best talent in the nation, Florida needs to create the best home environment in the nation to help set itself apart from all the other rabid fan bases in the country.

That goal starts this weekend for Florida’s coach.

“Whether it’s this weekend or in the fall, we are going to have some of the best football players in America coming to visit and see what game day is like in the Swamp. Then they are going to leave and they’ll go to other top programs and compare the two,” he continued. “We want to make sure when they walk out of here, whether it’s our spring game or whoever it is we are playing any single game week. you walk into the Swamp, it’s the most electric atmosphere in college football. And these young players say, ‘That’s where I want to be. That’s the environment I want to be in. That’s the team I want to play for.’

As for setting the Florida spring game attendance record, Mullen said he and his program will do everything necessary to break that record — now it’s up to the fans to do there part.

Here’s what Mullen had to say after asking what the spring game attendance record is in Gainesville (someone said 60,000 to Mullen).

“We want a lot more than that,” Mullen commented. ‘We will be there, we will be going hard and giving relentless effort. The question is, who else in Gator Nation will be giving relentless effort on Saturday. That’s there challenge.”

The challenge has been presented Florida fans. Do you plan on accepting the call to action?