Dan Mullen has a long history with Brian Johnson as the former Utah offensive coordinator recruited the Houston native to replace Alex Smith nearly two decades ago.

Mullen ended up coaching Johnson for just one season, as then-Utah head coach Urban Meyer landed the Florida job and took Mullen with him to run the Gator offense, but Johnson went on to have success playing for the next Utah staff before getting into coaching.

Once Mullen had a program of his own to run at Mississippi State, he hired Johnson to coach quarterbacks in Starkville. During his time under Mullen at Mississippi State, Johnson helped Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald put up big numbers for the Bulldogs before he was hired away by Houston to be the Cougars’ offensive coordinator.

After Mullen left Starkville for Gainesville, he offered Johnson the opportunity to coach QBs for the Gators, and during the offseason, Mullen promoted Johnson to the team’s offensive coordinator role.

With Kyle Trask playing the best football of his career, Johnson’s stock is quickly rising in coaching circles.

So much so that SEC Network analyst Jordan Rodgers suggested on Twitter that Johnson should be considered for the open head coaching position at South Carolina.

That’s an idea that Mullen can get behind as the Florida coach retweeted Rodgers’ suggestion.

While Johnson may not be a name that Gamecock fans would immediately think of, based on his outstanding track record of working with productive college QBs (Prescott, Fitzgerald, Trask, Feleipe Franks, D’Eriq King, Kyle Allen), South Carolina could do a lot worse than Florida’s offensive coordinator.