Grabbing a successful Power 5 coach is like cheating with someone else's wife. If she will leave him for you she will someday leave you for someone else. Mullen was a great offensive coach. He could scheme against anyone but he was a specialist. A specialist who couldn't let go. He micromanaged the offensive and in turn neglected the defense and special teams. Florida needs a CEO type. One who may be a specialist in one way or another but is willing to surrender that for the good of the program. If Florida had hired right to begin with, we wouldn't be on a head coaching search ... we would be looking for a defensive coach or a couple of assistants who can recruit better. Considering Napier trained under both Saban and Dabo, we can only hope he has his priority's straight.

Well said! The stronger the SEC is as a whole the greater will be our grip on the Natty. Fighting against the best week after week builds resilience and THAT is what builds champions.

Never seen GA be a consistent winner year after year. In fairness though give Smart the time. I will say though, I've never seen a fan write so much ... try so hard ... to convince themselves we are witnessing the rise of the GA empire. Win the natty first then win it again and again and again before you move the crown from Saban's head. Until then you're just an upstart and you need to understand this: This IS your year. All of your competition is weakened this year. If you can't pull the trigger this time you probably never will. I wish you luck!

There is no way the Florida power players ... people with the money ... are waiting on 2 stinking games. They already know what they will do. They have had 4 years worth of data to go by and the thought 2 games will make a difference is ludicrous.

Mullen is an excellent offensive coach but has problems recruiting. It also seems like he spends all of his time on the offensive side of the ball failing to understand the other 2 phases can make or break you. When Mullen went over to the defense during the Samford game I imagine it went like this .... "Hey guys! You might not know me but I'm Dan Mullen the head coach. We've never met but I can tell you now we need to pick it up ...." The way I look at it, if Florida had a decent defense how many games would they have won this year? Also, in most schools it's not the head coach who actually does the majority of recruiting. It's the assistants with the head coach showing up to seal the deal with top level recruits. What I'm saying is if Dan spent more time in the other 2 phases of the game, hired a defensive coach who could operate almost independently and got assistants who could recruit, Mullen could stay there and turn this around. Add to that his buddy buddy relationship with Stricklin and I think he gets another year to put it together. Dan isn't going anywhere this year. If he fails to adjust in 2022 he will be gone but for now his seat is hot but safe for 2022.

Reality is out the windows on this game. Ga should easily defeat Florida. The problem? Look at the history. There have been many times the dominate team lost because that's the nature of this game. I expect GA to win but I wouldn't put any money on this game no matter what the team stats are. History has shown us that's a fools bet.

You're not wrong about Bama's rehab for fired coaches. They all come out of that place in a better postilion with elevated knowledge. I would be worried if Mullen got fired. Worried we would spend the next few decades hiring and firing coaches until we get lucky. Mullen IS really great on the offensive side but can't put it altogether team wide. With a competent D coach who can work independently from Mullen Florida would be in a much better place. Better still, hire a head coach who is nothing more than an administrator, keep Mullen as the offensive coordinator and hire a defensive coach. This would create a team that would be hard to beat. While he seems to be a special teams coach at Ga, I wonder if Strickland has considered getting Muschamp back as a defensive coach? Recruiting would go up and the defense would be much MUCH better. Mullen on O and Muschamp on D would make a powerful team.

Agree. There is a difference between playing a backup during the game to get them a few reps but when you have to switch them out just to "get a spark for your offense" you're in trouble. Even so, it wasn't the offense that lost this game. It was the defense ... or the lack thereof. The team does seem to play with more passion when AR15 is in there but the offense is only half, or perhaps a third the team. They won't do it, and he might not agree, but Muschamp would make an excellent D coach for Florida and help recruiting at the same time. Time for Mullen to play for next year and get his ducks in a row.

The Gators will dominate this game ... the stats and the feel ... but The Cats will manage enough big plays to make the scoreboard not look like it. The Gators will win. They are just too solid all around but the Cats will frustrate them and the Gator fans. Expect it to be tight until the 4th.

This guy is dead wrong about Field's. Smart is an excellent recruiter but has yet to develop a single player. They leave as they come. Look at Fromm. He didn't get better as the years rolled by and in fact, in some ways he got worse. He can't or won't try and turn a 3 star into a 5 star and because of this Field's would never have developed like he did at OSU. GA will win big as long as Smart recruits well. If he drops that recruiting ball for a few seasons his inability to coach up players will be exposed. It's the only real issue I have with Smart. In every other way he is an excellent Dawg CEO.

Absolutely. Yes, Florida didn't bring their "A" game but LSU did. It wasn't a few plays that doomed Florida it was a lack of will to win combined with an LSU team that wouldn't be denied. To say Florida lost only because they didn't play well isn't true. Florida lost because they don't play well AND LSU did.

Agreed. Also, as he eluded to, he gets a lot of say so in Gainesville. In the NFL he is basically another employee who instead of dealing with collage kids has to deal with induvial players. And their managers. And their lawyers. And their agents. Besides, while another couple million or so would probably be nice the guy is already swimming in the loot. If all he cared about was money he would have been a stockbroker not a coach. I think he stays for quite a while to enjoy the power he has over the program.

I just don't think Pruitt is a good coach and I look at the 2nd half stats of practically every game to prove it. The reason why Tenn gets worse in the second half is because Pruitt can't adjust to the game. He doesn't look at what worked and what didn't, what the other team is doing and their weakness then adjust for the best chance of success. The best coaches make the adjustments at halftime they need to win but Pruitt doesn't. I don't know what he does. Maybe go cheerleader? Maybe tell his team to fight harder? Rah Rah Rah? I just know there is no way he is making the adjustments he needs to win games in the second half and no amount of talent can make up for this critical part of the game. Of course, I'm not a coach. Hell, I'm not even a good Monday morning QB but I see what I see and Tenn needs a better coach if they ever want to be relevant again. The SEC East needs more than just Ga and Fl. We need Tenn back.

While I agree your coaching staff leaves much to be desired the time off might be a good thing for your team. I doubt you can beat FL. They have too much firepower but if Tenn goes out there and plays their "A" game all healed up, they could make FL work for it. While I'm a Gator/SEC fan (yes I cheer for every SEC team GA included during Bowl Season) I don't want to roll a dispirited Tenn team. I want Tenn's best game. It brings back old memories of some pretty fantastic days when Tenn, FL and GA were always in the SEC East mix. Tenn shouldn't be down this long.

I know just how you feel. Lets hope you do better than McElwain. Those 2 back to back almost killed the program.

SC better fall on their knees and do whatever it takes to get Freeze because if they don't someone else ... like Tenn ... will grab him and pound the SC program for years to come.

LSU lost a lot of players to the NFL and they are hard to replace. Even so, I'm willing bet that most teams would love to have a few bad seasons in between Natty's.

There is no way I could judge Tebow on the difference between college and the NFL when it comes to QB's. Two different animals but what I don't get are the detractors saying when Tebow replaced Orton, it was the kicking game and defense that won those games. The reason I don't get it was because it was the same kicker and defense that Orton had and the only difference was Tebow who took them to winning a playoff game. I never thought Tebow would be a gunslinger but he did have a way of putting a team of his shoulders and plowing through to a win. I would think he should get a "little" credit for doing that at Denver.

I doubt there is any guile going on. Coaches aren't that stupid and trying to get one to fall for it won't work. Not in this league. Also Afan is right. Everyone will start off sloppy and with no warm up games to play they will be that way for at least 2 or 3 games. The schools with the same players from last year, running the same system with the same coordinators will get it together quicker. FL is in a better situation because of this and will come out sort of strong compared to others who have switched everything around. Still, sleep on Ole Miss at your peril.

Davis may prefer Auburn-Kentucky and it;'s a good pick but I think it would be Fl-Ole Miss and Tenn-SC because those games could go to either set of teams. Ole Miss will put up a fight at home and FL could lose the first game of the year. Between Tenn and SC it's anyone's game. The rest of the slate is pretty predictable and I find it hard to believe the fav in those games could lose.

Could he have gone higher with another year? Hard to say but I would have to guess ... and it's just a guess ... that Gardner-Johnson is rethinking this right now. Yes, he got drafted, but a 4th round pick not only loses money but they might be the first to go when the time to cut happens. At least Mullen was honest. Just because you go to Fl, or any other school, doesn't mean you're automagically destined for the the NFL and a Pro-Bowl. I don't know about Gardner-Johnson but I prefer not to have a bunch of sunshine blown up my butt and if I need to improve I want to know about it. No matter how far down my ego deflates.

Leave the conferences as they are. Create an 8 team playoff. It would only add an extra week which can be put in the dead week before the playoff we have now. Let each Power 5 conference champ get in. Then add 3 at large teams which would allow for the Group of 5 to get in as well as teams from the same conference who while they didn't win, are possibly better than anyone else. The current selection committee pick the at large teams. With this setup, the makeup of the conferences wouldn't matter that much and it would be a real playoff not a beauty contest playoff.

"A good team"? Really? At least admit you were overwhelmed from the get go and nothing you could have done, no single play, no amount of wishful thinking would have given you a chance. Half the teams in the SEC could beat you and you know it. Perhaps the next time the CFB playoff committee has to decided who is number 4 in the rankings, they won't default to the Big 12. Their entire conference was humbled.

Sometimes I question the so-called rankings when it comes to recruits but I will say this for Kiffin ... he can coach an offense and if he learned anything from his time with Saban he may become a great SEC coach. Having said that ... I can't wait for the Ole Miss Vs Tenn game. Think there is any "tar and feather Kiffin" resentment still there?

Agreed. That's why they play the games but Tenn really came on at the end of the year. It wasn't just the wins but how they won looking like a much better team than at the start of the season. If they start off next season playing like that they will be a team you overlook at your own peril.

While you're not wrong we all have to make our own luck, good fortune or Karma. Even then, once made, we have to be able to take advantage of it or it's wasted. Still you're right about other schools wanting to be in the position GA is in now. They might not have made the play offs or won the SEC but they had a shot for it while everyone else sat at home and watched.

It seems to me GA is playing "old school" Bama ball from 5 years ago. Times have changed and that won't get it any more. Even Saban changed to a high powered offense. Fromm is a great game manager but not an elite throwing QB which is needed for an explosive offense. Run and and play great D used to be the formula but this is today and GA needs a great innovative offensive coordinator to go along with their talent. One who can build an offensive powerhouse while maintaining their elite D. Smart needs to change with the times or get run over by them.

Saban will teach off of this. Probably too many players going to Bama thinking all they have to do is block a little and catch a ball or two and the automagically go to the playoffs. I expect next years Bama to be hungry and hard driving. Lets see how they play their bowl game. We can tell if the team wants' to win or just show up because they didn't win the whole thing.

Maybe they should bring back the BCS but with 4 teams. Hell, lets spend just one more week and go with 8 teams.

I have to agree, Frank's has that cannon of an arm that makes coaches salivate but he seems to be slow when reading defenses which results in poor decisions. Franks will heal up but I have to wonder if he wouldn't be better playing BB. In a battle between Trask and Jones, I don't see how Frank's can compete.