Dan Mullen has a spot to fill on his coaching staff. During his National Signing Day press conference, Mullen confirmed that tight ends coach Larry Scott is leaving UF to become the head coach at Howard.

“I’m really happy for Larry,” Mullen said. “The opportunity to be a head coach, you know, he and I met and talked about that, and those opportunities are hard to come by.”

As for replacing Scott, Mullen indicated that it is more likely he brings in another tight ends coach rather than move any current staffer, though he did not completely rule out the possibility.

“I think we might shift certain duties around, but we’ll probably hire a tight ends coach or a guy that’s more of a background with tight ends,” Mullen said. “In the next couple weeks, I might have some stuff that I’m going to shift certain duties around on our staff of what they’re doing besides what their position coach (duties) would be.”

Many members of Mullen’s on-field offensive staff have long held the same position. Offensive line coach John Hevesy has worked alongside Mullen since 2001 when they were both assistants under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green. Wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales was also part of the Bowling Green staff with Meyer, Mullen and Hevesy. Gonzales did not follow Mullen and Hevesy to Mississippi State in 2009, but eventually joined the MSU staff in 2013 after seasons at UF (2009), LSU (2010-11) and Illinois (2012). Running backs coach Greg Knox has coached alongside Mullen since 2009 at MSU. Quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson played under Mullen at Utah and then coached on the Mississippi State staff 2014-16.

Scott joined Mullen’s Florida staff after Ja’Juan Seider left in early 2018 for an opportunity at Penn State.