Dan Mullen gives his pick for Week 4 matchup between Florida, Mississippi State
Dan Mullen called the Thursday night game between South Alabama and Appalachian State on ESPN, which means he’ll have some time on Saturday to closely monitor the Dan Mullen Bowl.
Florida battles Mississippi State on the road in a game pitting 2 of the SEC’s poorest teams against each other. Both are 1-2 to open their respective seasons. Neither has beaten an FBS opponent yet.
Mullen is picking the Gators to emerge with a win and a cover.
— Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) September 20, 2024
At ESPN Bet, Florida is a 6-point road favorite. FPI gives the Gators a 52.8% chance to win the game. Bill Connelly’s SP+ projects a 32-26 win for the Gators.
Florida’s start has been well-documented. The Gators have lost a pair of home games to FBS competition and looked largely non-competitive while doing so. Miami smacked Florida around in the season opener, and Texas A&M had what was at one point a 33-7 lead late in the third quarter.
But Mississippi State hasn’t been much better. The Bulldogs just have more of an excuse given they’re at the start of their rebuild. First-year coach Jeff Lebby engineered a 56-7 win over Eastern Kentucky in his debut. Since, MSU has lost to Arizona State on the road by 7 points and to Toledo at home by 24 points.
The latter was a stunner. Toledo had a 35-3 lead at one point, scoring on 4 of its first 5 possessions. The win gave the MAC its first victory over an SEC school in 32 games and was the largest by a MAC school over an SEC school since 1971.
One of those schools will be sitting .500 after the weekend, though!
Elsewhere, Mullen has Nebraska beating Illinois but failing to cover a 7.5-point spread, he has Clemson beating NC State but failing to cover a 20.5-point spread, he has USC winning and covering as 5.5-point favorites over Michigan, and he has Tennessee cruising past Oklahoma as a 7-point road favorite.
Kickoff in the game between the Gators and Bulldogs is set for noon ET on ESPN.
Not only that, but….
OK
Not fair…was distracted by the beautiful weather and available tee time. Enjoy the view, I don’t mind sharing.
I’d value Gaga’s prediction over Mullen’s as far as anyone who’s irrelevant to Florida football at this time.
They may be the same person… ;)
Dang, I never thought of that! :)
“Floridas start has been well documented.”
Really? I don’t think there is a single fan that doesn’t know Napier is in trouble and there is smoke billowing from the football program. I have watched this with an open mind and have came to one simple conclusion. CBN is no different than CDM in one respect. He will let the ship go down to keep his pride over his philosophy of staying true to his assistant coaches. Grantham ruined CDM and now Toney and Armstrong (Roberts) are taking the Gators into defensive waters we’ve never seen. Meanwhile, Stricklin is sitting in his office waiting on his pink slip to arrive while reading motivational quotes. The Bull Gators are coming and they’re ready to show these two slackers what their lack of courage gets them. A moving van out of Hogtown.
I have a simple request for today’s game plan on defense. Could someone please tell Armstrong (Roberts) to move the safeties up and quit giving our opponent the middle of the hashes freely!! We have given up the middle for 26 straight games. I have a sneaky feeling that other teams OC’s have spotted this and exploited this to their advantage. Just a thought.
Marsh, I think you just said what we all have been holding back on saying, what with Mullen suddenly appearing everywhere and worse yet, opening his yap so much. Ironic in that regard since he shares culpability for the slide, but Mullen’s stubbornness was even pointed out early on in his tenure not only by you but by a few others to include StL and Nash – and ultimately, aside from his implosion, which unfortunately carried over to the attitude of the locker room, THAT was the key to his undoing. Loyalty to subordinates is a fine thing – it provides stability and cohesion, and more. However, when those subordinates are reckless and/or dangerous to the mission the leader is charged with? But to the narcissist, such is usually cloaked by, “Ahhh…but they are MY subordinates and therefore must be a splendid as I!”.
I’ve been trying not to “pile on” too much regarding Napier during his fall, but he sure picked a lousy guy to emulate as he approaches his own gallows.