Florida AD Scott Stricklin addresses Dan Mullen’s ‘pack The Swamp’ comments
By Andrew Olson
Published:
After discussing the crowd at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field on Saturday, UF coach Dan Mullen pointed to Florida’s governor lifting attendance restrictions and called for a packed Swamp against LSU.
Mullen’s comments were widely criticized when news broke that the Gators were dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak in the program. Mullen apologized for the comments during his appearance on Wednesday’s weekly SEC media teleconference.
Mullen’s boss, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, was asked by the head coach’s comments during a Zoom press conference to discuss the postponement of the UF-LSU football game. Stricklin suggested that Mullen will stick to Xs and Os instead of the attendance policy and public health matters.
“I think based on his comments today that, you know, (Mullen) respects the importance of listening to the medical professionals,” Stricklin said in his video press conference. “Coaches sometimes say things that are outside their area of expertise. And, you know, they’re really good at what they do. Dan is really good at calling plays.
“I’ll share a story with you I mentioned, [chief of UF’s Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine department] Dr. Mike Lauzardo, earlier I had a conversation with him yesterday and he said, ‘Hey, since Coach Mullen is now getting into public health policy, I want to know can I call some plays.’ So, I told him I’d make a deal going forward, Dan will focus on calling plays and we’ll let Dr. Lauzardo focus on the public health policy.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
