Florida AD Scott Stricklin reveals moment he officially offered Dan Mullen head coaching job
Dan Mullen has delivered back-to-back 10-win seasons to Florida in his first two seasons as head coach, the program’s first in a decade as the Gators polished off a win over Florida State, the first of its kind since 2009 in Gainesville.
On Sunday, Athletics Director Scott Stricklin celebrated the win and tweeted details about when he offered Mullen the job.
“I watched the 2017 UF-FSU game from my office while in the midst of a coaching search. During 2nd half I called @CoachDanMullen & offered him @GatorsFB job. Thanks for a great two years, Dan … excited for the future! P.S. It’s more fun watching this game in person.”
This timing is interesting to Florida fans because it was reported last year that Tennessee made contact with Mullen about its opening when AD John Currie led the search. According to the documents, Mullen was the first person to be contacted by Currie, Rocky Talk Top and GoVols247 reported. That was also about the time that Chip Kelly appeared to be Florida’s choice before he elected to take the UCLA job.
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Just before noon on Saturday, Nov. 25, Mullen messaged Currie: “Good luck today. Talked with Peyton last night. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”
According to the messages, Currie told Dowdle to sent Mullen a memorandum of understanding, and the two appeared to have contact scheduled for 11 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 26, but his last message to Mullen on the night of Nov. 25 — “So tomorrow work?” — went unanswered.
Mullen was hired on Florida’s coach that Sunday.
I watched the 2017 UF-FSU game from my office while in the midst of a coaching search. During 2nd half I called @CoachDanMullen & offered him @GatorsFB job. Thanks for a great two years, Dan … excited for the future!
P.S. It’s more fun watching this game in person#GoGators pic.twitter.com/0fA00WObNQ
— Scott Stricklin (@ScottStricklin) December 1, 2019
Life is always about timing. Amazing what the different paths could have been if Stricklin had simply waited another day to make the offer. Gator fans are extremely happy with the path we’re on.
I totally agree. It speaks volumes to hear all the anti-Mullen vitriol from UGaly and CreamsicleUT fans. They know Dan has the Gators coming on strong.
So glad we got Mullen and not Frost or Kelly. Those guys would have gotten rocked in the SEC.
Worst, one is getting rocked in the PAC12 and the other in theBIG10
So if I am to understand this article, Mullen had his choice of Tennessee or Florida and…
You left one choice out…he could have been a man of honor and stayed at Miss St after negotiating such a nice contract extension…
Lol…Miss St thought they could do better without him. He knew he reached his ceiling there.
Man of honor? Come on man you know that’s BS. It works both ways just ask Matt Luke, Barry Odom or Chad Morris about the “honor”of completing their contracts
Perhaps I missed it, did any of them leave right after signing the extension? But hey, y’all have a good coach, we have a good coach, scru those other teams…lol
Leghumper, you know that’s ridiculous when there’s such a drastic difference in recruiting potential and financial resources between MSU and either Tennessee or Florida.
By your logic, Kirby should have stayed at Alabama, or at least shouldn’t have stolen recruits from them in his first year.
Auburn is very happy we stole those recruits, don’t ya know…
In all seriousness, I believe that’s a significant part of Alabama’s current issues.
Imho think the assistant coaching carrousel finally caught up with the old man…he did good replacing Kirby with Pruitt but then…2 more since then
Kirby weathered his first assistant coaching raid pretty well this year I thought in spite of the drop off on the OC side, but if it becomes an annual thing it ain’t going to be pretty. Clemson’s secret has been coaching continuity and look at the results…
Agree completely. A revolving door hits you in the butt sooner or later.
Besides Jake Fromm who did Kirby steal from Bama? They all wanted to play for Bama. Jake was from GA and wanted to go there but Rcht didn’t recruit him.