Dan Mullen’s first few months in Gainesville couldn’t have been better.

He landed in Gainesville and Gator chomped his way down the tarmac and then reeled in the best transition recruiting class in two decades. He injected much-needed confidence into a humbled fanbase on the rubber chicken circuit this spring, promising them that better days were on the horizon after the program spent most the past decade in the wilderness. With the help of his longtime Mississippi State strength coach Nick Savage, he installed a brutal but rewarding new conditioning program that has players and program insiders raving.

Mullen then oversaw a productive spring, one that ended with some manufactured spring game magic for a huge crowd, as the new staff began the complicated process of rebuilding a broken culture, one that derailed Florida’s 2017 season before it began and one that has suffered two four-win seasons in the past four years after not fielding a losing team in the three decades prior.

Gators fans, of course, expect to compete for and win championships, and the natives are always restless. A sluggish start to 2018-19 recruiting, coupled with months of no games and constant questions about the quarterback position, have rocked the honeymoon boat a bit this summer.

After spending most the decade as a college football afterthought, who could blame Gators fans for being restless?

They know better than most that off-the-field success and saying the right things don’t mean much if it doesn’t correspond with more wins on-the-field this autumn and in the autumns to come.

As Mullen heads to his first SEC Media Days as the Head Ball Coach at his dream job in Gainesville, here are 10 questions his program will need to answer if Florida is to have a successful first season under their new coach and lay a strong foundation for the future.

1. It’s the quarterback, of course, who who will that be?

It starts and ends here.

Statistically, Feleipe Franks was the second-worst quarterback in the Power 5 last year, only edging Texas A&M freshman Kellen Mond in efficiency among those who started more than half of their team’s games. Mond beat Franks in Gainesville as well, adding insult to injury.

At a school with three Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks that should have four (Rex Grossman, you were robbed!), Florida’s had a humiliating list of failures at the position since Tim Tebow’s eligibility expired following the 2009 season.

Florida has used 12 starting quarterbacks since 2009, the most of any SEC team, and only two — Treon Harris for a half-season in 2014 and Will Grier for five games in 2015 — had quarterback efficiency ratings over 140. The SEC average in that span? A modest 144.

Franks will have the chance to win the job again this summer, but program insiders are higher on Kyle Trask, who is very accurate and had the best spring, and true freshman Emory Jones, who is a good fit for Mullen’s zone run game. Jones will almost certainly play for Florida this fall. Summer practice will dictate whether he’s the starter or a nice run-game complement to Trask or Franks.

2. Will the linebackers be better?

The suspensions of Antonio Callaway and Jordan Scarlett received the most scrutiny, but two members of the Credit Card Nine played linebacker, including the highly regarded Ventrell Miller, who was expected to play a significant role as a freshman. The result was a thin group of linebackers that struggled mightily in pass coverage and when tired, to fit the power and counter.

Miller is back, along with James Houston, to add much-needed depth.

But how good are the starters?

David Reese will be on a ton of preseason All-SEC ballots, and you won’t find a better leader on the football team, but he’s limited in pass coverage and isn’t the sideline-to-sideline wrecking ball Jarrad Davis was in the middle.

Vosean Joseph has lived off the hype from a huge goalline hit on Danny Etling for two years but was torched by tight ends pass coverage in the spring game. Jeremiah Moon was a blue-chip recruit with an elite offer list out of Hoover, Ala., but he has one career tackle for loss and spent most his time on the injury list.

The switch to the 3-4 further complicates things. If these linebackers couldn’t produce in Randy Shannon’s vanilla 4-3, how will they deal with Todd Grantham’s complex Steelers 3-4?

3. Will Cece Jefferson break through?

Speaking of the move to the 3-4, Jefferson is the guy it should benefit the most. A lifelong Gators fan, Jefferson opted for one more year in The Swamp despite being a certain NFL Draft pick after a solid junior campaign.

One of three 5-stars on the roster (yes, the number is that low!), Jefferson has seen Florida football at great heights during a 10-win freshman season and the lowest lows last year. He’ll be the face of the program, and this defense will go as he goes.

Schematically, he should benefit greatly from the move to the edge of Grantham’s 3-4, and on talent alone, he’s arguably better than Grantham’s two All-Americans at the position, Montez Sweat of Miss State and Jarvis Jones of Georgia. After a summer cutting fat and adding muscle and speed, Jefferson appears poised to break out. If he does, this defense has a chance to be outstanding.

4. How healed is the culture?

The early rumblings about recruiting in the fanbase are understandable, but also to some extent the product of a decade of mediocrity. A good life sees 75 college football seasons, and only 60 or so that you remember. They go too fast, and at special places like in the SEC, it’s tough to see them wasted.

To win this autumn, the program needs to cut out the noise and buy in completely to what the staff is selling. Focus on the next practice. Focus on the next play.

A year after being one of the youngest rosters in the Power 5, Florida has one of the most experienced, largely because of the toll suspensions and a broken culture last season.

How do the seniors want to be remembered? How quickly has the staff instilled genuine belief, not mere bravado? This stuff is important, and we don’t yet have the answers.

5. Will Chauncey Gardner-Johnson play like a first-round draft pick?

He’s going to be one, at least according to ESPN, FOX and Pro Football Focus. He’s slotted as high as No. 12 in reputable mock drafts, with elite speed, strength and size.

He’ll move to the nickel/Star spot in Grantham’s 3-4, similar to the role departed All-SEC corner Duke Dawson played last season. Gardner-Johnson has all the tools, and after a tough start to the season featuring too many missed tackles, his tackling was night and day better the second half of the season, a testament to his work ethic even as the season crumbled around him.

Can he be consistent for an entire season?

6. The offensive line returns five starters. But can they play better?

Martez Ivey, the second of the roster’s three 5-star players, returns for his senior year and had an edge about him in the spring and during summer workouts, according to one staffer.

Brett Heggie returns after a leg injury cut short a brilliant freshman campaign where he graded out as Florida’s best linemen. The rest of the unit will look to bounce back from a forgettable season where they surrendered 37 sacks, second-worst in the league.

Experience is usually good, but sometimes you just return players who aren’t. Which applies to Florida?

If they play well and adjust to Mullen’s more zone-dominant blocking schemes, the run game should be extremely productive and whoever wins the quarterback job will have a chance to run the offense without constant pressure.

7. What difference do Van Jefferson and Trevon Grimes make?

It’s not every day you get to add two blue-chip receivers, but, if Jefferson and Grimes are cleared as expected, the two transfers will add even more firepower to an already talented group of wide receivers.

Jefferson has excellent hands and is a great route runner, and in collecting 1,000 yards receiving in two seasons at Ole Miss, has been through the SEC battles.

Grimes is familiar with the scheme, coming from Urban Meyer’s Ohio State spread, and offers prototypical NFL size and speed that could make it harder to corral talents like Tyrie Cleveland and Kadarius Toney downfield.

The idea of four wide with Cleveland-Grimes-Toney-Jefferson is intriguing and would be difficult to defend.

8. You have to be sound in the kicking game

Don’t laugh, but Florida’s best two football players in 2017 were the punter, Johnny Townsend, and the place-kicker, Eddy Pineiro. Both were All-SEC, and both are in the NFL, where they’ll likely punt and kick for a long time.

Their replacements are Townsend’s little brother, Tommy, who transferred from Tennessee and was more heavily recruited than his brother. That sounds great, but those are big shoes to fill.

The kicker is Evan McPherson, the No. 1 kicker in the country who was committed to Mullen at Miss State before flipping to the Gators. Mullen made him a priority because Florida, while expecting to improve on offense, won’t be so good it can afford to squander scoring chances. Points build confidence, and in replacing the fan favorite Pineiro, McPherson will face immense pressure to deliver.

9. Beware Colorado State

Florida’s going to wallop Charleston Southern on Sept. 1 and as they have for the past 31 years, they’ll probably beat Kentucky a week later. It’s the third game that’s a trap.

Sandwiched before sure-to-be-emotional road trips to Tennessee and Mississippi State, the Gators get the Rams, a program that has played in five consecutive bowl games and has a winning culture under Georgia alum Mike Bobo.

The Rams only return nine starters from last year’s New Mexico Bowl team, but they pushed Alabama for a half in Tuscaloosa last year and won’t be intimidated. They also feature some elite talent in K.J. Carta-Samuels, a blue-chip quarterback who transferred into Fort Collins from Washington and Preston Williams, a NFL prototype wide receiver who transferred away from Butch Jones tire fire in Knoxville.

When you go 4-7, you can’t sleepwalk against anyone. If Florida doesn’t show up Week 3, they lose, and the season could unravel again.

10. Can they regain recruiting momentum?

Recruiting is the lifeblood of every program, and compared to rivals Georgia and Florida State, the Gators are behind. When Ivey and Jefferson graduate, they will have only one 5-star on the roster (DE Antonneous Clayton), to go with around 30 4-stars.

People can say recruiting rankings don’t matter all they want, but the reality is Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State sign elite classes most every year, and that’s the comprehensive list of teams that have won a College Football Playoff.

Florida is on its fourth head-coach since 2010, a staggering number that is only matched by 8 other schools in the Power 5. Of those eight, six made leaps in Year 2 under the fourth head coach. All those teams won more games than the season before. The one that didn’t improve was Kansas, presumably because, well, it’s Kansas.

The early-signing day makes it hard to rely on kids to “wait and see.” But Florida hasn’t been a national championship contender since 2012, and they haven’t fielded a competent offense, outside of five Will Grier on PEDs games, since 2009.

If that changes, Florida’s recruiting fortunes might change too.