Dan Mullen shouldn’t have to lobby for a New Year’s 6 bowl bid, but after his Gators pummeled rival Florida State 40-17 in a rowdy, madhouse of a sold-out Swamp Saturday night, he did anyway.

“What does the win mean? It means a 10-win regular season, unbeaten in The Swamp, hopefully another great, big time bowl game,” Mullen told ESPN’s Cole Cubelic after the win. “Last week Baylor beat a 6-win team by way less than we beat a 6-win team tonight, and they moved up like five or six spots. Maybe that will happen to us.”

Forget what Baylor did.

Think about what the Gators have done in Year 2 under Dan Mullen.

A 10-win regular season for the first time since 2015.

Mullen and the Gators achieved 10 wins despite losing their starting quarterback in the first game of SEC play, despite getting only one healthy SEC series from their preseason All-American defensive end, Jabari Zuniga, despite losing their most electric perimeter playmaker (Kadarius Toney) for the bulk of SEC play and despite a skittish offensive line that finished last in the SEC in rushing offense.

The Gators also defeated 5 teams that finished bowl eligible (it would have been 6 but for Missouri’s postseason ban), including rival Florida State. The Seminoles came out Saturday night fired up and happy to talk trash, but offered little resistance once toe met leather.

For the second consecutive season, Florida dominated Florida State in every facet.

Florida’s quarterbacks, the unflappable Kyle Trask and mega-talented Emory Jones, threw for 390 yards Saturday night, completing 35 of 48 passes and tossing four touchdowns.

A sterling quartet of senior wide receivers, honored before the game in an stirring, loud Senior Night ceremony, did most the damage, collectively hauling in 17 receptions for 195 yards and all four Florida touchdowns. Toney, who said he felt “fully healthy” for the first time in two months after a collarbone injury, did most the rest, slicing and dicing his way through FSU’s defense for 65 yards, including this human joystick jaunt in the first half.

Heck, the Gators even won the rushing battle, despite surrendering 102 yards to FSU’s marvelous, misused running back, Cam Akers.

Florida’s defense didn’t miss out on the party either. In fact, the unit had a party of its own in Florida State’s backfield.

A swarming, roving, mean band of reptilians who protected their home field all season long, the Gators defense surrendered only 33 points — and 3 touchdowns– in 6 home games this season. They saved their most coldblooded alligator performance for last, mauling and manhandling FSU up front and registering 8 sacks.

Jon Greenard, a sure thing to be named an All-American this month, ate the Seminoles alive, collecting three sacks and four tackles for loss, including a mammoth bodyblow to FSU chance of pace quarterback Jordan Travis, who never had a chance.

Greenard was such a one-man wrecking crew it had to make Gators fans wonder what might have been if the senior defensive end had managed to be healthy for Florida’s game at LSU or had been healthy against archrival Georgia.

How much did Greenard and the Gators defensive front dominate the state of Florida in 2019? Against the state’s other two Power 5 programs, Miami and FSU, the Gators registered 18 sacks — not a typo — and more than 20 tackles for loss.

What kind of statement is that, with Manny Diaz’s lengthy Miami rebuild in its infancy and FSU looking to the future, still without a new head coach? Greenard put it best.

“If you want to play in a fun defensive system, get downhill and get after the quarterback, kids should know where to go,” he said.

Florida’s thorough domination of FSU marked the Gators’ second consecutive 40-point offensive performance in the series and second consecutive three-touchdown-plus margin of victory. There is no doubt what program runs the Sunshine State right now, a remarkable thing for Dan Mullen and the Gators given the reality that just two years ago, Florida was a toxic hellscape culture off the field, a rudderless program at rock bottom.

That wasn’t lost on Mullen Saturday night after the game, as he became quite emotional discussing his senior class.

“They’ll be remembered for buying in, for believing in our vision, believing in restoring the Gator Standard,” Mullen said. “They came up a few points short of playing for a championship. But I went and thanked every one of them personally for believing in me. They are the reason we’ve been able to do this these first two seasons.”

Mullen’s right. Those seniors will leave a winning legacy and a strong foundation, and they’ll be deeply missed.

But they shouldn’t leave before they get the opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl, which should be their destination when the New Year’s 6 bowls are announced in a week.

It’s not in stone. But it shouldn’t even be a debate.

If Georgia loses the SEC Championship game, they’ll gobble up the Sugar Bowl bid as the top-ranked SEC team outside of the playoff. If LSU loses the SEC Championship game, they should be in the playoff too but at that point, all bets are off.

That leaves Florida and Alabama, and without mentioning the Tide by name, Mullen made his case Saturday night.

“Resume wise, I think we have a pretty solid resume to be a top 10 team and in the New Year’s 6.”

They do, and not just the Cotton Bowl. The Orange.

Send Alabama to the Cotton Bowl to annihilate Memphis.

Florida should get a chance to show Hard Rock Stadium and the city of Miami what big boy football looks like.

Should we do quality losses?

We could, I suppose. No one has “better losses” than Florida. The Gators were the most competitive game LSU played over four quarters, and Florida was on of only two teams (Auburn) to lead LSU in the second half this season, which the Gators did at night in Tiger Stadium before falling late. Florida’s other loss was by 7 against Georgia, basically the only game over the last month and a half that Dawgs receiver Lawrence Cager was healthy. Two losses to teams ranked in the CFP top 4. That’s it.

Alabama’s losses are fine, I suppose. A home loss to LSU isn’t the same as losing at night in Death Valley, but LSU is LSU. Auburn is good. Not good enough to beat Florida, but good. No shame there, just advantage Florida.

As for wins, it starts by dominating opponents at home, where Florida went unbeaten for only the third time this decade.

Florida’s average margin of victory in The Swamp was 34 points. That’s dominance, and for perspective since whenever we talk about Alabama’s lack of a quality win we have to talk about dominance, it is the same average margin of home victory as Alabama, except it didn’t come with a home L and zero wins over ranked opponents.

If you need a tiebreaker between which team goes to Miami for the Orange Bowl and which one plays in Jerry’s World (or, the Citrus Bowl, I suppose), how about this simple one? The Auburn team that won the Iron Bowl on Saturday lost to UF by 11 points.

It isn’t always that simple, of course.

Alabama travels well, is the nation’s gold standard program and will sell tickets and guarantee television eyeballs. That might be enough. Or, the committee might just decide Florida shouldn’t go to a NY6 bowl because they played 2 FCS teams this September and that means nothing else on the resume matters. Or maybe resumes only matter if you are competing for a Playoff spot.

But with the state secure and the Swamp restored, an Orange Bowl seems a worthy gift for this special, tough brand of Gators, who should be remembered as program-changers.