Florida coach Dan Mullen is well aware of the magnitude of the Georgia game this week in Jacksonville.

“It doesn’t clinch it or seal anything, but it certainly for whoever wins this game, certainly is putting themselves in the driver’s seat to get to Atlanta,” Mullen said at his Tuesday press conference. “You’re two games up on this team and you’re really two games up in the league on everybody else at this point. It makes it a big game, but it’s always been a big game for a long time.”

It has been a winding road this season, but it’s not what he envisioned in the offseason.

“I thought coming to the season we had potential to be a championship team,” Mullen said at a Tuesday press conference. “I thought there were certain things I wanted us to grow on … you never got to see it through spring, you never got to see if we could develop all those things. But to be honest with you to be a championship team this year, it’s going to take something a little bit different than it would in most other years. … I’d love to be a championship team this year, go on and win the East, win an SEC championship, win a national championship.  I hope I never have anybody having to call me saying, ‘OK, when we have to shut down the world, how do we win a championship, when that happens.’ I hope this is just a one-time deal because I think it’s a very unique situation from those.”