The last time the Florida Gators competed for a national championship, Urban Meyer was the head coach. Meyer thinks his former team has the right coach (his own former offensive coordinator) to play for championships again.

Meyer is back in the Sunshine State to take part in the Tim Tebow Foundation Celebrity Gala and Golf Classic. Friday night in Ponte Vedra, Florida he was asked by a Florida reporter how long it will take Dan Mullen to get UF in the playoff.

“Oh, Dan’s the right guy. I think this year,” Meyer said.

He instantly added qualifiers to that prediction to point out he’s not sure whether Florida has the talent to get there in 2019.

“I don’t know their –I’m going to talk to him a little bit tonight – but I don’t know exactly their talent level,” Meyer continued. “But he’s the right guy and if they have the talent level, he’ll get them there.”

In 2019, Mullen signed a recruiting ranked No. 9 nationally, but No. 5 in the SEC on the 247Sports Composite with annual opponents Georgia and LSU ahead of UF. From those recruiting rankings, 247Sports also publishes a yearly “Team Talent Composite.”

In 2018, Mullen’s first season, the Gators were No. 12 on the talent composite. Mullen’s squad notably beat more talented squads No. 5 Florida State and No. 7 LSU, but also fell to No. 3 Georgia as well as No. 32 Kentucky and No. 42 Missouri.

Meyer and Mullen know all about Year 2 magic as Florida won the BCS championship in Meyer’s second season at UF (2006) when Mullen was the team’s offensive coordinator. Gator Nation is hoping to see it happen again.