Dan Mullen discusses Florida State’s recent success vs. Gators at The Swamp
By Jake Rill
Published:
The last time Florida beat Florida State at The Swamp? It was 2009, and Dan Mullen was in his first year as Mississippi State’s head coach after spending the previous four seasons as the Gators’ offensive coordinator.
So when Mullen was asked about Florida’s home losing streak to Florida State during his Monday press conference, he didn’t know it had reached 10 years.
“I don’t remember what I was doing 10 days ago,” Mullen told the media.
However, Mullen does remember the last time he watched the Gators face the Seminoles in Gainesville. It was on TV only days before he was hired as Florida’s head coach in 2017.
“I was taking some phone calls,” Mullen said. “I knew they lost that one. I was just watching to see what the team looked like. I did have family in town, I was flipping different games.”
But Mullen wasn’t entirely surprised by those recent home results against the Seminoles, considering the success Florida State had earlier this decade.
“They’ve had some really good teams through that time frame,” Mullen said. “I guess you look back and in that time frame, Florida’s been down a little bit and they’ve had a couple good teams. I guess you can see why that happened.”
Although Florida hasn’t defeated Florida State at home since 2009, it owns two road wins over the Seminoles during that span, coming in 2012 and last season.
The Gators have a good chance to win the rivalry series for the second straight year on Saturday, when the two teams will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
