Yahoo! Sports insider says Florida will likely hire 1 of these 3 coaches
By Kevin Duffey
Published:
Florida AD Scott Stricklin said the Gators search for their next head coach begins Monday morning.
Many coaches have been discussed as major candidates, but two seem to be mentioned the most: UCF’s Scott Frost and Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen.
Yahoo! Sports insider Pete Thamel penned a column saying that Florida will likely hire one of three candidates: Frost, Mullen or the unemployed Chip Kelly.
Florida wouldn’t go wrong with either of the three, although Frost and Kelly would likely be preferred over Mullen by the majority of the fan base. There is an SEC rule that would make Florida go the extra mile in hiring Kelly, but if he’s the guy, then you go that extra mile.
No doubt that Mullen would have Florida competing for championships year in and year out, but the program actually may have more upside under the younger Frost. But he’s obviously the bigger risk of the two. So, it’s an interesting decision and direction for Stricklin.
There have been rumors about Mullen’s and Stricklin’s relationship, and he was asked about that Sunday night during his press conference.
“I want to be really careful, because I want to be respectful of their situation,” Stricklin said. “They’ve got a good season going. I enjoyed working with Dan and I think he would probably say the same. Dan can be direct and I can be direct and sometimes we had direct conversations, like you would anybody that you work with closely. He’s done a really nice job there, and as an alum of that school, I’m proud of the job he’s done at my alma mater.”
Playing winning football can overcome a lot of potential relationship obstacles.
Stricklin mentioned in his press conference that he wanted to make Florida football fun again, and he understands the rich tradition of offensive-minded coaches like the three mentioned above.
A graduate of the University of Florida and founder of Saturday Down South, Kevin is a college football enthusiast.
