New Florida football coach Dan Mullen is in football paradise

ATLANTA – Dan Mullen, it's time to set up or shut up as Florida's newest football coach.

"I know it's a high-pressure job, but I like it," Mullen said Tuesday, July 17. Media Days at the College Football Hall of Fame. "I like expectations."

You are no longer coaching the state of Mississippi.

"My family and I gave everything we had in the state of Mississippi for nine years," said Mullen. which has a limited number of eligible academic prospects in the state, a low-end budget and virtually no championship tradition (a single SEC title won in 1941).

Subsequently, a record eight-year bowl tour series is

State is where the last eight coaches before Mullen, dating back to the mid-1950s, ended their stint in Starkville. being dismissed, resigning or withdrawn.

Not since Darrell Royal in 1955 has a state of Mississippi The head coach left Starkville because he had a decent record (12-8 in two years) that drew another school ( Washington) to hire him.

Nobody ever wants to become the most successful coach of Mississippi history. This usually means that they have not found an improved escape route.

Mullen said that he had the opportunity "to go somewhere else" wondering if there was life outside Starkville, the most beautiful village in the Plains. it's wrong. Auburn is called the most beautiful village in the Plains.

I do not know what you call Starkville, the only place in the country where you do not need a permit to carry a concealed cow bell.

Mullen vacancy coaching never pined for Florida. It was there that he was offensive and quarterback coordinator under head coach Urban Meyer for four glorious years when Florida won the national championships in 2006 and 2008.

For Mullen, it's the paradise of football

a national title and six leagues from the SEC from 1990 to 2001 with Steve Spurrier at the helm. Then there was Meyer's six-year run that ended with his resignation after the 2010 season due to health issues and an endless series of arrests.

It's at the epicenter of the most fertile state America

"If you put a point in Gainesville, Florida, and you drive within a five-hour radius, there will be a lot of great football players who can come, "said Mullen

. constant expectations of national championships in all sports. In the last 10 years, Florida has 18 national championships in seven sports. The Gators have won at least one national title for nine consecutive years.

During Mullen's time in the state of Mississippi, the Gators hired and fired major football coaches Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain. Florida pbaded Mullen after the Muschamp dismissal in 2014 because Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and other athletic department administrators did not simply like him personally.

Mullen is not a strong recruiter. He is less sincere when he does something like Tuesday. He was wearing the latest freebie from his school's shoe company at SEC Media Days, with the label still fluttering on the side of the shoe.

For a teenager, it's cool. Mullen was not the first choice of Florida

Scott Stricklin, sports director of the Gators, originally from the state of Mississippi in November 2016 as a successor to Foley, first attempted to hire Chip Kelly. to replace McElwain, who was fired because he accomplished the impossible.

In a program that has six of the 10 most memorable seasons in the history of the SEC and in a state so full of talent that you can use a moped -10, Florida was 13 in the SEC last year to score (22.1 points per game) and the total attack (335.9 yards per game).

Kelly chose to fill the vacant UCLA position, so Stricklin made the call to Mullen, who would have crawled up to Gainesville

"It's a dream job for me", said Mullen. Even Megan (Mullen's wife) said, when we got that phone call, I had a lot of it once, but this one was different and she just looked at my face, and we knew at that time "

Stricklin, who has witnessed most of these matches as a state sports director and who enjoyed Mullen, had to overcome obstacles. richer SEC elite schools rarely collide, put almost any Mullen into perspective.

Stricklin acknowledged Florida fans, spoiled by Spurrier and Meyer juggernauts, thirsty for offense He understood that Mullen is "The Quarterback Whisperer", the guy who brought up Louis Presley from Dak Prescott (whom former LSU coach The Miles tried to recruit as a tight end) in a gigantic flight from the fourth round NFL of the Dallas Cowboys

.Many times already since he's got the job in Florida, Mullen publicly announced that "we will win a national championship again."

Why?

Because he knows that he has all the required elements. Maybe not this year or the next, but it helps that his players are already with him.

"The atmosphere and the energy are" there is a new sheriff in town, "said Florida defensive lineman CeCe Jefferson." You can say that everyone buys. we are functioning, I see guys doing things that I would not have done in the day. "

Then there are the basic ingredients of any national championship program: – An extremely supportive administration, a huge budget , a national championship tradition and the best place to recruit on the planet.

And it's an extremely supportive administration, a huge budget, a national championship tradition and the best place to recruit on the planet. [19659002] "Walking in the door (to Florida)," said Mullen, "it's the pressure I wanted."

Mullen speaks the conversation, so now he must walk the march.

Provided that it does not travel over the e his shoe label.