The Gators' loss to Missouri is the epitome of all the failures of Dan Mullen as the head coach of the Florida team. This is the end of a suitable term, the highs have never been as high as they should be, and the lows are too low to overcome. Conservative game management

Despite being an offensive player, Mullen is very conservative in the coaching range. This is especially true for him on the road.

Mullen chose not to try to score in the game against Alabama before halftime, and ended up in a very close defeat. He played so tightly in Kentucky that the Wildcats only needed an unusual special team to play a role in the game, even though the Gators beat the Wildcats by more than 150 yards, and the turnover rate was even. .

Then in Missouri, because his job status was very suspicious, he became very conservative again. He bet on 4th & Inches. Although there is plenty of evidence that his defense actually appeared in a game for the first time since Jacksonville, in the second half and deep in the Tigers, he took a short shot in the 4th and 2nd games. Although only about 40 to 45 yards away, he participated in overtime.

When you are the head coach of Mississippi State University, this is the kind of game management you do when you want to win a victory that you might not deserve. When you are head coach in Florida and play for Kentucky or Missouri, this is not what you do. These teams should be at a significant athletic disadvantage. Talent and development

According to data from the 247 Sports Team Talent Composite, Florida has the seventh most talented player in the United States. Missouri ranks 46th. I admit that the measurement results of Team Talent Composite are a bit short-circuited because UF has some 5 stars, and part of the reason for their transfer is that they don’t play like 5 stars (Brenton Cox, Justin Shorter) or are buried in the depth map (Lorenzo Lingard, Demarkcus). Bowman).

But even with this in mind, does Florida look more talented than Missouri?

UF has some athletes popping up from the screen in a way that no one on the Mizzou roster would know. The raw materials exist to some extent. However, they have not been well developed and improved in too many places. Offensive line, linebacker and safety are particularly prominent here.

After four years in office, the head coach of Florida should let things roll on the road and start to develop. The Missouri team’s new coach replaced the dismissed coach in the second year, and there should be no way to win. However, Eli Drinkwitz not only won, but he was so confident that he could win, so much so that he arranged a post-match stunt that relied on victory.

UF is about to have the kind of small and undervalued recruitment classes that usually only take place during the transition period in Gainesville. The plan may wish to continue to avoid opening two consecutive transitional-level courses for the second time in five years. Quarterback

Although it is difficult to complete the breakthrough offensively, Emery Jones still went all out. For most of this season, finishing offense has been an issue with Jones's offense.

Mullen never went to Anthony Richardson because, as we learned after the game, the substitute had some kind of unclear injury problem within a week. Of course, no one knows this, because Mullen treats injury news as nuclear code.

In any case, before forcing Mullen to make the changes he should make, there were already two injuries. Duck Prescott succeeded Tyler Russell at Mississippi State University and Felipe Franks in Florida. To succeed Kyle Trask. The luck of the injury this year was the opposite, forcing him to continue playing low-cap players instead of more talented players.

Jones doesn't necessarily have a bad game, nor is he a bad quarterback. However, he is not much higher than average, and Richardson's performance against Louisiana State University shows that he is closer to becoming a complete player behind the center. Ironically, Mullen had a problem with the quarterback's handling of the quarterback on the tombstone of Gainesville's coach, even though he was good at actual player development at that position. Big picture missing

Mullen said after the game that he was worried about making changes that would require one more play per game to win a close match. That sentence didn't catch the point, you can't even see the point from there.

After beating Kentucky 28-27 in 2017, Jim McElwyn led 9-1 during his tenure in Florida. Sounds great, right?

The problem is that this includes defeating FAU in overtime or defeating a less talented Kentucky team because they forgot to screen the receiver on two different occasions in the same game. Mac won the game 3-1, or when UF was at a disadvantage, and won 6-0 in a game that shouldn't have been close. His luck suddenly deteriorated in the games against Texas A&M University and Louisiana State University, and his tenure ended shortly thereafter.

Mullen could have played one or two more games in the two losses to Alabama or Texas A&M last year. But should he compete fiercely with Kentucky in 2019 or 2021? no. Or is there a severe shortage of the LSU team for two consecutive years? Do not. Or Missouri, or Sanford most of this year? No chance.

Mullen made many decisions during his UF tenure. These decisions are tenable at the moment, but they are not tenable in the overall situation. Add them all together, they are not equivalent to a championship-level plan.

Nick Saban once talked about the illusion of choice, which he got from the late Trevor Moawad. It is generally believed that there are many choices in life. In fact, you do.

However, if you want to be the best, you don't actually have many choices. To quote Nicktator, "The truth is, if you want to be a good person, you really don’t have many choices because it costs you. You have to do what you have to do to succeed. Therefore, you have to make choices and decisions to stay Discipline and focus on the processes required to achieve goals."

You may think that you can choose to remain conservative when it is not necessary and try to win with the slightest margin, because any victory is a victory. You might think that you can choose to keep the people you really like in your employees, even if they don't show up during the hiring process or their field department is underperforming. You may think that you can choose to prefer experience and qualifications, even if young players are more promising, but also less stable.

But you actually don't have these options. Not really, if you want to win the championship. There is no choice at all. To be the best requires much more than that. It needs what it needs, and it needs more than Mullen has invested in his work.

Fortunately for Mullen, US$12 million healed many wounds. There may be nothing you can do with the injured self; then committing such a robbery again may make you feel smart.

I want to know who is next in the coaching carousel.

I believe that a 12 million buyout is not good for him. Unless he can prove that he can win an important game, he will never get this deal again. His players reflected his timidity on the court, and when they negotiated his contract, the same timidity would reappear in the sports department.

Excellent article. Hit all the points-especially it has to do with our poor performance when we won with Mullen.

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