Dan Mullen clarifies previous statements on recruiting, media blackout

Dan Mullen caused a stir earlier this week, making odd comments regarding Florida’s recruiting.

“We’re in the season now,” Mullen said, when asked about Florida’s recruiting process. “We’ll do recruiting after the season — when it gets to recruiting time we can talk about recruiting.”

Afterwards, Mullen’s press conference was abruptly ended. Then, no players were made available for comment, and many media availabilities were cancelled.

The blowback regarding his comments was enormous, and many were skeptical whether Mullen’s job was secure. With questions surrounding the Gators coach, he made his first comments since on today’s SEC coaches teleconference.

“First, I’d like to touch on something for our Gator Nation, all our great fans. About something that was taken out of context in Monday’s press conference,” stated Mullen. “As it pertains to recruiting, our staff recruits non-stop, we grind at recruiting all day every day. We’re always recruiting and working the best to get great players that fit the Gators standard and bring them here to our program.

“And as I said on Monday, we’re just not going to get into the specifics of everything we do in recruiting and how we do all of that until after the season.”

Mullen emphatically let it be known that there’s nothing to worry about recruiting wise.

Mullen: Some comments ‘taken way out of context’

Furthermore, Mullen touched on the concern regarding the unavailability of his players to the media.

“There were some people that were concerned about our player availability. On Monday morning, we had an 8 o’clock team meeting,” said Mullen. “We had a great meeting with the team. The energy and excitement of our players going into this final third of the season, and (with) the focus of which we have to take and the approach we have to take in the final third of the season, I felt it was the best for our players was to make sure our focus is completely on the work that we have to do over the final third of the season.

“Because of that, I’ve made myself available for media every single day this week – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – because we didn’t have the players available. I just wanted to clarify some of those things that apparently have been taken way out of context the last couple of days.”

Mullen and the Florida Gators haven’t reached their lofty expectations in 2021. Still, the coach remains focused on finishing strong — hoping to lead the Gators to a finish that inspires hope.