Dan Mullen identifies how Florida measures progress during tough season

Dan Mullen can’t measure Florida’s progress by wins and losses — if he were to do that, the only conclusion would be that the Gators are taking enormous steps backwards.

Mullen, now in his fourth season at the helm of the Gators, is having an abysmal season in terms of record. Florida is now just 5-5, and that came after a near-disastrous loss to the lowly FCS Samford Bulldogs. In his three years prior, Mullen led Florida to a 10-3 record in 2018, 11-2 record in 2019 and, in 2020, Florida’s 8-4 campaign during the abbreviated COVID-19 season was enough to punch a ticket to the SEC Championship game.

As Mullen hopes to revive Florida’s start with one win which, in turn, would clinch at least an appearance in a bowl game, he’s developed new standards to measure progress.

“For our guys, I just want us to be able to … one, play with confidence, and two, watch guys that have the opportunity that I’ve seen make plays, make those plays,” Mullen said, when asked how he’s measuring progress. “And continue to sit there and say, ‘Hey, I’m in a position to make a play, let’s go make it.’ Because I think that — especially, a lot of it is younger players. That builds them for the future of, ‘Hey, I’m right here in position, I have the opportunity to go make a play. Let’s go make that play.’ That gives you — as I bring it up with confidence — it gives you the confidence of an expectation to make more and more plays.”

Mullen said that the renewed sense of confidence would enable Florida players to “make the plays [they] should make.” But, by extension, it may help them accomplish even more.

“It also starts giving you the confidence to maybe make plays that you might — people think, ‘Boy, I don’t know that he really should make that play,'” Mullen said. “Then, you’re making these special ones because you have that little extra level of confidence. I’d like to see that from our guys.”

With Florida finishing out its season at Missouri, then home against Florida State, Mullen will look to his players’ playmaking ability to evaluate the team’s progress. Should his players fail to make plays, and if they aren’t able to obtain that level of confidence, things could get a whole lot worse for the Gators.

Dan Mullen says Florida showed resolve when it ‘could have packed it in’

Mullen and the Florida Gators escaped a near disaster on Saturday, overcoming a 42-35 halftime deficit to beat the lowly Samford Bulldogs 70-52.

Florida may have avoided the nightmare scenario of losing to a four-win FCS team in a buy game, but plenty of damage was still done. The Gators let the Samford Bulldogs put up 42 points in a half, which made it the most points Florida has ever let up in a half of football, and that came a week after Mullen fired Todd Grantham, his defensive coordinator. In addition, Samford’s 52-point performance was the most ever by an FCS program facing a Power Five team.

It was, by most accounts, an unimpressive, insufficient win for what was once a nationally-acclaimed program. But Mullen saw it differently. He revealed on Monday that his Florida team could have given up at halftime; instead, they powered through and overcame the deficit, a mindset Mullen complimented.

“I think at that time in that game (halftime), I talked to our guys about this, for everything that’s gone on for our season, and how we’ve been and how it’s gone, and you’re losing 42-28, you could have packed it in,” Mullen said Monday. “[Could have] very easily packed it in. Probably a lot of people in the world would’ve done that, [said] ‘It’s just too much.’ But the resolve our guys showed to just buckle down and really dominate from that point forward — it was really pretty impressive of the guys. And that doesn’t happen without really good leadership, not saying the coaches’ leadership from within, and the accountability to themselves and the accountability to their teammates as a team.”