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

Dan 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.”

Florida did come back, and that’s thanks in large part to Mullen’s offense. Despite the defense’s tumultuous performance, the offense mustered an unbelievable 70-point performance with 717 yards of total offense; quarterback Emory Jones threw for 464 yards and six touchdowns, completing 28 of his 34 pass attempts, while running for 86 more yards and another touchdown.

“I think at halftime, I think the guys — I wasn’t in there. I’m only in there for part of the time, I’m meeting with the coaches for part of it, and those guys go in. So, hopefully, maybe some guys stood up before we got in there and kind of said, ‘Hey, guys, let’s not worry about things. Let’s worry about doing our job,'” Mullen said. “I told you, I think it was a real simple job about ‘we’ over ‘you’ of what we needed to get fixed. The ‘you’ is either ‘I’m blaming you’ or ‘I’m waiting for you to do something’ instead of, ‘Hey, why don’t we all just do our job and go execute and make plays.’ And it’s a lot more fun that way. So, that’s what I talked about with them at halftime. “

Booger McFarland trolls Mullen, Florida for locker room celebration

Despite the embarrassing fashion in which the Gators won Saturday, Mullen’s Florida team celebrated the win as though it were a program-defining upset victory, dancing in the locker room amidst a full-throttle celebration.

ESPN college football analyst Booger McFarland was unimpressed with the Gators’ apparent complacency, as they celebrated what should be nothing more than an embarrassing win.

“It’s great to be a Florida Gator … … after beating Samford,” McFarland said on Twitter.

It’s great to be a Florida Gator …… after beating Samford

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— Booger (@ESPNBooger) November 13, 2021