Paul Finebaum: Scott Stricklin saved his skin much like Dan Mullen did

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin made the decision Sunday to fire Dan Mullen in just his fourth season at the helm, and according to Paul Finebaum, Stricklin did so solely to save his skin — much like Dan Mullen did two weeks.

Mullen finished his four-year tenure at the University of Florida with a 34-15 overall record, and his .694 win percentage is the third-highest of any Florida coach since 1924, trailing only Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. But it wasn’t enough to keep him at the helm of the Gators.

“The atmosphere down there (in Gainesville) had grown toxic. Many of the former players, and I’m talking about pre-Urban Meyer days, had turned against Mullen,” Finebaum said Sunday in The ESPN College Football Podcast. “And Stricklin had no choice. For all the pundits who felt like Scott Stricklin would save Dan Mullen because they were together at Mississippi State, they forgot one important factor: that Scott Stricklin could lose his job, too, if he’s not careful. So, he did exactly what Dan Mullen did two weeks ago by sacrificing two coaches. Scott Stricklin sacrificed Dan Mullen because it was the right thing to do.”

As Finebaum noted, Mullen is not far removed from having to make a similar decision himself. Two weeks before the loss to Missouri, Mullen and the Florida Gators traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, where they were blown out by the bottom-dwelling South Carolina Gamecocks, who entered the game starting a third-string FCS transfer quarterback. After the abysmal performance, which dropped Florida to a 4-5 record, Mullen fired both his defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham, and his offensive line coach, John Hevesy.

Mullen made those moves to save his own job. Firing Hevesy could have impacted a personal relationship, as he was Mullen’s longtime assistant coach of over 20 years, first serving on Mullen’s staff at Bowling Green. Grantham, however, had done a poor job at Florida, perhaps justifying his departure — but it still didn’t save Mullen’s job, and that could be because of what transpired after the fact.

The Florida Gators pulled off a come-from-behind, 70-52 victory over Samford directly after Grantham’s firing, but in the process, Mullen’s defense set a myriad of lousy records. And again, that came after firing his defensive coordinator.

Finebaum said that Stricklin was merely saving his skin, just as Mullen did not too long ago. Even if it meant making the $12-plus-million decision, it wasn’t something Stricklin could avoid for much longer.

Stricklin in his opening statement also revealed details of his initial conversation with Mullen. He said that he offered Mullen the opportunity to coach Florida’s upcoming rivalry game against Florida State, a game in which both teams are looking to claim bowl eligibility, but Mullen declined, saying he didn’t want to be a distraction for the team.

Mullen’s tenure ended with a 24-23 overtime loss to Missouri, a game in which the Tigers upended the Gators with a game-winning two-point conversion. Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz proceeded to troll Mullen in the postgame press conference, using the same costume that Mullen did just one year ago, when Florida beat Missouri.

Stricklin sets high expectations at Florida

Florida is a one of the most difficult jobs in the country, ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum argues. Given the university’s track record, Finebaum seems to have a point.

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin held a press conference shortly after Mullen’s firing, and in his discussion, he only contributed to Finebaum’s point: the Florida head coaching job carries immensely high, perhaps unreasonable expectations.

“It goes back to — this is a place where we want to win championships. We’ve won 251 SEC championships in our history as a university. That’s nearly 100 more than the next-closest SEC school,” Stricklin said. “We won 41 national championships across all sports, three in the sport of football. We want someone that has high expectations and big aspirations that match the University of Florida, a place that’s a top-five public university. I think it’s easily a top-five athletic program. We want someone who wants to be a part of that and feels like they have a plan where they can come in and achieve at a high, high level and do so for a long period of time.”