Dan Mullen shares recent conversations with Florida AD Scott Stricklin

Florida’s humiliating 2021 football season can’t come to an end soon enough. It’s been one thing after another for the Gators this year, and they’ve been under a bad spotlight week-by-week. Head coach Dan Mullen and his club certainly won’t be in any better of a spotlight heading into this week after losing 24-23 in overtime to Missouri on Saturday for their sixth loss on the season.

Just when people thought things couldn’t get any worse for Florida, they have. The Gators’ loss to Missouri gives them a final SEC record of 2-6 – their fewest conference wins since 1986. On top of that, the team has just five wins overall, meaning that it’ll have to beat Florida State next weekend in order to even qualify for a postseason bowl game.

After starting the season 4-2, Florida has since went 1-4 – with the lone win coming against FCS program Samford. During this downhill slide, plenty of negative has surrounded the program – from head coach Dan Mullen making a controversial recruiting comment, to the team implementing a media blackout, and Mullen losing multiple recruits.

Despite all the negative that has surrounded the Gators, Mullen has said on multiple occasions that he has the complete support of Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin. Mullen was asked after Saturday’s loss whether he had spoken with Stricklin regarding his future with the Gators, but the head coach didn’t specifically answer the question.

“We had meetings last week about what direction we need to go in the future with assistant coaches and who we’re going to bring in here and what our candidates looking for the future and changes we need to look to make, so I’ve had those discussions with him,” Mullen said.

Mullen was also asked during his postgame press conference what his message was to Florida fans that have watched all of the struggles this season.

“For the Gator nation, that’s seven times we’ve lost one-score games in a row,” Mullen said. “So, I mean over the last couple of years we’ve got to find a way to make that one more play for the Gator nation right there. That’d be a seven-game swing, which would be … pretty big swing right there, you know, over the last couple of years.”