Dan Mullen discusses relationship with Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin

It’s been a whirlwind season for the Florida football program – and that’s saying the least. From the Gators underperforming on the field to head coach Dan Mullen implementing a media blackout and now firing assistant coaches midseason, the spotlight has certainly been on the program – and not in a positive way.

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 – and he again reiterated that statement during his Monday press conference.

“Our administration here does an unbelievable job … the support they give us,” Mullen said. ” Scott … I have a great working relationship with Scott. When you look at what we’re doing right now for us, the work we’re putting in. We’d love for everything to be extremely accelerated where we have a facility like most teams in the country that we build up and we get kind of caught up to where everybody is in college football. Scott’s tirelessly working at that … the support they give for that.”

Following Florida’s latest poor performance, a 40-17 loss last Saturday on the road at South Carolina, Mullen made the decision to fire defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy.

With those two coaches being let go, Florida announced that linebackers coach Christian Robinson will take over defensive playcalling duties, special assistant to the head coach Paul Pasqualoni will move into an on-the-field role and offensive graduate assistant Michael Sollenne will help coach the offensive line moving forward.

Robinson is in his fourth season with the Gators, while Pasqualoni is a former college head coach at Syracuse and UConn with multiple jobs in the NFL. Sollenne joined the Florida staff after serving as the tight ends coach at FCS program Austin Peay in 2019.

Mullen was asked Monday if Stricklin had any say-so in his decision to make the midseason coaching changes, and the head man said it was ultimately his move to make.

“It was certainly something I discussed with him and we had discussions about,” Mullen said. “I think he was certainly involved in it, but it certainly wasn’t any pressure – the decision was mine.”

Currently on a three-game losing streak, Mullen and the Gators are likely to get back into the win column Saturday as they host Samford for a non-conference matchup at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville. Following that matchup, Florida has two remaining regular-season games against Missouri (Nov. 20) and Florida State (Nov. 27).