Dan Mullen on his message to the team amid social media storm

It wasn’t the best week on social media for Dan Mullen and Florida after a closer game than expected against Samford. He addressed his message to the team on this week’s SEC teleconference amid the criticisms.

Florida trailed Samford 42-35 at halftime last week before eventually pulling off the 70-52 win. But fans were quick to criticize the Gators’ performance, and Mullen talked about how he keeps his players focused when their timelines aren’t the nicest.

“We just worry about what you can control, you know?” Mullen said. “And worry about the reality, not the perception. Social media’s very perception-oriented that way. What you’ve got to do is really worry about what you can control and what your reality is. We just talk about it. How are we getting better? Look at every game. We look at every game, no matter what everybody does, I think people go to such extremes when in reality, it’s somewhere much less.

“If we play well and win, we’ve got to look at what we did well and what we did poorly and how to improve. We’re probably not as good as everybody makes it out to be when you win. And when you lose, look at what you did well, what you did poorly and how you’re going to improve and get better, and it’s probably that you’re not as bad as everybody makes it out to be when you lose. So you’re usually somewhere in the middle and worrying about the things that we can control and how to get better as a football team.”

Florida is 5-5 overall this season and 2-5 in SEC play so far. The Gators have two games left on their regular-season schedule as they try to become bowl-eligible again: this week at Missouri and Nov. 27 against Florida State.

Dan Mullen: ‘This year hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to go’

Earlier this week, Mullen admitted the obvious: this season has not gone as planned for the Gators.

Florida entered the season with high hopes in Mullen’s fourth year at the helm of the program, and understandably so. The Gators had a 29-9 record in his first three seasons, and even went to the SEC Championship game last year. Florida was also No. 13 in the preseason AP poll this year. Its stay in the poll was fairly short-lived.

The Gators did open up with two wins, setting the stage for a highly anticipated home matchup with No. 1 Alabama. Florida lost 31-29, and things didn’t get better from there. Florida lost four of its next six games to Kentucky, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina. After the 40-17 blowout to the rebuilding Gamecocks, Mullen fired two longtime assistants: offensive line coach/run game coordinator John Hevesy and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham.

“It sounds like coach talk, but every year is such a unique year with a unique team in unique circumstances that occur,” Mullen said. “We played a very different schedule this year with a very different team and there are very different circumstances. So, it’s not like, ‘Oh, this happened.’ This year hasn’t gone the way that we’ve wanted it to go unfortunately.”