Scott Stricklin pressed on whether recruiting factored into Florida's decision to fire Dan Mullen

Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin decided Sunday morning that the time had come to move on from head coach Dan Mullen, and he fired the Gators’ head coach of four years after a 24-23 overtime loss to Missouri.

Mullen amassed a 34-15 record in his time at Gainesville, but he finished just 13-10 in the last two seasons. Just when Mullen’s 2021 season began skidding to a mediocre finish, he made a strange comment about recruiting that sparked further questions regarding his job security, saying ““We’re in the season now. We’ll do (talk about) recruiting after the season — when it gets to recruiting time we can talk about recruiting.” Shortly thereafter, Florida cancelled its weekly press conference and did not make any players or coaches available to the media.

Mullen later clarified — he didn’t mean that Florida only recruits in the offseason. However, the Gators did lose a number of recruits in the coming weeks, and as a result, reporters pressed Stricklin in his press conference Sunday about whether recruiting played a role in Mullen’s firing.

“We look at recruiting, and that’s a really important part of putting that team together,” Stricklin said. “We want someone that can attract the best staff to coach the best group of players and take advantage of all the incredible resources and advantages that are at the University of Florida.

“A lot of times, the losses — or things that don’t go right on the field — those are symptoms of other issues, and I’m not going to get into all of that because I don’t think that’s fair to everyone involved,” Stricklin said. “But there are a lot of little things that you have to pay attention to.”

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. Thus, his time with Florida ended abruptly on Sunday.

“I came to the conclusion this morning. Once you make that decision, it’s really not fair to Dan or anyone else to not move forward,” he said, explaining why he opted to leave Florida with a skeleton staff in the final regular-season game rather than waiting a week to make the move. “I don’t think it’s fair to the players if I know I’m going to make a change. To let them go through everything with that kind of facade, if you will. I wish we werent in the situation we’re in. I have a lot of confidence in the coaching staff that we have. … I think they’ll get our guys in good position this weekend.”

Florida will need all the help it can get from its remaining coaching staff this weekend, as the Gators have one final chance to go bowling — if not, they’ll finish without a bowl game for just the third time since 1991.

Mullen’s tenure at Florida skidded to a subpar finish

Florida won its first SEC East title since 2016 a year ago but lost 52-46 in the SEC championship and 55-20 in the Cotton Bowl. Since then, things have unraveled for Florida.

The Gators have dealt with issues on the recruiting trail. With six decommitments, including five from the 2022 class, Florida dropped to No. 20 in On3’s consensus team rankings.

Florida’s season has been in a tailspin since it nearly knocked off Alabama in September. The Gators are 3-5 since then and enter this week’s game against rival Florida State still looking for bowl eligibility.

The recent overtime loss to Mizzou is just the latest in a string of disappointments. The Gators lost 40-17 at South Carolina was arguably their worst, but they also suffered disappointing losses to Kentucky and LSU.

Following the embarrassment against South Carolina, Mullen fired defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and run-game coordinator/offensive line coach John Hevesy. The moves were expected following the season, but Mullen fast-tracked his decision following the loss.

Days after the loss in the Palmetto State, Florida struggled against FCS Samford. The Gators trailed 42-35 at halftime, scoring more points in one half than Alabama, Kentucky or Tennessee did in four quarters this year against Florida. But the second half was a different story as the Gators came away with the 70-52 victory.

Still, it was another low point for Mullen and Florida this season. And in the locker room following the close win, the Gators raised some eyebrows with their celebration. Samford’s 52 points were the most an FCS team has ever scored against an SEC team.

The decision to fire Mullen reportedly cost $12 million in buyout fees, not including the buyout fees of Mullen’s assistants and support staff, which is likely to run up the cost even further.