Paul Finebaum: Florida has a serious problem, deeper than Dan Mullen

Florida’s embarrassing 40-17 loss against South Carolina has really caused the future of the program to be put under the spotlight. Head coach Dan Mullen gets a lot of the heat, but Paul Finebaum thinks that Florida has a serious problem that runs deeper than just Mullen.

“The question now is what (Florida athletic director) Scott Striklin going to do down there? Remember, Striklin was Dan Mullen’s AD at Mississippi State. He hired him, but he hired him because Chip Kelly and Scott Frost turned him down,” Finebaum said. “And I think you have a serious problem there. You are going to have a difficult time selling Dan Mullen now as a long term coach at the University of Florida.”

The Gators made changes to their coaching staff after the loss. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy are both out after many years working under Mullen. Hevesy is Mullen’s right hand man, as the two have worked together since 2001. But Finebaum doesn’t think that the changes are enough for Florida. He also thinks that things could get worse by the end of the year.

“Is making assistant coaching changes going to overcome the fact that they have five losses,” Finebaum asked. “They still have a game at Missouri and against Florida State. I would’ve told you yesterday they win both games. I wouldn’t begin to tell you that right now.

“They are at a crossroads right now. If you fire Dan Mullen, you then have to compete with USC and LSU and countless other places. And maybe not improve your product but stay the course and have Dan Mullen on the hottest seat in America beginning next football season.”

Finebaum: Florida’s problems have “been coming”

Florida, now 4-5 on the season, has three games remaining in the regular season. The Gators host Samford on Saturday before a road trip to Missouri the following Saturday. Florida ends the year against Florida State.

If Florida does indeed make a change in leadership, it can’t afford to mess up the hire. Finebaum pointed out that Shane Beamer and Josh Heupel, two first year SEC coaches, have out-performed Mullen at Florida despite a clear inferior level of talent on their rosters.

“This has been coming,” Finebaum said. “There were signs last year that things were not right. The problem down there among other problems is that Mullen has been his own worst enemy in public. But that’s not really the issue now. The issue is they have to make a hard decision. I’m sure Scott Striklin has thought about a replacement. You can’t help but think about it.

“But it seems unlikely that happens because of what this conversation is really about, if you fire Mullen and get stuck bringing in somebody that doesn’t look the part. You’re in a league now, there were two guys that were not slam dunk hires – Shane Beamer at South Carolina and Josh Heupel at Tennessee. They were not slam dunk hires. Both are doing very well right now in their first year with inferior talent. So you’ve got to really be careful. This is now topic number one in the SEC.”