Dan Mullen reveals 2023 SEC East predictions
Former Mississippi State Bulldogs and Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen is out of coaching and working as an analyst now, and as the 2023 season is nearly underway he shared his predictions for the SEC East this season.
Dan Mullen later deleted the tweet where he announced his SEC East predictions.
Unsurprisingly, Mullen has Georgia winning the SEC East. He followed that up with the Tennessee Volunteers, a popular pick to threaten the Bulldogs. After that, things get interesting.
Check out his rankings, here:
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Vanderbilt
- Missouri
Dan Mullen apparently isn’t confident in Eli Drinkwitz and Missouri, picking the Tigers to finish last in the division. Meanwhile, he has his former team all the way down at fifth in year two under Billy Napier. Also in that bottom rung of the SEC West, Mullen also has Vanderbilt. Now in the program’s third season under Clark Lea, finishing sixth would continue to show growth for Lea and Vanderbilt.
Two of the most interesting SEC East Teams are Kentucky and South Carolina. Both of those programs are talented and have high expectations for the season. For his part, Dan Mullen expects them to finish just behind the top tier of the division.
Even though things didn’t work out for Mullen at Florida, he does know both the division and the SEC as a whole very well. He’s succeeded there in the past and is still an excellent football mind. Now, only time will tell if Dan Mullen has his finger on the pulse of the SEC East this season.
Dan Mullen is excited by Devin Leary at Kentucky
The Kentucky Wildcats made a key move to replace Will Levis heading into the 2023 season, by bringing in transfer quarterback Devin Leary. It’s a move that Dan Mullen thinks is going to help the Wildcats immensely this season.
“Devin Leary was an exciting player at NC State, and now he’s at Kentucky,” Mullen said. “Kentucky is that sleeper team a little bit. They play a style — they play good defense under Mark Stoops. They’re physical, they can run the ball. Now they have a bit of a gunslinger at quarterback. Can they come up and make a big jump? I’m excited about that one.”
Ultimately, Dan Mullen thinks that Kentucky is going to finish third in the SEC East. Without Leary, though, it would be difficult to have that strong of a season.