KSR Today: Dan Mullen is a real piece of work

Dan Mullen knows how to take a bad situation and make it worse. The Florida head coach is fresh off a five-dollar ass-whooping in the world’s largest outdoor cocktail party. There was no shortage of criticism, then, he invited more.

The video of this is even worse 😳 https://t.co/Pb5pUllKAd pic.twitter.com/5VvVrGIjM2

— Dayne Young (@dayneyoung) November 1, 2021

Mullen’s quote is even more puzzling juxtaposed next to Kirby Smart’s remarks from his postgame press conference. “I believe you better always be recruiting, always be recruiting, because if you’re not, somebody else is.”

The biggest knock on Mullen at Florida has always been his inability to recruit with the big dogs. He threw gas on that fire, then amplified it by ending his press conference abruptly and canceling the rest of the Gators’ media opportunities for the rest of the week. Florida is 4-4 in year four under Mullen and the Gators are spiraling out of control. Ya love to see it.

Stoops, Not Happy

From his weekly press conference to his call-in show, you could feel the anger and the tension in Mark Stoops’ voice throughout the day on Monday. He was not a happy camper. Just hearing Will Rogers’ stat line made him say, “Put a gun to my head.”

It was a rough Sunday and Monday at the Joe Craft Football Training Facility. Now that they have addressed the loss to Mississippi State, it’s time to work though it and look ahead to Tennessee.

Kentucky is Playing Angry

“I feel sorry for these next four teams, to be honest,“ Isaiah Epps told KSR on Pin it Deep. “These next four teams are gonna have to strap it on. No one in the building is very happy.”

Max and Miles were joined by a pair of UK wide receivers, Epps and Josh Ali. They were just as ticked off about the loss as their head coach. You can hear their entire conversation, including a uniform tease, as well as a brand new edition of the KSR Football Podcast.

D-Jack is Back

We did not receive much clarity on the injury front from Mark Stoops. “We’ll see” is how he danced around injury questions. Context clues tell us that Chris Rodriguez suffered some sort of injury in practice a week ago that he was trying to play through in Starkville.

Thankfully, Tom Leach was able to pry more out of Stoops, who admitted on his call-in show that D’Eryk Jackson is expected to play football this fall. Once projected to start at middle linebacker for the Cats, he tore his Achilles in the spring season and was expected to miss the entire fall football season.

First CFB Playoff Rankings

Prepare to see the Wildcats in the first edition of the 2021 CFB Playoff rankings. Kentucky has appeared in the CFB Top 25 just three other times, all in 201`8. The weekly show on ESPN kicks off at 7 pm ET.

MACtion!

Folks, football is here to stay. Tuesday night we have THREE games in the MAC. Can you feel the excitement? It’s palpable.

• 7:00 — Ball State at Akron on CBSSN
• 7:30 — Miami at Ohio on ESPNU
• 7:30 — Eastern Michigan at Toledo on ESPN2

Our friends in Western Kentucky received some welcome news on MACtion Eve. One of the final teams stuck out in the conference realignment cold, the Sun Belt refused to take back WKU and Middle Tennessee. Luckily, the rivals have found a new home in the MAC, effectively landing a death blow to the C-USA.

What is Happening at Texas?

Texas special teams coach Jeff Banks had a spooky Halloween for all the wrong reasons. His girlfriend, whose alter-ego is Pole Assassin, has a monkey who allegedly attacked a child during trick-or-treating. A mad-libs of a news story, I’ll let Pete Nakos explain.

The KSR Pre-Show Theme Music is…

Shannon the Dude and Billy Rutledge narrowed the finalists down to four. After polling the Big Blue Nation, the big winner is — drumroll please — going to be unveiled on this morning’s show!