Florida Gators Make Surprising Move on Football Head Coach Dan Mullen

By Brian Jones

The Florida Gators football team needs a new head coach. On Sunday, the school announced it had parted ways with Dan Mullen one year after winning the SEC East. Special teams coordinator/running backs coach Greg Knox will serve as the interim head coach for the team's final game of the season against Florida State. 

The 2021 season was not a memorable one for Mullen and the Gators. Currently, the team is 5-6 on the year and has only won two SEC games. Florida has lost four of their last five games, and their win during that span came against Samford, an FCS school that scored 52 points against them (final score was 70-52). 

"We had meetings last week about what direction we need to go in the future with assistant coaches and who we're going to bring in here and what our candidates are looking for the future and changes we need to look to make," Mullen said Saturday night after the loss to Missouri, per 247 Sports. "I've had those discussions with him. For the Gator Nation, that's seven times we've lost one-score games in a row over the past couple of years. We've got to find a way to make that one more play for the Gator Nation right there. That would be a seven-game swing, which would be a pretty big swing right there, you know over the last couple of years."  

Mullen, 49, was hired as the Florida Gators' head coach in 2018 after spending nine seasons as the head coach of Mississippi State. In his nearly four seasons at Florida, Mullen posted a 34-15 overall record with a 21-13 record on the conference. In his first two seasons, Mullen posted 22 wins and won the Peach and Orange Bowl while finishing in the top 10 each year. Last season, Mullen won the SEC East but lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. In 2009, Mullen was hired as the head coach of Mississippi State. In nine seasons, Mullen posted a 69-46 overall record and won five bowl games. 

Florida is one of the top college football programs in the county. The Gators have won 15 division titles, eight conference titles and three national titles. Mullen was the program's 28th head coach all-time and eighth since 2002 (including interim coaches). 

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