Florida Football: Dan Mullen is not walking through that door
![Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen waits outside the locker room for his team before running onto the field to play the Tennessee Volunteers Saturday September 25, 2021 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL. [Doug Engle/GainesvilleSun]2021Flgai 092521 Gatorsvsvolsgatorwalk](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2Fef031fa499f1cb90b4489ef2a100684f88afc7d77cd888f9d7f9139834f1551b.jpg "Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen waits outside the locker room for his team before running onto the field to play the Tennessee Volunteers Saturday September 25, 2021 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL. [Doug Engle/GainesvilleSun]2021Flgai 092521 Gatorsvsvolsgatorwalk")
After a lackluster opening night for Florida football, the memes started flowing in about how terrible the Gators are going to be this season. Much of the vitriol centers around Billy Napier and the national belief that he is going to get fired sooner rather than later.
If you are one of the people who think Florida should have never gotten rid of the guy that Napier replaced, know that the Gators were never going to make it to the promised land with him at the helm.
Florida Football: Getting that TV money
People deserve the right to be happy. For as much as we fret over college football, it doesn’t mean somebody else needs to make themselves miserable for our own entertainment.
But the fact that he is content working in a TV studio for the second straight season after being fired from Florida rather than seeking out a new coaching gig means he was never the man for the job to begin with in Gainesville.
Being a college football head coach is brutal. The amount of personal sacrifices coaches make in the name of winning is hard for many of us to fathom. Sitting behind this keyboard, I can tell you that it is not a lifestyle I personally would live at this stage in my life.
If Mullen doesn’t want to do that grind anymore, that’s his choice. But the individual who wants to be the head coach of the Florida Gators has to be willing to take that grind.
It is well documented that Mullen basically gave up during the 2021 campaign. Recruiting took a nose dive, after never being elite to begin with, and behind-the-scenes discipline became a free-for-all.
Whether or not Billy Napier is the man to lead Florida football to the top of the mountain remains to be seen, but no one is questioning his work ethic or his ability to build a program off the field.
Dan Mullen is not walking through that door because, at this point, it wouldn’t be a good fit for either party involved.
Next. What went right and what went wrong against Utah. dark