Florida Football: Dan Mullen's woe is me mindset is a reminder of why he was fired

Former Florida football head coach Dan Mullen has had it pretty easy these past two years. Since being let go by the Gators in November of 2021, Mullen has been a TV studio analyst for ESPN and, as of now, will be back next year.

Yet every time Mullen's name gets mentioned in relation to his time with the Gators, he channels his inner Eeyore in an attempt to make us all feel sad that he couldn't get the job done while at Florida.

Florida Football: Most likely lose it again, anyway

One of the knocks against Mullen were his recruiting classes. He never finished with a class better than 9th. If one adjusted for guys that never even made it to campus, some of his classes were downright bad.

Part of the hope with Billy Napier is that recruiting would get better, and up until November, it was. Napier had the third-ranked recruiting class heading into November, only to watch it tumble down to 16th.

This led Marc Ryan of CBS Radio, among others, to point out that for all the grief we gave Mullen for not being able to recruit, his classes weren't as low-ranked as the one Napier has right now.

Ignoring the fact that Mullen once stated he would talk about recruiting during recruiting season, Kirby Smart called Mullen out and said he didn't like to recruit, and Napier has had some top guys lined up only for Florida's NIL collective to fail him, numbers are numbers at the end of the day and Florida's classes haven't been elite under Napier.

But rather than just accept his own flaws and admit that even though his classes on paper were better than Napier's, his classes as a whole just weren't good enough to win an SEC title, Mullen once again had to hop in with his "woe is me" act we have seen him do before.

It is true that Florida has nicer facilities under Napier than what Mullen had to work with. He is also out of his mind if he thinks facilities were the cause of his downfall at Florida.

Facilities were not the reason why Marco Wilson threw a shoe. Facilities were not the reason why Florida gave up 52 points to Samford. Facilities were not the reason why Florida didn't know how to stop a guard-tackle counter against LSU. Facilities were not the reason why Mullen ran across the field smiling to shake Mark Stoops's hand after Kentucky beat them. Facilities were not the reason why Chris Steele transferred out. Facilities were not the reason why Dameon Pierce didn't get the ball enough. Facilities were not the reason why Filepe Franks was the starter over Kyle Trask.

More importantly, the fact that Mullen keeps wanting to hop on and complain about getting let go from Florida is the exact reason why he needed to be let go from Florida. If one wants to be the head coach of the Florida Gators, then that person needs to accept that the standard is championship or bust. It is why Will Muschamp was let go, it is why Jim McElwain was let go, and it could be why Napier is let go.

Ultimately under Mullen, while the Gators had some great wins and solid seasons, Florida had fallen into the same gatekeeper category that teams like Penn State and Notre Dame are in today. The fact that Mullen keeps wanting to pass the blame rather than accept his own faults showcases that Florida was never going to fix the issues that prevented them from clearing the final hurdles needed to win a title under Mullen.

There have been 18 openings for head coaching positions around FBS college football. There is a reason why Mullen is still in a TV studio.