Per multiple reports, one of Florida’s biggest enemies on the recruiting trail in recent memory has flipped allegiances. In replacing tight ends coach Larry Scott, who left to become the head coach at Howard, Dan Mullen went north and poached UNC tight ends coach Tim Brewster. The two worked together at Mississippi State in 2012, when Brewster served as Mullen’s wide receivers coach.
Until now, Brewster has been at the top of the hatred list for many Florida fans due to his time at rival FSU from 2013-2017, and he didn’t exactly remove himself from that list when he followed Jimbo Fisher to Texas A&M after the 2017 season. A big part of why he was hated, though, was the precise reason that Mullen went out and grabbed him; because his recruiting tactics, irritating as they may be for rivals, work. He’s long been known for recruiting guys outside of his position, most notably landing DT Marvin Wilson at FSU and getting quarterback Sam Howell to flip from FSU to UNC after taking the Tar Heels’ TE job in 2019. And Florida could use some help on the recruiting trail at a few positions, a reality that was really illuminated by yesterday’s miss of Avantae Williams.
Brewster has also had a great deal of success in the “coaching” aspect of being a tight end coach. He played a role in developing Antonio Gates from a basketball player into an All-Pro tight end with the San Diego Chargers. And he’s also helped develop a laundry list of star tight ends at the collegiate level, including Alge Crumpler, Freddie Jones and Jace Sternberger.
Any way you want to look at it, this was a slam dunk, a grand slam, a whatever-other-big-play-in-a-given-sport level hire by Mullen. Losing Larry Scott stings, and yet Mullen somehow turned the loss into an upgrade.
