Culture Shock, Part I: inside the Florida Gators’ implosion under Dan Mullen

by | Aug 21, 2023 | Football

Dan Mullen seemed like the perfect man to resurrect the Florida Gators football program- until he wasn’t. (Photo credit: Hyosub Shin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Note: this is part I of a two-part investigative piece into the Florida Gators’ culture. You can read part II here.)

Ask members of the Florida Gators football program how things unraveled so fast for Dan Mullen, and a common theme quickly sticks out.

 

 

“Our team was divided in 2021,” Florida offensive lineman Austin Barber told me.

“That team just didn’t play together,” linebacker Derek Wingo lamented.

“I love Dan Mullen, I truly do,” linebacker Scooby Williams remarked. “I’ll always be grateful to him. But things are just much more laid out now.”

“There’s a new standard now,” safety Miguel Mitchell explained. “I wasn’t here in 2021, but everyone who was says that some stuff that won’t fly now was acceptable with the last staff.”

With each player I asked this question to, a process that began at a Gator Collective event back in February, the picture became more and more clearly painted. There was something off with the culture at Florida, and it led to a team that just didn’t mesh well.

It didn’t start that way.

Head coach Dan Mullen, who returned to Gainesville after a successful stint as the Florida Gators’ offensive coordinator that included two national championships in 2006 and 2008, inherited his own culture mess.

His predecessor, Jim McElwain, ran off the highly-regarded QB Will Grier after he got popped for PEDs for no reason other than he wanted to prove he could win with his own hand-picked players, oversaw a roster that had several players suspended for taking part in a credit card fraud scheme, lied about receiving death threats to paint the Florida Gators fanbase as psychotic lunatics who demand gore at the first sign of difficulty, and directed a strength and conditioning program that the players deemed to be so weak that they chose to pay out of their pockets for additional strength and conditioning from sources outside the program. His players didn’t even know the Florida Gators fight song.

For three years- or at least 2.75 years- Dan Mullen seemed to be the perfect hire, in part because he fixed those culture problems. Nick Savage fixed the strength and conditioning issue. Feleipe Franks’ improvements, Kyle Trask’s subsequent rise to stardom under the tutelage of Mullen and Brian Johnson, and Mullen’s play-calling abilities fixed the offensive issue. Mullen- who was mortified when learning that the players didn’t know the school fight song- quickly fixed that issue.

And in a number of fashions- perhaps the most famous of which was Mullen’s “you want to thumb-wrestle me? I’m gonna beat your ass!” statement after a 38-17 loss to Missouri- Mullen just seemed like the perfect guy to lead the Florida Gators.

Until he wasn’t.

In late 2020, something changed in Mullen. Between his preparation to try to force a round peg in the run-first, pass-second QB Emory Jones into the square hole of the pass-happy offense deployed the previous year with Kyle Trask, a strangely worded statement from Adam Schefter about Mullen’s apparent desire to leave the Florida Gators and go to the pros, and worst of all, the deteriorating relationships between players and coaches- and amongst the players themselves- it was obvious that heading into the 2021 season, Dan Mullen was not the same man who had taken the job with so much energy in 2018. The version of Mullen that emerged in Gainesville Gator Chomping his way off the plane and talking with so much fire about being competitive with anything from running stairs to thumb wrestling was nowhere to be found.

And at the heart of it all was an unwillingness to change, and make business decisions that might just have righted the ship.

It’s possible that Mullen could have been a long-lasting coach at Florida, routinely churning out double-digit win seasons and being an annual threat to Alabama and Georgia. But while he had some of the qualities needed to be the head coach of the Florida Gators, he simply didn’t have what it took to be a CEO of a growing enterprise. As a result, issues slowly grew. And by the time the symptoms of these issues became apparent, it was too late.

This is the story of how a man succeeded early on his dream job, but then used that early success to justify making decisions that he wanted to make at the expense of the program’s overall health. And the story begins, continues, and ends with a common theme: the personnel around him.

The Todd Grantham effect

Put very simply, a large number of Florida Gators players did not respect defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. And that created a fundamental problem within the program that helped chew it up and destroy from the inside.

It didn’t start out that way for everyone. Former defensive lineman Cece Jefferson, a senior when Grantham came into the program, spoke glowingly of his defensive coordinator when I spoke to him for this piece, and was outright stunned when I informed him of some of the information I’d collected. Jonathan Greenard, a star at Louisville under Grantham, actually came to Florida because of that relationship.

But Grantham clearly liked some players better than others, and that quickly led to issues. And not the kind of issues of players needing to grow up, realize that a new staff was in town and that they had to start from scratch earning their stripes, and work their way into Grantham’s good graces, mind you. No, these issues were Grantham’s and Grantham’s alone.

For the same reason why it’s typically not advised for former employees to publicly bash the company that fired them, players do not usually feel compelled to publicly bash former coaches that they are not fond of. Many players I spoke to for this piece are either in NFL training camp or in the business world, and not especially excited to come off as bitter or salty toward their former coaches. So sometimes, the non-statements from players speak louder.

Mohamoud Diabate came into the Florida Gators program as part of Mullen’s first complete recruiting class in 2019. He was initially excited to play for Grantham’s aggressive defense, and got some playing time as a true freshman. But fast forward to 2021. After LSU’s backup running back, Ty Davis-Price, set a school record with 289 rushing yards against Florida in 2021 by running the same counter play over and over again, Diabate was asked why the Gators didn’t adjust to the simple counter play. His response was curt and cold: “We made the adjustments that we were given to make.” The reporter followed up and Diabate replied in kind: “I can only do what I’m coached to do. I’m like a soldier who shoots when he is told to shoot. It’s not my job to ask the generals what they’re doing. That’s your job in the media.”

That response is emblematic of a complete 180 in terms of trust, and it’s what happens when there’s a fundamental lack of respect. It breeds distrust. In this case, that lack of respect and trust came not just from the frustrations on the field, but Grantham’s unfriendly and downright nasty attitude off it.

For one thing, Grantham had a habit of actively ignoring his players when they came to him for help. This reared its head in a variety of ways, but perhaps the level of respect he had for his players was best exemplified when he passed them in the halls of Florida’s facilities. One former player recalls a time in 2021 when he passed Grantham in the hallway right outside his position meeting room after a film session with his position coach. The player had a football-related question, but tried to be friendly and strike up a conversation first. Grantham wasn’t about it.

“I said, ‘Hey, coach,'” the player told me. “Grantham ignored me. I wasn’t sure if he’d heard me or not, so I said, ‘Hey Coach!” a little louder. The guy is just staring straight ahead, not looking at me, the whole time, and after the second time, without turning to look at me, he mutters just loud enough for me to hear, ‘Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.'”

Other former players shared similar experiences, agreeing that their lack of respect for Grantham vacuumed the team’s unity- and cohesion- right out from them. Other times, Grantham would do the exact opposite of ignoring his players- he’d get right in their faces, displaying a complete lack of care for their personal space. Former players also shared a sense of uneasiness in talking with him, in a sense that Grantham felt he was above coaching them.

In fact, two different players explained to me that they’d rely more on group chats with teammates to prepare for opponents, and occasionally their position coaches, than with Grantham in the film room. “It was just yes sir, no sir, OK, I understand,” one of them said of film room sessions with Grantham. “No point saying anything else or asking questions. He was too good for us. He’d made that clear.”

It didn’t take long for Grantham’s lack of interpersonal skills to hurt the team. Players lost their desire to ask Grantham for help with the X’s and O’s of the game, leading to an added level of confusion for players on top of an already complex defensive scheme. Predictably, the results were horrendous. Florida’s defense routinely struggled to line up correctly and was frequently caught out of position, leading to the worst final defensive ranking in any season since World War II in 2020 and was little better in 2021- and it was completely avoidable.

“The whole purpose of me saying ‘hey’ was to ask him for clarification about a new formation we’d been working on before practice that day,” the first former player fumed. “It wasn’t to hold hands and have him coddle me like I’m four. I wanted to talk to him to be better as a player, and Grantham was so abrasive that it dissuaded me from doing so ever again. I mean, that’s the response I’m going to get when I go to you for help? Is saying ‘hello’ and being open to a quick conversation about football really that difficult for you?”

On the other hand, there were also times where Grantham lost respect for players because he felt free to communicate his thoughts toward them. Even if they weren’t actually his true thoughts.

Grantham, according to a multitude of former players, had a less-than-reputable tactic to motivate his players- he’d hype the backup players up by dropping thinly veiled hints to them that they were finally ready to see some game action that weekend. The players would then excitedly tell their families that they’d be playing in the ensuing game and encourage them to book hotels in Gainesville to see them play- only to watch them see two or three snaps, while teammates supposedly behind them on the depth chart took the field ahead of them on the rest of the plays.

It didn’t take the youngsters long to figure out that Grantham was being less than truthful to them in an effort to inflate their adrenaline levels and create more competition, oftentimes escalating to tempers flaring at practices. The thinking on Grantham’s end, according to two former players, was to create a battle-tested two-deep on the defense where guys could rotate in and out seamlessly, and with no drop-off, so that nobody would ever get tired.

But the tactic backfired. “Once one element of trust is gone, all trust is gone,” the player Grantham had brushed off in the hallway told me. “We lost our trust in Grantham’s ability to be a leader of men, and if you can’t trust the guy running the entire defense, it’s over.”

The John Hevesy effect

Offensive line coach John Hevesy was no easier to work with.

One of the few players willing to put his name behind his experiences for this piece on the record was TJ McCoy, an offensive lineman who was signed by Jim McElwain and worked his way from a scout-team player to a starter in 2017. After Mullen and his new staff arrived, he was quickly demoted within the offensive line, and eventually pushed out the door. But that wasn’t even his issue with Hevesy.

McCoy spoke on the record with the condition that his feelings toward Hevesy be elucidated from the get-go. “I have zero ill will toward John Hevesy,” McCoy declared over the phone. “There is exactly zero bitterness. Honest to God, John Hevesy, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, because you taught me how to deal with adversity and how to keep a smile when things aren’t going well. I’ve had the success I’ve had as a business owner because of my struggles playing for you in 2018. You were put into my life for a reason, and I’m grateful for what I learned from you.”

McCoy owns a healthcare company that provides custom-crafted services for families with disabilities, specializing in in-home healthcare and companion services. More specifically, his company takes people with disabilities out into the world on community outings, shining bright lights into fairly dark situations. Which is something McCoy feels he was meant to do- because once upon a time, McCoy had to work his way up from fourth string to second string. Now, starting his own company, he was starting from the bottom, where nobody knew who he was. He had to reach out to hundreds of local case managers to get on their radar. He credits his struggles in dealing with Hevesy as excellent preparation for his business now- a valuable lesson that no matter how hard you work, you can’t ever be satisfied. And he’s truly thankful for that lesson.

“That said,” McCoy continued, “To answer your question, no, Hevesy was not a good person.”

McCoy and other teammates painted the picture of practice being a living hell- and not in the kind of way that makes players perform better on game day. Rather than practice being a battlefield where players sharpened their skills, practice for Florida’s offensive linemen instead became practice in the art of self-control. “Every day when I’d suit up for practice,” another former offensive lineman told me, “I’d prepare myself for Hevesy to say the most messed up things imaginable to me.”

“I’d brace myself for him to tell me that my mom’s lights were going to go out because I wouldn’t make it to the NFL and be able to pay her bills,” the player continued. “And even worse, more personal stuff than that. Because I’d heard those kinds of things come out of his mouth before, and if I was prepared for him to say that kind of stuff to me, I wouldn’t be bothered by them. Because if I’m caught off guard by something like that and I follow my impulses, my life is over.”

Multiple players theorized that Hevesy would gather information about players while recruiting them, hold onto it, and then use it against them years later. Players would excitedly tell Hevesy on recruiting visits that they were their families’ tickets out of their less-than-fortunate situations, only to hear those sentiments sarcastically thrown back in their face when they’d miss a block at practice. And to hear his former players from 2018-21 tell it, Hevesy seemed to carry a genuine delight in assuring them that they’d never achieve their dreams.

McCoy laughed as he confirmed the kinds of things Hevesy would say to his players. “Every day, man,” he responded when I asked if Hevesy crossed the line from motivation to belittling. “He’d call us p words, bitches, say we weren’t worth shit every single day. I know what tough love is. Brad Davis (Florida’s offensive line coach in 2017) walked that balance perfectly. He was always extremely hard on us, but the reason he did that was because he wanted to see his players succeed. Hevesy was different.”

“Hevesy’s favorite word was ‘p***y’ for sure,” a former defensive lineman told me. “And he used it so frequently, you kind of forgot that it’s a vulgar word. He wasn’t even my position coach but every time we went one-on-one with the o-line, someone was always a p***y, a bitch, a homophobic word, you name it. It reached the point where it felt like he was trying to goad one of his lineman into fighting him. That’s a super easy way to lose respect for a coach.”

But as various players were quick to point out, Mullen and his assistants lost a lot of players’ respect with something even more egregious.

Personnel Decisions: “Even Worse Than Many May Realize”

Perhaps no player felt the nastiness from Hevesy more than TJ McCoy, who’d had quite the roller-coaster ride up and down the depth chart in 2018. After breaking his fibula, he fully expected to sit out the spring and rehab in order to get ready for the summer practices. This was the advice his parents and doctor had given him, and even former Florida lineman DJ Humphries- who McCoy calls a “big brother” to him- advised him to sit out the spring when McCoy told him what was happening.

Hevesy didn’t agree. “Hey, you’re not really hurt,” McCoy recalled him saying. “Get your ass over to the locker room and suit up.” Though stunned at first, McCoy remembers feeling that he had a little extra something to prove with a new staff- specifically, prove that he was not afraid to work. So he did. “Nobody forced me,” McCoy recalls. “I made the call to play because I wanted to show the new coaches my toughness and commitment. But that was a mistake.”

McCoy did the best he could on one healthy leg, but by his own admission, he wasn’t able to practice to the best of his potential. McCoy recalls a film session where there was an interception thrown and he was unable to sprint after the ball carrier on a still-healing leg. As the film rolled, Hevesy turned toward McCoy and yelled, “why aren’t you busting your ass chasing him?” “Bruh,” McCoy remembers someone muttering in the room. “He’s playing hurt.”

Despite playing at less than full strength, McCoy earned a grade for the spring that should have placed him on the second team offensive line heading into summer ball. But no. “I come out for summer practice, and I’m at the bottom of the depth chart, even behind the walkons,” McCoy laughed. “So, OK, time to go back to work. And now I’m a little healthier. I worked my way back up to second team. Then fast forward to Hell Week of practice. We start with red zone. We score on that first team defense. And I’m doing better than the guy I’m competing against.”

Four different players all confirmed what happened next.

McCoy fired out of his stance and neutralized his defender with a devastating block that sent him tumbling backwards, leading to a big play. That was when Mullen wheeled around to face Hevesy and clearly spoke the following words: “So, are you gonna make a change?” The response from Hevesy was simple and curt: “nope.”

“That’s when I knew,” McCoy told me. “Mullen could have overriden his offensive line coach, but he didn’t do it. He stood by him. Loyal to a fault. You could have predicted right then.”

Unfortunately, TJ McCoy wasn’t the only victim of this. And it wasn’t just Hevesy. As Florida Gators fans know all too well, Dan Mullen developed a habit of not playing the best players for the Florida Gators. Anthony Richardson, Kyle Trask, James Houston, Dameon Pierce, and even Ventrell Miller early on in his career are just some of the examples. At various points during their careers at Florida, former players say, Mullen went over to Todd Grantham to inquire about Houston, Miller, and Andrew Chatfield not seeing time with the starting defense. Each time, Grantham brushed him off, and Mullen- apparently not wanting to ruffle feathers- obediently slunk away and didn’t broach the subject with that player again.

“How can you respect your head coach when you’re out there at practice watching him actively not place the best players in his starting lineup?” another player lamented. “I mean really. How is that possible? Hevesy totally deserves the blame for what happened to TJ, but Greg Knox did the same shit at running back. Grantham did the same shit with his entire defense. And Mullen just couldn’t be bothered to step in and override their decisions. He’d rather not argue with his friends that he’d hired.”

Running back Dameon Pierce was among the more notable victims of this. Multiple players recall a practice in 2019 when Mullen saw him break four tackles before taking off on a long touchdown run in 11-on-11s. At the next break, Mullen immediately made a beeline for running backs coach Greg Knox to inquire about why Pierce wasn’t at least second on the depth chart behind LaMical Perine. No player I spoke to could hear the conversation once Mullen arrived at where Knox was standing, but they all confirmed that Mullen walked away looking deflated and even a bit “unnerved,” as one player put it.

“You’re the head coach, my guy,” one of the players on the practice field that day quipped to me over the phone. “YOU set the damn depth chart. Your assistants can have input, and you certainly should listen to them when you feel they know more than you about their position, but you have veto power. You just never cared to use it.”

But for as inexplicable as those decisions were, the real head-scratchers were at quarterback- where Mullen himself made the call. Players at practice watched Kyle Trask outperform Feleipe Franks throughout the 2018 season, only to watch Franks holds onto the starting job. Here, players’ tunes changed to outright astonishment as they watched Franks continue to start for the Florida Gators on Saturdays.

“People in this fanbase don’t know the half of it,” an ex-defensive back told me. “They think they all know Trask should have been starting over Franks all along based on what they saw in game action. But let me tell you, it was worse than many may realize. I’ll always appreciate Feleipe’s heart, that kid is tough as nails, and he battled for his Gators. I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Kyle’s decision making was so far ahead of Feleipe’s, he demonstrated this every day for months on end, and Mullen just watched like a fan and actively didn’t do anything.”

“I’ll put this as bluntly as I possibly can,” a defensive player told me. “Mullen brought me to Florida, and I’ll always be grateful for him for that. But to answer your question, I have absolutely no idea what the f**k he was doing there. Everybody loved Feleipe’s heart, but heart doesn’t win in business. And this should have been a business decision. Starting Franks over Trask was completely illogical and downright absurd. I mean, there was just no way to justify that.”

“It wasn’t even close,” McCoy laughed. “I’m cool with Feleipe, nothing against him. The battle between him and Trask in 2018? It wasn’t even CLOSE, man.”

In a way, fate bailed Mullen out there. Trailing 21-10 against Kentucky on the road, gruesome injury forced Franks out of action, and into the game came Kyle Trask. Trask guided Florida back to victory that day, and eventually became a Heisman Trophy finalist the ensuing season.

But Mullen didn’t learn his lesson. “He wanted Emory Jones to be a star so bad,” a former defensive lineman recalled with disgust, “He never bothered to consider the possibility that the next in line for the QB1 role might have been someone else.” That someone else turned out to be Anthony Richardson, who, despite only playing one full season at Florida, went on to be drafted #4 by the Indianapolis Colts. “And that kind of thing, when you do that over and over, is just another way you make sure your players don’t respect you.”

Players contend that as time went on, there were even deeper reasons to not respect their coaches.

Summer of 2020: the Florida Gators culture begins to decay

Individual accounts from former players differ. As such, it’s impossible to pinpoint with any true certainty when cracks in the foundation began to show up, as well as the point in which the culture began to implode.

But among the six former Florida Gators players I interviewed for the Mullen Era piece of this story, it’s generally agreed upon that things deteriorated a good bit in the summer of 2020, after players had returned following COVID quarantine.

The Black Lives Matter movement that swept the nation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic was not something that the Florida coaches seemed to be very interested in. QB coach Brian Johnson and WR coach Billy Gonzales, according to multiple players on that 2020 team, were the only two assistant coaches who were initially willing to march in the streets with the players in protest in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Dan Mullen was reluctant at first, but after a heart-to-heart with Johnson, say a few former players, he came to understand the severity of the issue and changed his tune. Soon after, most assistants relented, and players say that for the most part, they were apologetic for their initial hesitance.

Grantham, for his part, never seemed to grasp the meaning of it. “Because we missed so much time with COVID, all he wanted was for us to get in the film room and back on the practice field,” yet another former player recalled in disgust. “He saw the whole thing as a waste of time. It wasn’t even a political thing. And he’s not a racist. Make sure you express that clearly. Todd Grantham is not a racist. He just didn’t really respect any of us, white or black. All we were marching for was to demand that we as black people not be killed, this exact thing is happening everywhere at a terrifying rate, and here’s this guy thinking he can have our full attention to install a new look for 11 personnel?”

Hevesy was the same way, say former players. “I don’t know if he was as cavalier toward the whole thing as Grantham, but he was definitely not interested in marching in the streets,” mused a former offensive lineman, who is black. “He did do it, but I think he saw it as a child would see a dentist’s appointment, like a nuisance. And the first time he did it, he made sure to let us know that.” 

So while many of the players’ relationships with Todd Grantham and John Hevesy were never great, I asked every player I spoke to for this article if their relationships with Grantham and Hevesy had begun to decline at any point from the summer of 2020 onward. Not a single one hesitated to say yes.

Meanwhile, Mullen made it clear that whatever rifts existed between players and position coaches were not his battles to fight. His favorite things to do were tinkering with the offensive game plan and coach his quarterbacks; anything else, including recruiting, was a burden. He wanted no part of any interpersonal conflicts between players and their position coaches.

It’s not unusual for a head coach to let these parties work out any issues themselves, but several different players all agree that in this case, his failure to do so confirmed what they’d thought. He just wanted to draw up plays on a whiteboard. He didn’t want to be a CEO. He didn’t want to make business decisions. He wanted to do things his way. And he did what he wanted.

“At some point, you just have to step in and realize you have to interfere and change the trajectory when things get out of hand,” McCoy declared. “Mullen never did.”

“I’ll give him this,” a former defensive player told me, “Mullen was a genius calling plays. But there’s more to being a head coach than just that. There are other things you’ve got to do to ensure that your ship in running smoothly. He wasn’t interested in those other things, and we could tell that pretty clearly.”

“It’s just that nobody on the outside could tell that anything was wrong until it was too late.”

December 12, 2020: Marco Wilson throws a shoe

Senior Night in Gainesville is usually a bittersweet occasion. Florida Gators seniors take the field for the final time with flowers as the PA announcer booms their name through the stadium loudspeakers, hug their players and coaches, and take a final round of pictures with clean jerseys on their beloved home turf. And indeed, that was how this night started.

Most fans turned on this game against LSU feeling confident about Florida’s chances to win. Florida sported an 8-1 record (with all eight wins coming by at least two touchdowns), was ranked #6 in the nation, and LSU had a rash of injuries and opt-outs that resulted in Florida being favored by 24.5. To outsiders, this game was a formality. The Gators were supposed to win, possibly in gigantic fashion, and cruise into Atlanta needing one more win to finally break through and check off the achievement that everyone had believed Dan Mullen was hired to check off: reach the College Football Playoff.

But something didn’t feel right from the very get-go. A COVID-19 outbreak had pushed this game back from its scheduled slot in October to December 12, and the pandemic as a whole had limited the crowd size in Gainesville to a quarter of the Swamp’s actual seating capacity. Making matters worse, All-American tight end Kyle Pitts- nursing an “injury”- was mysteriously held out. The game started out strangely, too, as Florida promptly drove right down the field and got turned away on a fourth and goal from the LSU 1, and just got weirder from there.

Heisman Trophy finalist Kyle Trask threw two uncharacteristic interceptions, one of which Eli Ricks returned for a touchdown and the other of which was deflected first by Kadarius Toney before being picked off by Jay Ward. But even as they trailed 27-17 late in the third quarter, it still felt as though Florida would battle back. And they did. Trask directed back to back touchdown drives to give Florida a 31-27 lead at the end of the third quarter. LSU then retook the lead on a swing pass, and Florida countered with a game-tying field goal. Florida’s defense then banded together and forced a stop, with Florida corner Marco Wilson tackling LSU’s Kole Taylor well short of the first down line on third and long, ripping off Taylor’s shoe in the process.

Everyone knows what happened next. Wilson, in his elation, stood up with the shoe in his hand and flung it as far as he possibly could. That triggered an obvious fifteen-yard penalty that set up a game-winning field goal, handing the Gators a stunning loss that all but crushed their College Football Playoff chances.

Linebacker Derek Wingo- at the time a true freshman- gave me a sad smile as he recalled that foggy night. “There was a lot going on there,” he told me. “I won’t say that any of us could have predicted that Marco Wilson would throw a shoe, but in hindsight, it did feel like a rubber-meets-the-road moment was coming.”

Players paint a picture in Gainesville the week before that game as a program on a bye week. The team only held one full-pads practice the week of the LSU game, as Mullen was attempting to keep his players healthy for the SEC Championship Game the week later. “Mullen didn’t take it seriously,” an ex-player declared with disgust. “It was so obvious. That’s why Kyle Pitts didn’t play, because he thought this was Towson or Charleston Southern and he could rest his stars. Even some of the play-calls in that LSU game made me feel like he was just f***ing around in Madden. And you don’t do that when you’re the head coach of the Florida Gators- especially not against another SEC team.”

But despite the horrifying loss, and the Florida Gators’ ensuing losses in the SEC Championship Game and the Cotton Bowl, it still felt to the public as though the Florida Gators program was in good hands with Mullen and his administration. Mullen’s statement of the SEC Championship Game being the last time that the 2020 team would play together was, at the time, ignored. And indeed, the 2021 season started with a 3-1 record- with the lone blemish being a 31-29 loss to #1 Alabama that felt like a moral victory.

Then things fell apart. And the players I spoke to on that 2021 team said it was all too predictable. “Forget the Franks/Trask and Emory/Richardson debates,” an ex-player stated. “When Mullen brought back Hevesy and Grantham in 2021, he signed his own death warrant.”

“And it wasn’t a pleasant death.”

2021: Things Fall Apart for the Florida Gators

For as difficult to work with as Grantham and Hevesy were before 2021, players I spoke with for this piece all agree that the problem became quantifiably worse leading up to and during the 2021 season.

An offensive player recalled Grantham’s increasingly antagonistic attitude toward his players in his final season in Gainesville in an email to me for this piece. “He’d walk over to the bench and yell at a player something like, ‘Get your ass ready!” or ‘Wake the f**k up!’ …which, alright, fair enough… and then turn around, walk away, and grumble something nasty under his breath,” his email stated. “One time it was, ‘what a p***y.’ Another time, it was, ‘little f**king bitch.’ And that was just the stuff I heard. I didn’t deal with him directly because he coached the other side of the ball and we only passed each other on the sideline so many times but you can believe that there were more times that I just didn’t hear them.”

The same player confirmed that Hevesy did the same, and then offered a disclaimer. “Look,” he told me, “Football players and coaches are no Goody Two Shoes. Coaches cuss players out all the time, but it’s meant to motivate, not belittle. My high school coach said all kinds of stuff I wouldn’t repeat, and I still text him at least once a month or so to see how he’s doing or to ask for life advice. It just felt different with Hevesy. I won’t speak for every single player, but a lot of us simply just didn’t like him, we didn’t respect him, and we didn’t trust him.”

Meanwhile, hints were dropping that Mullen didn’t really want to be there. Which only made things worse.

In mid-January of 2021, ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter unleashed a rather strange statement: “Dan Mullen in the college ranks is open to going to the pros.” There was no credible smoke for Mullen to any of the NFL head coach openings that cycle, nor were there any reasons to believe that the NFL would want him. Schefter’s statement reeked of some sponsored content, crafted by either someone in Mullen’s camp or Mullen himself, as a way of trying to create the first wave of smoke to a rumor that previously had none.

Mullen also signed an extension following the 2020 season that increased his pay by a million and a half per year- while his assistants, many of whom had contracts that were set to expire following the 2021 season, watched as Florida actively ensured that their contracts remained untouched. Mullen, already known for being reluctant to hit the road and recruit, now had that issue on top of everything else to deal with. How was he supposed to recruit when his assistants had precisely zero long-term job security, a fact that other schools could happily weaponize against him?

“He wasn’t,” the player who Grantham ignored in the hallway told me when I asked him this rhetorical question. “There’s an old saying that, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. Mullen’s comments about that SEC Championship Game being the last time this team played together, plus his open attitude about not even trying in the Cotton Bowl, were correct because he spoke them into existence.”

Various members of that team went on to add that not only were some players privately questioning the leadership within the program, but that there was infighting among players. Grantham would openly treat various players as though they were inferior to some of their teammates, and predictably, resentment grew. When talking to Wingo, I’d already collected so much data from other players that I didn’t even need to lead with the details- I asked him a neutrally-worded question of, “What went wrong in 2021?” and he gave me exactly the answer I was anticipating. “That team wasn’t together,” Wingo replied. “And it didn’t play together.”

The culture on that 2021 team became so unbearable that some players dreaded doing the very thing they were at Florida to do- play football. Multiple players told me they dreaded getting out of bed for workouts, not because it was so early in the morning, but because they knew that arguments with their teammates awaited them. There were several cliques on the team, and some members of that team saw every moment they had to collaborate with and simply spend time with their teammates as a chore. “We just weren’t playing as a true team,” current offensive tackle Austin Barber told me. “Which is so hard to think about, because football is a team game. And the hardest part for me was being a true freshman on the scout team and not being able to do anything about it.”

At the same time, while Florida’s 2021 season got off to a 3-1 start, behind the scenes, years of being loyal to people who did not do their jobs correctly or adequately were finally catching up with Dan Mullen. His refusal to bench a struggling Feleipe Franks until he was forced to in the form of a broken leg, along with his similar refusal to bench Emory Jones for a struggling Anthony Richardson, were frustrating for fans- and players- but 3.5 years into his tenure, he’d survived them. But that didn’t mean players couldn’t see Mullen’s unraveling take place right before their eyes.

“The 2020 LSU loss probably broke him, and if it didn’t, the SEC Championship definitely did,” another former defensive player told me. “Because he was never the same after. He barged into the halftime locker room in Jerry’s World (at the Cotton Bowl, which Florida lost 55-20 to Oklahoma) and just randomly yelled out, ‘By the way, we’re not trying to win this game!” to the whole team. It’s the old, ‘well I’m not even trying, so I’m not counting this as a loss’ thing you do when you’re nine. I lost all respect for him then, but a few of my teammates convinced me he was just frustrated and said that because he was just unwilling to accept defeat. And then we come back for spring ball, and it’s the same attitude.”

Taking their cues from the head coach, the attitude of not caring about the Florida Gators winning games spread through the locker room during the 2021 team. It’s commonplace for tensions to heat up among football players during practice or games, but it’s rare that frustrations within a team originate from such an openly cavalier attitude about the good of the team.

Some players would openly express joy after losses if they played well, which in turn would infuriate other players; conversely, players would openly sulk and pout if they didn’t feel they played well enough in a game the Florida Gators won. Other players would be on their phones during team meetings and film room sessions, checking out social media when the attention wasn’t squarely on them; one player even claimed he saw a teammate- an upperclassman- sitting next to him casually scrolling through a pornographic website during a team-wide meeting. Various players would routinely be caught giving less than 100% in drills or team workouts, deflect blame when they missed assignments, and when they would be called out for their behavior by teammates, they would respond either with indifference and ignore the feedback, or hostility that quickly escalated into a full-fledged personal confrontation.

“I know it’s easy to blame Mullen for this,” a player who left after 2021 told me in a text. “But I do. This was his fault. I could have told you that would happen the second he opened his mouth at halftime of the Cotton Bowl. Players follow the example set by the head coach, and when that’s the example you set, you’re done for.”

“We just couldn’t say anything about that in public for obvious reasons.”

After LSU’s Ty Davis-Price was finished riding the same counter play to a school record 289 yards in the seventh game of the 2021 season, there was no need for players to say anything- because the public got to see symptoms of the disease that had plagued the Florida Gators program for years.

The end: November 2021, the Florida Gators implode

The Florida Gators followed up that LSU loss with a 34-7 loss to Georgia that several players on that team agree was just another symptom of a bigger problem.

“You know why we held tough with Georgia and only trailed 3-0 with two minutes left in the first half?” one of the former offensive linemen asked rhetorically, “Because we were all giving our best efforts- for ourselves. Just like against Alabama. We were fired up to play a top-ranked rival. But we were fired up to add tape to our personal NFL Draft film, not fired up to give our program that put us on scholarship a huge win. And that juice runs out. So our chemistry sucked, our communication sucked, and as you saw the dam broke 28 minutes in.”

That set the stage for the following Saturday- the night where all the Gators’ problems became obvious. On a cold, damp night in Columbia, South Carolina in November of 2021, the proverbial cancer that was eating the Florida Gators football program from the inside declared its presence in a way that nobody could ignore.

South Carolina- a 20.5 point underdog relegated to its third-string transfer QB from FCS school St. Francis, a guy named Jason Brown who couldn’t even start for a 3-8 Virginia Tech team in 2022- thrashed Florida 40-17. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and offensive line coach John Hevesy were fired in a desperate last-ditch attempt by head coach Dan Mullen to save his own job- a move that did little to stop an avalanche of criticism cascading down on Mullen, deep in the hole he was digging for himself. And some of that criticism came from his own players.

“Everything I’ve said about Hevesy, every word you’ve collected about Grantham, that’s all on Mullen,” TJ McCoy declared. “He’s the head man. They were his hires. And he stood by them, and he dug his own grave with them. Same for his decisions at QB. I truly wish Dan Mullen well, but he has nobody to blame for his own downfall but himself.”

“He fired those guys because he had to,” said another ex-player, who left after 2020. “Doesn’t it seem a little coincidental that of all the assistant coaches, it was those two who got the axe that night? Those two were the sources of most of the poison in that locker room. And I think Mullen was afraid that if he didn’t fire those two specific assistants, people would start taking those frustrations they’d been bottling up about those guys public.”

A third former player, one who stayed on the team through 2021, agreed- and even went one step further. “I doubt Mullen ever thought he would come back in 2022,” he mused. “I saw those NFL rumors just like everyone else. I think this was his way of cremating the skeletons out of his closet, or clearing his internet history, on his deathbed. Because as far as saving his career at Florida was concerned, it was way too little too late.”

Indeed, too little too late it was. Mullen was summarily fired two weeks later, and that beatdown at the hands of the Gamecocks was pinpointed by many as the night the Dan Mullen Era crumbled to pieces. That was the night in which it was clear that Mullen had no more fight left, no more ammo to aim at his opponents, and in every sense of the phrase, no more interest in being the head coach of the Florida Gators. That was the point of no return.

I asked several former players if they thought Mullen could have regained his 2018-20 form in 2022, re-evaluated how he operated in specific areas, and guided Florida to the heights its fanbase expects. The unanimous answer was a resounding no.

“There was too much bad blood between players and coaches,” TJ McCoy commented. “And Mullen not playing the best players led too many good players to transfer.”

Added another player who left the team after 2020, “the downward spiral was predictable in 2021. It would have only gotten worse in 2022. And honestly, I feel like if Florida had brought Mullen back for a fifth season in 2022, it might have set the program back another five years.”

“What do you have to say to those who just think you’re bitter, and that this is just sour grapes from you?” I asked in response. “I say that the program was broken from the inside,” the player replied. “And that the version of Dan Mullen I was initially excited to play for was gone forever.”

Postmortem: the “smear campaigns” are discovered

While part of the Florida Gators’ disarray and lack of unity in the locker room was caused by members of the coaching staff, the most outrageous pettiness was saved for players who transferred out of the program- some of which are still feeling its effects today. Four different ex-defensive players who entered the transfer portal quickly found out that rumors and false narratives were being spread about them in a last-ditch effort to cheapen their stock as players, and save the Florida Gators staff from looking dumb for letting them go.

“Someone on that staff ran a damn smear campaign,” a former player told me. “Against several different players. That’s the only reason I didn’t leave, too. I don’t know if it was Mullen, or Grantham, or a position coach, but all I know is that I saw Chat (Andrew Chatfield) and James Houston in practice and they were good enough to play for the best teams in the country, yet here they are barely seeing the field at Florida. And look where they wound up. Something doesn’t add up.”

The former transferred to Oregon State and the latter moved west to Jackson State, where he finished second in the FCS with 16.5 sacks in 2021 and broke out as a rookie with the Detroit Lions late in 2022. Houston is a very close friend of mine and is only interested in moving forward, not reliving his experience at Florida, and so of course I’ll respect his wishes.

One player who was more than willing to speak on the matter- and not only that, but put his name behind it- was former offensive lineman TJ McCoy. “Oh, you’ve heard about coaches doing this?” McCoy laughed. “I know they were doing it. Because they did it to me. And I left in 2018. Of course they were doing it in 2021.”

McCoy and others contend that someone in the football offices at Florida would pick up the phone whenever other schools called to ask about an outgoing player and brazenly provide false negative feedback in an attempt to ruin the player’s reputation. “They’d say whatever needed to be said to dissuade the other school from recruiting the player any further,” one ex-player told me. “Locker room cancer, doesn’t take coaching well, selfish, whatever. Because if a player that wasn’t playing much at Florida went to another school and excelled, then the question becomes, ‘well, what the hell was that Florida coaching staff doing?'”

Another ex-player offered an even chillier perspective. “I know James Houston is your boy and I’m 100% in agreement that they did him dirty,” he told me on the phone. “What people need to know is that Houston isn’t alone. They didn’t single him out for this treatment. They did everybody dirty like that. You transfer out, and that Florida staff was going to make it as difficult as they can for you to find a new place to play. It was second nature to them, because that’s what they had to do to avoid looking like idiots.”

A source close to the program in the Mullen regime says that Mullen himself had nothing to do with these smear campaigns. “Dan Mullen would never do that,” the source told me. “Absolutely not. That’s not who he is. But I’m also not sure he would ever explicitly tell his assistants not to do that, either. I definitely don’t want to give off the impression that Mullen didn’t care about his players, because I don’t think that’s true. I just don’t think he wanted to get involved in that kind of mess one way or another.”

And that, perhaps more so than anything else, epitomizes Mullen’s demise at Florida.

Whether you want to call it loyalty, stubbornness, laziness, or downright ignorance- or maybe a combination of all of the above- the epitaph of Dan Mullen’s tenure in Gainesville will feature the manner in which he placed people in important positions who failed to perform at the level at which they were expected to- and worse yet, was willing to stick by his decisions at the expense of his own program. The arrogance with which Mullen publicly stood by Grantham and Hevesy as they gradually touched off a team-wide civil war behind closed doors was matched only by the bravado some of his players displayed in letting their teammates know that they valued themselves more than the health of the program. And Mullen’s unwillingness to make business decisions that would benefit his team was mirrored by the attitude of more than a few of his players in their everyday lives as Florida Gators football players.

Football is about people, and the people that Dan Mullen appointed to do specific jobs and fill specific roles let the team down. It is my belief as the author of this investigative piece that Dan Mullen arrived at Florida with nothing but good intentions, and a genuine desire to lead the Florida Gators to glory. Unfortunately, he put those good intentions behind his loyalty to certain people on his priority list.

And as Mullen continued to stand by them, even as it was clear beyond a reasonable doubt that these people were detrimental to the health of the program, the Florida Gators’ implosion under his stewardship was inevitable.

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Gators land former LSU five star TE Arik Gilbert

Dan Mullen remains undefeated in the NCAA transfer portal with the addition of Arik Gilbert. And now, a year after Florida lost unanimous All-American tight end Kyle Pitts to the NFL, the Gators may not miss a beat at that position. Gilbert, a former five star tight...

Way too early 2021 Gator football game-by-game projections

Way too early 2021 Gator football game-by-game projections

With the Florida Gators' 2021 schedule released yesterday, I thought it would be worth taking my first shot at what's become fans' favorite offseason ritual: projecting Florida's record. And in order to have a final record projection, you have to go game by game in...

Florida Gators’ 2021 football schedule revealed

Florida Gators’ 2021 football schedule revealed

When the SEC first pieced together a twelve year football schedule rotation in 2014 that dictated which teams would play who from the other division, the Florida Gators knew that they'd be hosting Alabama as their cross-division opponent in 2021. But now, following...

Gators complete coaching staff with Jules Montinar

Gators complete coaching staff with Jules Montinar

UPDATE: Florida has officially announced Jules Montinar as the newest member of the Gator football staff. https://twitter.com/GatorsFB/status/1353802427313618945?s=20 (Initial story begins below.) With linebackers coach Christian Robinson presumably staying at...

Auburn DL Daquan Newkirk transfers to Florida

Auburn DL Daquan Newkirk transfers to Florida

DaQuan Newkirk is coming home. Daquan Newkirk has decided to return home (or close to it) for his final year of eligibility. And thus, Florida's shaky offseason took a step in the right direction. https://twitter.com/holdthat_2/status/1349757297782829056?s=20 Once a...

Florida LB James Houston to enter transfer portal

Florida LB James Houston to enter transfer portal

Best of luck to James Houston as he searches for a new home. James Houston IV, a junior linebacker from Fort Lauderdale, has told me that he will be entering the transfer portal. Houston was known for making a few of the bigger defensive plays of the last couple of...

Keyontae Johnson placed into medically induced coma

Keyontae Johnson placed into medically induced coma

Keyontae Johnson has been placed into a medically induced coma, according to the USA Today, who spoke with Johnson's grandfather. His grandfather, Larry DeJarnett said in a phone interview that his grandson was transported to Gainesville earlier today after receiving...

Florida vs Tennessee: Film Review – Defense

Florida’s 2020 season has overall been a successful one by most measures. The Gators are 8-1, ranked in the top ten in every major poll and are four wins away from securing the program’s fourth national title. But in order to obtain that national title, there’s a lot...

Several Gators listed as national award semifinalists

Florida's efforts on the field have been rewarded in the sense that the Gators now control their own destiny to SEC and national championships. But for several players, their efforts are being rewarded in more individual manners, too. Four Gators have been listed as...

Rocky Slop: Florida takes down Tennessee to clinch SEC East

The day Dan Mullen was introduced as the Gators’ new head coach, he talked at length about giving relentless effort in all he did to restore the program to a championship level. Last night on Rocky Top, his Gators took a major step toward doing so. Heisman front...

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 31-19 win over Tennessee

Florida didn't play especially well, but did more than enough to beat Tennessee and wrap up the SEC East for the first time since 2016. What were the major takeaways from the game? Florida simply does not have a running game Tennessee came into the game with a five...

Photo Gallery from Florida’s 34-10 win over Kentucky

As we anticipate tomorrow's road matchup with Tennessee,  let’s take one more look back at last week’s game against Kentucky. Our podcast host, Dustin Smith, happens to also be a fantastic photographer. He was at the game last Saturday, and got some great photos of...

Florida RB Iverson Clement will transfer

Florida's deep stable of running backs has just gotten a little thinner. Iverson Clement, a junior tailback from Mount Holly, NJ, has decided to transfer. He departs from Florida having carried the ball twelve times for 94 yards. He nearly scored a touchdown against...

Gators make belated Thanksgiving feast out of Wildcats

Florida was missing key pieces on both sides of the ball a week ago in a sluggish 38-17 win over Vanderbilt. The Gators got them both back today, and the result was fairly similar: Florida struggled for a half against a historically inferior divisional opponent,...

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 34-10 win over Kentucky

It took awhile for Florida to get itself going, but they eventually did do exactly that and rolled away from Kentucky. What stood out in the victory? A tale of two halves Florida's offense was stuck in reverse for most of the first half, mustering a grand total of...

No. 6 Gators overcome sluggish start to run past Vandy

Florida arrived at Vanderbilt’s small stadium a mere hour and two minutes before kickoff, determined to avoid the cramped quarters in the visitors’ locker room at all costs and intent on spending as little time on the premises as they had to. Then the Gators took the...

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 38-17 win over Vanderbilt

It wasn’t pretty, but Florida fought off a tough challenge from Vanderbilt and got out of Nashville with a 38-17 win. What stuck out in the victory? The defense is still a problem. Yes, Florida played better on defense after a miserable first quarter, and sure,...

Photo Gallery from Florida’s 63-35 win over Arkansas

Before we look ahead to Vanderbilt tomorrow, let's take one more look back at last week's game against Arkansas. Our podcast host, Dustin Smith, happens to also be a fantastic photographer. He was at the game last Saturday night, and got some great photos of various...

Trask, Gators run Hogwild in blowout of Arkansas

Trask, Gators run Hogwild in blowout of Arkansas

Feleipe Franks’ dramatic return to the Swamp was the story of the day when his Arkansas Razorbacks faced off against #6 Florida in the Swamp. But it was his long-time understudy, Kyle Trask, who dominated the night. Trask continued his push for a Heisman Trophy by...

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 63-35 win over Arkansas

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 63-35 win over Arkansas

Florida earned its most lopsided win of the season over Arkansas, and former quarterback Feleipe Franks, 63-35. What stood out most along the way? Kyle Trask is now the Heisman frontrunner After several years of hyping up various quarterbacks as Heisman Trophy...

A Tribute to Feleipe Franks: I Will Remember You

A Tribute to Feleipe Franks: I Will Remember You

Hello again, Feleipe Franks. It's been about fourteen months since your Gator career ended in a particularly gruesome fashion. Tomorrow, we meet again. Only this time, your job will be to ruin Florida's season, not enhance it, and our job will be to make you...

Florida 44, Georgia 28: Helmet Stickers and Plays of the Game

Florida 44, Georgia 28: Helmet Stickers and Plays of the Game

Florida's euphoric win over Georgia is still sinking in, but it's time to go through the film and look at this game from an academic standpoint. You can rewatch the game here. First order of business: a blanket helmet sticker is awarded to every member of the team for...

Gators kick Georgia out of Cocktail Party

Gators kick Georgia out of Cocktail Party

Throughout Dan Mullen’s short tenure at Florida, Kirby Smart has had Mullen’s number.  And three minutes into their third meeting in Jacksonville, it looked like that would continue. But then Florida flipped the script and turned the game— and the rivalry— on its...

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 44-28 win over Georgia

Five Takeaways from Florida’s 44-28 win over Georgia

WE DID IT!!! Yes, at long last, Florida has gotten the Georgia monkey off its back and toppled the Bulldogs to take control of the SEC East. What did we learn along the way? Kyle Trask is officially a Heisman Trophy frontrunner He may not win the award, but he has to...

2021 OL Yousef Mugharbil commits to Florida

2021 OL Yousef Mugharbil commits to Florida

A day before the Gators take on Georgia in the Cocktail Party, Yousef Mugharbil kicked off their weekend the right way. Mugharbil, a consensus four star offensive lineman from Murphy, NC/Murphy HS, has committed to Florida. He also had offers from Penn State, Virginia...

Five takeaways from Florida’s 41-17 win over Missouri

Five takeaways from Florida’s 41-17 win over Missouri

Florida bounced back from a rough loss to Texas A&M three weeks ago with a statement win against Missouri. What stood out in the process? The defense isn't great, but it's getting better. Even without three starters in the secondary (and without Zachary Carter in...

Gators down three starters in the secondary against Missouri

Gators down three starters in the secondary against Missouri

Florida's defensive backfield- already shaky at full strength- is now going to be decimated tonight against Missouri. Starting cornerback Marco Wilson, as well as safeties Shawn Davis and Donovan Stiner, are all out tonight, according to various reports. The reasons...

For Gators, a new season begins against Missouri

For Gators, a new season begins against Missouri

Three weeks ago, Florida completed its preseason portion of the 2020 schedule with a good deal of promise, but well aware of what it had to work on. One ugly COVID outbreak and three weeks later, and the Gators begin the meat of their schedule- a seven game stretch...

2022 Safety Sam McCall commits to Florida

2022 Safety Sam McCall commits to Florida

Just as things are getting back into full swing for the Gator football team, things are heating up on the recruiting trail, too. Florida has nabbed a commitment from 2022 athlete Sam McCall, a consensus five star recruit from Lakeland, FL/Lake Gibson HS. He chose...

2021 Edge rusher Jeremiah Williams commits to Florida

2021 Edge rusher Jeremiah Williams commits to Florida

Defensive end Jeremiah Williams, a consensus four star prospect out of Birmingham, AL/Ramsay HS, has committed to Florida, giving the Gators yet another dynamic piece for their 2021 recruiting class. Signs were pointing towards Gainesville for the highly touted edge...

Florida-Missouri game postponed to October 31

Florida-Missouri game postponed to October 31

According to multiple sources close to the team, the Florida-Missouri game scheduled to take place on October 24th will now be pushed back one week, to Halloween on October 31st. In All Kinds of Weather first reported yesterday that the game was extremely likely to be...

Florida-LSU game postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak

Florida-LSU game postponed due to COVID-19 outbreak

Multiple sources have confirmed that the Florida-LSU game scheduled for this Saturday is going to be postponed. An announcement could come as early as Wednesday afternoon. The news comes less than 24 hours after an outbreak of COVID-19 within the Gators' football...

COVID-19 outbreak places Florida-LSU game in jeopardy

After just three games, the novel coronavirus that has wreaked havoc on pretty much everything in 2020 appears to have found its way into the Gator football program. And predictably, the COVID-19 outbreak has thrown up a blockade in front of the season. A few days...

Texas A&M forces Florida to address defensive issues

Texas A&M forces Florida to address defensive issues

Throughout the game on Saturday in College Station, Florida seemed to be one step ahead of Texas A&M. Until they weren't. And then it was too late to do anything about it as the Florida program trudged off the field following a familiar fate- a loss to Jimbo...

Five takeaways from Florida’s 41-38 loss to Texas A&M

Five takeaways from Florida’s 41-38 loss to Texas A&M

Florida suffered its first loss of the season against Texas A&M today, an ugly 41-38 setback that’s far more irritating than damaging— but one that exposed a great deal of Gator shortcomings. What stood out in particular? (Spoiler alert: a lot of them are...

Imperfect Gators outlast South Carolina to start 2-0

Imperfect Gators outlast South Carolina to start 2-0

The various struggles the Florida Gators have endured on defense didn’t matter too much in their first two games against Mississippi and South Carolina. They might in their next game. And they almost certainly will later in the season. Kyle Trask tossed four touchdown...

Clemson RB Demarkcus Bowman to transfer to Florida

Clemson RB Demarkcus Bowman to transfer to Florida

The Lakeland-to-Gainesville pipeline has continued, albeit via a detour. Demarkcus Bowman has chosen to transfer to Florida. Mere days after announcing his decision to enter the transfer portal, Bowman told Gators Territory of his decision. Bowman, a former five star...

Trask’s career day propels Florida past Mississippi

Trask’s career day propels Florida past Mississippi

Dan Mullen returned to the place he once called “The School Up North” in his new set of colors for the first time. And he provided that school up north with a first class education in just how lethal his new offense is. Kyle Trask went wild, completing 30 of his 42...

Five takeaways from Florida’s 51-35 win at Ole Miss

Five takeaways from Florida’s 51-35 win at Ole Miss

The Gators opened their 2020 season with a somewhat convincing 51-35 victory over Ole Miss in Oxford. In doing so, Florida knotted the all time series score against the Rebels at twelve wins apiece. Here are my five initial takeaways from the game: Kyle Trask is...

2020 Gator football position preview: secondary

2020 Gator football position preview: secondary

Our position previews of the 2020 Gator football team conclude today with a look at the defensive backfield. Can the unit colloquially known as "DBU" move forward without CJ Henderson? Previously previewing: quarterbacks | running backs | wide receivers | tight ends |...

2020 Gator football position previews: linebackers

2020 Gator football position previews: linebackers

The penultimate piece of our position preview segment takes us to the Florida linebackers- a unit that was very good in 2019, but will look a bit different in 2020. Let's get right into it. Previously previewing: quarterbacks | running backs | wide receivers | tight...

2020 Gator football position preview: defensive line

2020 Gator football position preview: defensive line

Having completed our offensive position previews, today we move to the defensive side of the ball. And as is the case everywhere in the SEC, it starts up front. Previously previewing: quarterbacks | running backs | wide receivers | tight ends | offensive line The...

2020 Gator football position preview: offensive line

2020 Gator football position preview: offensive line

Fresh off our preview of Florida's tight ends, our 2020 Gator football position preview rolls on with a look at perhaps the key to the entire team: the offensive line. Last year, was so-so a year ago in pass protection, but really let the team down in the ground game....

2020 Gator football position preview: tight ends

2020 Gator football position preview: tight ends

With kickoff just around the corner, our position by position previews of the 2020 Gator football team are about to start hitting the presses rapid-fire. Having already published our previews on Florida's quarterback, running back and wide receiver rooms, the first of...

2020 Gator football position preview: wide receivers

2020 Gator football position preview: wide receivers

Having previously broken down Florida's quarterbacks and running backs, our position preview segment moves along today with a look at Florida's receivers. It's a unit that lost four of its top playmakers from 2019 (Van Jefferson, Freddie Swain, Josh Hammond and Tyrie...

2020 Gator football position preview: running backs

2020 Gator football position preview: running backs

After a bit longer of a gap between position breakdowns than I intended, the series rolls on today with a look at Florida's running backs. What do the Gators have in stock in their RB room this year? The leader: Dameon Pierce The leading returning rusher from 2019 has...

Snapshot: the 2020 Florida-FSU chart

Snapshot: the 2020 Florida-FSU chart

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my distinct honor and privilege to present to you, the 2020 Florida-FSU chart. Many of you already know what I'm referring too. For those who don't, "The Chart" is an annual In All Kinds Of Weather tradition that compares the Florida Gators...

2020 Gator football position preview: quarterbacks

2020 Gator football position preview: quarterbacks

With kickoff at long last in sight, it's time to break down the 2020 Gator football roster, position by position. Who's back, who's going to start, how good are they, and so on. Man, it's great to finally be talking about that again. So with that said, let's start...

Gators learn four of ten kickoff times for 2020 season

Gators learn four of ten kickoff times for 2020 season

Three of Florida's first four games of the 2020 season carry the potential to be broilers. The Gators' season opener against Mississippi in Oxford on September 26th will kick off at noon, and air on ESPN. The following week, Florida will return home and again play in...

#GreatestGatorEver Sweet 16 bracket breakdown

#GreatestGatorEver Sweet 16 bracket breakdown

Having announced the tentative plans for the schedule of the remainder of the #GreatestGatorEver fan voting tournament (update; the tournament resumes tomorrow on twitter and Instagram stories), it's time to refresh our memories regarding the final sixteen contestants...

#GreatestGatorEver tournament schedule update

#GreatestGatorEver tournament schedule update

For those who have been keeping track of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament, the excitement level has reached yet another all time high, as it does with the completion of each round. For those who haven't, it's not too late to be introduced to the event. Here's (a very...

Gators’ 2020 football schedule unveiled

Gators’ 2020 football schedule unveiled

At long last, the Florida Gators 2020 football schedule has been released. Here it is, in full. Florida Gators 2020 football schedule Week Date Opponent 1 9/26 @ Mississippi 2 10/3 S CAROLINA 3 10/10 @ Texas A&M 4 10/17 LSU 5 10/24 MISSOURI 6 --- BYE 7 11/7...

Four key Gators sit out first fall practice

Four key Gators sit out first fall practice

For the time being, it looks as though the SEC is going to give its college football season a go in 2020. But at least for today's inaugural practice, the Florida Gators football team launched its fall season down four critical pieces. As first reported by Sports...

Florida Gators 2021 Recruiting Big Board update: mid-August

Florida Gators 2021 Recruiting Big Board update: mid-August

The Gators' recruiting recent endeavors can be summed up with a synopsis not unlike a bunch of little kids swinging away at a dangling piñata. After much time and effort hacking at it to no avail, one well-placed swing and the fruits of their labor suddenly began...

DT Desmond Watson commits to Florida

DT Desmond Watson commits to Florida

Florida had been suffering through a bit of a lull on the recruiting trail earlier this month, a period that was low lighted by Clinton Burton flipping his commitment from Florida to Boston College. But if the past couple of weeks didn't vault Florida out of that rut,...

Gators flip OL recruit Jake Slaughter from FSU

After a bit of a lull on the recruiting trail, Florida has suddenly picked it up over the course of the last week. Last Saturday, safety Donovan McMillon committed; less than 48 hours later, receiver Marcus Burke followed suit to rev the engine a little bit on a 2021...

Top Jacksonville WR Marcus Burke commits to Florida

Top Jacksonville WR Marcus Burke commits to Florida

The Gators' 2021 recruiting class got a boost Saturday with the addition of Donovan McMillon. Today, Dan Mullen & Co. built on that momentum with the addition of receiver Marcus Burke. https://twitter.com/CERTIFIED_MB4/status/1285296008747003904?s=20 Burke, a...

Safety Donovan McMillon commits to Florida

Safety Donovan McMillon commits to Florida

Clinton Burton out, Donovan McMillon in. McMillon, a borderline three/four star safety from McMurray, PA/Peters Township High School, has committed to the Gators. The move provides Florida fans with a bit of relief following the decommitment of fellow defensive back...

#GreatestGatorEver tournament set to heat up

#GreatestGatorEver tournament set to heat up

Welcome to the part of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament where things really start to get interesting. For those who are just catching wind of the tournament, a quick explanation of how it works. Created with the goal of deciding the greatest Florida Gator athlete of...

Gators announce six new positive COVID tests within football program

UF confirms 11 positive COVID-19 cases since April

The University of Florida has acknowledged that eleven different positive tests for COVID-19 have taken place since April. The news comes a week and a half after the announcement that no returning Gator football player had tested positive. From Florida senior...

2021 CB Jordan Young commits to Florida

2021 CB Jordan Young commits to Florida

It may be one of the slowest times for sports in recent memory, but the inverse has been the case in the world of Gator football recruiting. 2021 cornerback Jordan Young (Tampa, FL/Gaither) has committed to Florida. A consensus three star prospect with offers from...

Kamar Wilcoxson re-commits to Florida for a third time

Kamar Wilcoxson re-commits to Florida for a third time

Kamar Wilcoxson is back on the Gators' commitment list- and he says this time, it's for good. https://twitter.com/KamarWilcoxson4/status/1274100941369806850?s=20 I think at this point, most Gator fans are familiar with who he is, and if you're not, I'll explain why I...

Safety Dakota Mitchell commits to Florida

Safety Dakota Mitchell commits to Florida

It probably got lost in the news of yesterday’s news that the Florida band will stop cueing up the “Gator bait” chant due to the term’s racist history, but while Florida football lost a ritual, it gained a commit. Safety Dakota Mitchell (Winter Park, FL/Winter Park)...

Gator football gets the green light to proceed with practice

Gator football gets the green light to proceed with practice

One thing that COVID-19 has proven is that it possesses an uncanny ability to screw up all different types of plans, and there's no concrete evidence that it's finished doing so. That's something that has to be kept in mind for the duration of this article, as well as...

Gator baseball pitcher Tommy Mace to return in 2021

Gator baseball pitcher Tommy Mace to return in 2021

Tommy Mace has just pulled perhaps the biggest offseason surprise in the world of Florida Gator athletics. Mace, the ace of the Gator baseball pitching staff, has decided to return to Gainesville for another season after going undrafted in the MLB Draft. Per...

Former Florida WR Reche Caldwell murdered outside his house

Former Florida WR Reche Caldwell murdered outside his house

Photo credit: Sports Illustrated Ex-Florida wide receiver Reche Caldwell has died from injuries sustained in a shooting right outside his home in Tampa, according to multiple different reports. The story was first broken by TMZ, and confirmed by ESPN's Adam Schefter....

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 15 Regional

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 15 Regional

The sixteenth and final Regional of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament gets underway later tonight. Thus, our Regional previews conclude with a look at the 15 Regional: The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.) (1)...

Lorenzo Lingard granted immediate eligibility for Florida

Lorenzo Lingard granted immediate eligibility for Florida

Happy birthday, Lorenzo Lingard. Florida's newest running back addition has announced on twitter that his waiver to be able to play in 2020 has been granted: https://twitter.com/d1champ99/status/1266464118950723584?s=20 Florida's running back room wasn't bad to begin...

#GreatestGatorEver tournament set to heat up

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 2

The penultimate Regional of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament is just about set to get underway. As is customary by now, let's acquaint ourselves with the sixteen player field a little more first. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 10 Regional

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 10 Regional

Round one of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament is drawing to a close. Today, we take a look at the third-to-last of the sixteen Regional brackets to be played: the 10 Regional. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.)...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 7 Regional

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: 7 Regional

We are officially three quarters of the way through of the first round of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament. Tomorrow morning, we begin the first round of the fourth quarter of the bracket- the 7 Regional. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order...

Class of 2021 RB/WR Charles Montgomery commits to Florida

Class of 2021 RB/WR Charles Montgomery commits to Florida

Charles Montgomery will be suiting up in orange and blue on Saturdays. On an instagram live feed, Montgomery announced that he was choosing Florida over Maryland. A consensus four star prospect out of Seffner, FL/Armwood, Montgomery also had offers from Alabama,...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 14

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 14

Time to complete the upper right hand corner of the #GreatestGatorEver bracket with the 14 Regional. Y'all know the drill by now; let's get to it. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.) (1) Kelly Barnhill (softball,...

Florida unveils plan to bring athletes back to campus

Florida unveils plan to bring athletes back to campus

Photo credit: University of Florida COVID-19 has pretty much shut down college athletics since it made its way over to the United States a couple of months ago. Now, the first steps are being taken to see their resumption. Earlier today, SEC school presidents have...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 3

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 3

Up next in our #GreatestGatorEver tournament is the 3 Regional. Before voting gets underway, let's take a closer look at the field. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.) (1) Al Horford (basketball, C/F-...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 11

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 11

Eight Regionals down, one underway, and seven more to go in Round One of our #GreatestGatorEver tournament. Next up is the 11 Regional. The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.) (1) Jack Youngblood (football, DE/DT/K-...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 6

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 6

We're halfway through the opening round of our summer long #GreatestGatorEver tournament. Now, we shift to the right side of the bracket, and start at the top with the 6 Regional, which gets underway tomorrow morning. The bracket Regional participants (Players are...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 12

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 12

The eighth and final Regional on the left half of the 256 player #GreatestGatorEver tournament is set to get started tonight. Another way of putting that: after tonight's 12 Regional voting, we will officially be halfway done with the opening round of this summer long...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 5

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 5

Our #GreatestGatorEver tournament rolls on today with Round one of the 5 Regional. As was the case for the previous Regionals and will be for all ensuing Regionals, let's take this opportunity to refresh our memories regarding what, exactly, the sixteen players in...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 13

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 13

With the 4 Regional of the #GreatestGatorEver tournament currently winding down, it's time to preview the Regional it's paired with in the Sweet 16: Regional #13. The 13 Regional bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.)...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 4

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 4

Our #GreatestGatorEver bracket is set to continue tomorrow with the opening round of the 4 Regional. Let's get to know that 4 Regional: The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they appear on the bracket.) (1) Emmitt Smith (football, RB-...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 9

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 9

Our #GreatestGatorEver bracket is set to continue later today with the opening round of the 9 Regional. With voting in the 8 Regional closing soon, let's familiarize ourselves with said 9 Regional: The bracket Regional participants (Players are listed in order they...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 8

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 8

Our #GreatestGatorEver tournament is off and running. Voting for the opening round of the 1 Regional has been completed; the 16 Regional is underway and will wrap up this afternoon. Shortly after its conclusion, the 8 Regional will get underway. So, let's get to know...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 16

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 16

Yesterday, voting began in our #GreatestGatorEver bracket in the 1 Regional. Today, voting will continue with the 16 Regional, but before the polls open, let's preview the field and refresh our memories on the players' accomplishments. The bracket Regional...

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 1

#GreatestGatorEver bracket breakdown: Regional 1

Voting for the #GreatestGatorEver bracket begins this afternoon. In the name of eliminating potential recentism in the voting, I thought I'd set the stage by previewing each Regional before the voting gets underway. Today, we'll take a look at Regional 1, which of...

2021 guard Kowacie Reeves commits to Florida

2021 guard Kowacie Reeves commits to Florida

Mike White's 2021 recruiting class is off to a great start. Kowacie Reeves (Macon, GA) has committed to Florida. Reeves, a highly sought after four star, also earned offers from North Carolina, Texas, Auburn, Georgia and Seton Hall, among others. This commitment might...

Introducing the Greatest Gator Ever bracket

Introducing the Greatest Gator Ever bracket

Part of what has helped fans make it through a long, frustrating quarantine is the abundance of fan polls on social media. In particular, 64-team, March Madness themed brackets that allow fans to vote on the winner of each matchup in each round have captured a lot of...

Michigan F Colin Castleton transferring to Florida

Michigan F Colin Castleton transferring to Florida

Colin Castleton is coming home, and Florida is adding some more frontcourt depth for the future- potentially even next season. Castleton, who spent the last two seasons at Michigan, will be transferring closer to home and joining Mike White's Gator basketball squad....

Recapping the Gators’ weekend in the 2020 NFL Draft

Recapping the Gators’ weekend in the 2020 NFL Draft

The 2020 NFL Draft has just concluded, and once again, the Florida Gators were very well represented. Below is a list of all the selections from Florida. Click on the player names for further analysis on what they bring to their new teams. Florida Gators in the 2020...

How Dan Mullen fixed a broken Gator football program

How Dan Mullen fixed a broken Gator football program

What was a fractured program less than 30 months ago needed a hero to put it back together. In Dan Mullen, Florida found that hero. This is the story of the toxic culture he walked into, how he went to work taking it apart, and how he's replaced that toxic culture...

Tebow, Spikes, James inducted into UF Hall of Fame

Tebow, Spikes, James inducted into UF Hall of Fame

Three members of the Florida Gators' 2008 football team- universally regarded as one of the best in college football history- are finally getting the ultimate recognition they deserve- spots in the UF Hall of Fame. Explosive kick/return man Brandon James posted a...

Scottie Lewis to return for sophomore year

Scottie Lewis to return for sophomore year

Florida’s basketball team got a sort-of-but-not-really-surprising boost today, as shooting guard Scottie Lewis announced that he will be coming back for his sophomore season. Lewis, a ridiculously athletic kid from southern New Jersey, arrived in Gainesville last fall...

The “Kyle Trask Emory Jones” debate: why not both?

The “Kyle Trask Emory Jones” debate: why not both?

The "Kyle Trask Emory Jones" debate is in full swing. Yes, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that has, among other things, lengthened college sports fans' offseason, the fanbase-wide argument regarding who should be the starter at the most important position of...

Coronavirus abruptly ends 2019-20 NCAA athletic season

Coronavirus abruptly ends 2019-20 NCAA athletic season

Photo credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images UPDATE 5:10pm: although it feels wholly logical to assume that college baseball and softball are over for 2020, the language in the two released statements- from the SEC and NCAA, and which you can read below- left one pair of...

TE Nick Elksnis commits to Florida

TE Nick Elksnis commits to Florida

Tight end Nick Elksnis (Jacksonville, FL/Episcopal) has announced his decision to be a Gator, thus netting Florida its first commitment of its Junior Day weekend. In doing so, Elksnis effectively flips from Penn State, from which he decommitted last week....

2020 Florida Gators’ Junior Day visitors list

2020 Florida Gators’ Junior Day visitors list

The Gators' second Junior Day event in Gainesville is upon us, and it's important to keep an eye on because more often than not, Florida uses it to add members to its list of commits. This time around, the chances of the Gators doing so are increased appreciably-...

For Gator basketball, time is running out to figure things out

For Gator basketball, time is running out to figure things out

For much of Saturday's game against Tennessee, Florida couldn’t score. When they finally remembered how to score, they couldn’t come up with the critical stops. In other words, it was a typical basketball game for Mike White’s Gators on the heels of an impressive win....

Four star TE Gage Wilcox commits to Florida

Four star TE Gage Wilcox commits to Florida

Congratulations to Gage Wilcox. You, sir, have just become the first commit for Tim Brewster. Wilcox, a four star tight end from Tampa's Jefferson High School in the Class of 2021, committed on an Instagram Live video, as captured by twitter user @CurtisK421....

Florida takes step forward by throttling LSU

Florida takes step forward by throttling LSU

Photo credit: Florida Gators Maybe this is another mirage, the latest peak in a dizzying array of sine waves for Mike White’s Gator basketball team. Or maybe, after we all erroneously thought this team had turned the corner several times before, this is the game that...