If Nick Saban Is the Standard, Gators' Dan Mullen Has A Long Way To Go and A Lot Of Learning To Do
Down 13-0 to Georgia in the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 8, 2018, the Alabama Crimson Tide needed a spark if they wanted to hoist the CFP National Championship Trophy later that night.
And while I’m sure Nick Saban would call it anything but an easy call, he knew it was a decision he had to make.
And just like that, Jalen Hurts, who piloted the Alabama offense to yet another wildly successful regular season after leading the Crimson Tide to the national championship game the season prior, was benched.
At one point, Hurts was a Heisman hopeful and was regarded as a shoo-in as a National-Championship-winning-quarterback-to-be.
But all of that changed mid-game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta on that January night.
For Saban, the options were clear as day: Stay loyal to the quarterback that led you to the national championship game at the expense of losing the championship game, or play the talented freshman quarterback that has backed him up all season and see what happens.
Being the competitor Saban is, he was willing to do anything to beat the Bulldogs that night. Even if it meant closing the door on Jalen Hurts’ storied career at Alabama.
And we all know what happened next.
The Tua Tagovailoa-led Crimson Tide went on to win the national championship in overtime, Jalen Hurts went on to transfer to Oklahoma and have a successful career under Lincoln Riley. And the rest is history.
But that’s part of what makes Saban so successful: He will do anything to win, even if it means potentially hurting someone’s feelings.
And if that’s the case and Saban is the standard when it comes to college football coaching, then Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen has a long way to go.
The Florida Gators’ fan base is up in arms after Florida picked up its third loss of the season to the LSU Tigers, whose program, as we learned, was in shambles as one of Ed Orgeron’s feet was already out the door.
To call it an inexcusable loss is an understatement.
However, it provides us with a unique opportunity to see if Mullen is truly fit to be a head coach at a football program with high expectations.
Because in order to prove he’s meant to be at the helm of Florida’s program, it appears that he’s going to have to make some decisions that might upset people.
And, as most know, there’s two big ones: Who to start at quarterback and what to do with Todd Grantham.
Mullen has always been loyal to his people.
After leaving Mississippi State to take the gig in Gainesville, he brought a majority of his assistants with him -- including Todd Grantham, his defensive coordinator in both Starkville and in Gainesville.
Since Grantham’s first season at Florida, the 55-year-old Virginia native has been a whipping post for criticism.
“Third and Grantham” is now a household phrase that Florida fans use to mock Grantham’s questionable play calls on third down. And after the Florida defense gave up 458 yards to a less-than-impressive LSU offense last weekend, surely Gators fans were using more words to mock Florida’s defensive coordinator.
Following Saturday’s loss in Baton Rouge, which is Florida’s second-straight loss to LSU, Florida linebacker Mohamoud Diabate was asked about his thoughts on the defensive scheme. And his comments, without saying too much, said everything.
“I’m confident in my teammates to play hard,” Diabate said. “I’m confident in my teammates.”
Later in the presser, Diabate was asked about his thoughts on the defense’s adjustments.
“We made the adjustments we were given to make,” he said, adding that LSU maintained a similar offensive look all game.
While Diabate’s comments can be interpreted a number of different ways, reading between the lines and assuming that Grantham’s own players have their doubts about him isn’t a hard conclusion to come to.
And losing the locker room is the worst loss a program can take.
And second to that loss, is losing winnable ball games because the best 11 guys aren’t on the field. However, there’s a lot more grey area with this one.
Florida’s quarterback position has been referred to as a “situation” all season long.
While there hasn’t been a flatout quarterback competition, there’s been enough controversy to go around.
Despite being Dan Mullen’s first quarterback recruit at Florida, Emory Jones hasn’t developed the way many hoped he would.
After playing behind Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask, Jones was slated to be the next one in line and be spit shined to Mullen’s liking.
Instead, Jones has many of Florida’s fans clamoring for him to be benched to give way for Anthony Richardson to become the Gators’ starter. And honestly, maybe that’s exactly what needs to happen.
And here’s why: After seeing what we’ve seen from redshirt freshman Anthony Richardson, it appears as though his ceiling is much higher and Jones’.
Is Richardson ready to be thrown into the SEC? Probably not.
However, by not starting him, or at least giving him a fair shot at the starting job, do you risk Richardson transferring? Absolutely.
Between his size, athleticism and raw arm talent, Richardson is worth salivating over. And without a doubt, college coaches from around the country are doing just that -- including Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, who stirred the pot by retweeting some of Richardson’s tweets last weekend.
Fortunately for Gators’ fans, being a local kid, Richardson wants to stay in Gainesville. But does he want to do it at the expense of the play time he arguably deserves? Not in this business. He can’t afford to.
But all of this boils down to the ever-loyal Dan Mullen making a hard decision.
Emory Jones was the first quarterback Mullen called when he took the Florida job, flipping Jones from Ohio State and missing out on current Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corrall.
And Jones has done everything the right way. He’s waited his turn and has been loyal to Mullen in return.
But eventually head coaches need to step up and be head coaches -- which means making head coaching decisions. And sometimes that means upsetting someone -- whether that someone is an assistant coach you’ve been with for much of your head coaching career, or a 20-something-year-old kid who you convinced to come to Florida to play for you.
Nice guys finish last.
And Nick Saban has never finished last.
To be fair, there were three games this year when Mullen did not have Anthony Richardson available. So should we hold it against the Gator head coach for not playing an injured quarterback? We lost two of those three. Richardson looked rusty when he took the field against Vandy, his first game back, didn’t he? Meantime, even with a lower ceiling Emory was improving week to week. The LSU game actually was Mullen’s first opportunity to turn loose his gifted young QB. You’d never know all of the above from the hot, accusatory outpourings of fans who want to conveniently ignore the absolute unavailability of Anthony Richardson for essentially half of the season thus far. As for Grantham, hindsight indeed…