The Florida Gators, Dan Mullen and Mike White: Coaching in the Shadow of Generational Greatness

Dan Mullen is forced to coach in the shadow of greats. Can he match them? Photo Courtesy: SEC

Urban Meyer is the new head football coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is uncharted waters for a generational football coach whose entire successful career has been in the college ranks. Among the reasons he has chosen to come out of retirement is the opportunity to rebuild a franchise in his own image with the cornerstone of this massive effort Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has been pegged a generational talent ever since he led the Tigers to an unbeaten 2018 season that concluded with a decisive win over Alabama in the national championship game.

A generational coach with a generational quarterback talent. Meyer knows this scenario well. It was in November of 2005, sitting in the cold while waiting for a plane that Greg Mattison discussed recruiting Tim Tebow. Everybody in the country wanted Tebow but it wasn’t exactly a secret that the choice would come down to Mike Shula and Alabama or Meyer and Florida.

“Ten years,” Mattison told Meyer. “If we don’t get him, it will set us back ten years.”

There was no ten-year setback. Meyer landed Tim Tebow, who was a critical piece of the 2006 national championship puzzle at Florida, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and the driving force in Florida’s 2008 run to the national championship.

Meyer and Tebow were the perfect storm, a confluence of a generational coach and a generational quarterback. Had Tebow gone to Alabama would it have saved Mike Shula’s job? Would Tebow have gone on to greatness? Would Meyer’s six-year run at Florida taken a completely different path? Perhaps the answer to all three of those questions is yes, but there is no guessing when it comes to Meyer, Tebow and Florida. They were the right time at the right place.

And now there is once again the potential for a perfect storm in Jacksonville where two generational talents take on the National Football League which has a history of unkindness to the brightest of stars from the college ranks. If Meyer fails to deliver championships in Jacksonville he will join a long list of college coaches who have failed at the next level. Lawrence is thought to be can’t miss, but every year NFL teams draft their next can’t miss kid because the last one’s star fizzled instead of shining brightly.

The football DNA of Meyer (187-32 career record, 65-15 at Florida; two national championships at UF, one at Ohio State) and Lawrence (39-2 as a starting QB with a national championship as a true freshman) say that success is inevitable despite the bleak history of coaches and QBs who have failed at the next level.

At Florida, Meyer’s accomplishments are only eclipsed by those of another generational talent in Steve Spurrier, who transformed the Southeastern Conference twice, once as a player (Heisman Trophy QB in 1966) and as a coach (122-27-1 record at UF with six SEC and a national title in 1996). As a player, Spurrier injected a much-needed level of excitement into college football in the years immediately following the elimination of the one-platoon era. He was the gunslinger, the master of the dramatic and the fourth quarter comeback. As a coach, his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense turned the SEC on its ear and ushered in an era of high-octane offenses that started throwing the ball as soon as the bus came to a complete stop outside the stadium.

Meyer and Tebow were Florida’s second perfect storm. The first was Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel, who took the Gators to four consecutive Southeastern Conference championships (1993-96) and the 1996 national championship. Wuerffel won the 1996 Heisman while leading the Gators to their first national championship in football. Coming out of high school, Wuerffel was considered the second prize for Spurrier. The first prize was Danny Kannell, who went to Florida State. Kannell got a national championship ring as a backup to 1993 Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and he had a decent senior season as a starter, but if you ask FSU fans, most rank Kannell outside their top ten all-time quarterbacks.

Wuerffel developed into one of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history. Would it have happened if he had chosen to play for a coach other than Steve Spurrier? Maybe not, but together they were the right fit, truly a confluence of coaching and playing ability.

While Spurrier and Wuerffel were generational talents in college their games didn’t translate to success in the pros but that hardly tarnishes their legends. What they accomplished at the University of Florida goes down in the annals of SEC and college football as one of the great runs in history.

Another generational coaching talent is Billy Donovan, whose 19 years at the University of Florida produced six of the Gators’ seven SEC titles and the only two NCAA basketball titles in school history. Donovan’s perfect storm was 2006-07 when he found a core group – Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey – who personified his coaching philosophy of five guys sharing the basketball and playing great defense with no regard for who had the best stats.

When Horford, Brewer, Noah, Green and Humphrey signed with Donovan out of high school, none of them were considered generational talents. Brewer was the only 5-star recruit of the bunch but despite the fact his home was two hours south of Lexington, Kentucky didn’t think he was good enough. An SEC coach told Donovan it would take at least three years for Horford to become good enough to be a backup. Noah was considered a project whose skinny frame and lack of a shot would hamper his development. Green was Florida’s fourth choice point guard in the 2004 signing class. Two years into his UF career people were thinking Humphrey was a wasted scholarship.

As individuals none of them could claim the generational label, but collectively the five of them functioned as one and became the ideal fit for a generational coach.

So why is all this generational talk important and how does it relate to the University of Florida today? The answer is quite simple. Florida football and basketball fans are openly questioning the coaching abilities of Dan Mullen and Mike White, many of them prayerful that Mullen will leave for the NFL and a larger group demanding athletic director Scott Stricklin fire White.

Because he never won an SEC title while coaching in the SEC hinterlands at Mississippi State, quite a number of Florida fans say Mullen lacks the championship qualities necessary to restore the Gators to the elite level. No one seems to consider that during those nine years in Starkville Mullen learned the nuances of being a head football coach or that his time at MSU is the most successful in Mississippi State history. This is a school that is 19 games under .500 for its history yet for four glorious weeks in 2014 with Mullen at the helm was ranked No. 1 nationally for the first time in its long football history.

In his three years at Florida, the Gators are 29-9, have played in three consecutive New Years Six bowl games and have an SEC East championship. In Alabama’s unbeaten 13-0 run to the national championship, only Mullen and the Gators played the Crimson Tide to a single possession game.

It is understandable that Florida fans want more. They want the glory and the championships that accompanied Spurrier and Meyer but far too many fail to take into consideration three rather large factors that have stood in Mullen’s way of delivering: (1) He’s at Florida at the same time Nick Saban is at Alabama; (2) he’s had to repair and restore relationships with high school coaches that were shredded during the three ill-fated years of the previous coach; and (3) he has yet to land a Tebow or a Wuerffel that can lift the team and the program to new heights.

Take a moment to put the Saban Factor into a Florida perspective. What Saban has done in 14 years at Alabama is unprecedented in the history of college football. Not even Bear Bryant won six national championships over a 12-year span (Saban did it from 2009-20). Alabama’s success on the field makes it possible that Alabama never rebuilds but simply reloads.

Now move on to point No. 2 and tie that into the Saban Factor. High school relationships were at a disastrous low when Mullen arrived at Florida in December of 2017. With a fourth recruiting class almost complete (the second national signing day is February 3) Mullen can go to battle with a true Southeastern Conference roster. Maybe he lacks the five-star talent Alabama lands, but Alabama recruits at a completely different level than any school in the country. Mullen recruits very good players but has to rely on developing players who aren’t as highly regarded as those recruited by Saban. His track record for player development is very strong.

Mullen is winning and winning opens doors for better recruits. What will ultimately open the door for Mullen is to bring in that generational talent. Spurrier had his in Wuerffel. Meyer had his in Tebow. Donovan had his in five guys who could play as one.

That brings us to Mike White.

Lou Holtz once said something so profound about the coaching profession. During his second or third year on the job at North Carolina State, where he transformed the Wolfpack from losers to an ACC power, Holtz was asked if he would want to be the successor to his mentor, Ohio State legend Woody Hayes. Holtz replied, “I don’t ever want to be the one who follows a legend but I wouldn’t mind following the one who follows the legend.”

While Dan Mullen lives in the shadow of generational coaching legends Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, Mike White is the one who followed the generational coaching legend. Now in his sixth season at Florida, he’s had the Gators a couple of missed shots and defensive stops away from a Final Four in 2017. Except for the shutdown of all sports due to the global pandemic in 2020, he would be a perfect five-for-five in delivering 20-win seasons. Only Kentucky has won more basketball games than Mike White and Florida in the SEC over the last six years.

Considering the tradition and advantages that Kentucky has, fans should be pleased yet any time the Gators lose a basketball game there is a very loud chorus shouting “Fire Mike White!” Numerous websites claim White is on the hot seat, which is nowhere close to the truth.

Mike White is forced to coach against Billy Donovan's record. Photo Credit: Tim Casey

Why do so many fans think White is a bad fit at Florida? Probably because he has yet to deliver the Gators to the promised land of the Final Four. Perhaps they don’t remember Billy Donovan only made it four times in a 19-year career. Prior to Donovan’s first national championship team in 2006, the Gators hadn’t gotten past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament five consecutive years. After the Gators flopped against Villanova in the second round in 2005, many Florida fans took to message boards to say Donovan needed to move on, that he had peaked at Florida.

Donovan won the two national titles, but it was six years before he made it to another Final Four (2013). He left for the NBA after a losing season in 2015.

White hasn’t won an SEC title nor has he gotten to the Final Four. He competes in the same league as Kentucky, which has been winning SEC titles and making Final Fours with a one-and-done approach. Kentucky recruits basketball the way Nick Saban recruits football. One of the reasons Saban has won so many national championships is because of football draft rules, his players stay at least three years. John Calipari gets his guys one year, two at the most.

White hasn’t had a single one-and-done but his guys graduate, don’t get into trouble and represent the University of Florida well.

When the Gators win, the Mike White critics say they didn’t win big enough. When they lose, they howl it’s time for him to go. Like Donovan before him it probably will take a generational team for White to get in the good graces of Florida fans.

But what happens if Mike White never gets that generational team? What happens if Dan Mullen never gets that generational quarterback? Does that mean they have failed at their jobs?

Far too many Florida fans would answer that with a resounding yes. Good, they will tell you, is not good enough. This is the University of Florida and the University of Florida demands great.

Great is certainly a marvelous idea, but is it realistic?

Certainly, Mullen’s job in restoring the Gators to the kind of prominence fans want would be so much easier if Nick Saban weren’t around. Saban is in the process of setting an almost impossible standard. Prior to Saban no one in college football had ever won six national championships in 12 years. You can almost bet the farm that no one will ever do that after Nick hangs up his whistle.

Can we compare Dan Mullen to Nick Saban? Because that’s who he’s coaching against. Yes, before him were two generational coaching legends in Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, but Spurrier’s last game coaching the Gators was the Orange Bowl after the 2001 season and Meyer left Florida after winning the Outback Bowl following the 2010 season. Spurrier and Meyer are long gone. Saban is the one Mullen is coaching against.

Is the comparison to Saban fair? Other than Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who has beaten Saban in two national championship games, it’s not really fair to compare any coach in the college game to Saban. Certainly, it’s not fair to compare Mullen to him, particularly when we consider Saban had an 11-year head start on Mullen, who has only been at Florida three years. And, when you also consider the fact that Alabama was winning national championships in football decades before the Gators ever got their first SEC title that counted under Spurrier in 1991.

Can we compare Mike White to Billy Donovan, John Calipari, Mike Kryzyzewski, Roy Williams or any number of basketball coaching legends? Once again the answer to that is no. Donovan left Florida for the NBA where he hasn’t won a championship. Calipari, Coach K and Roy are among those who Mike is coaching against and all of them have built-in advantages that White doesn’t have. Just as Saban has the decades-long traditions of Alabama working in his favor, White doesn’t have the blueblood recruiting advantages of Kentucky, Duke or North Carolina.

It is an uphill struggle for both of Florida’s most visible head coaches. Both of them want greatness and both of them are determined to get the Gators there. But what happens if they’re only good and not great? What happens if Mullen’s best is 10-11 wins a year, New Years Six bowls and winning the SEC East? What happens if White’s best is 20-plus wins a year and getting the Gators in the NCAA Tournament with occasional visits to the Sweet 16?

Will we think of them as unsuccessful? Will we live in the past like they do at Tennessee, for example? Tennessee’s most recent troubles are a prime example. The Vols were once a national power. In its zeal to bask in the glow of national relevance, it has been a revolving door of football coaches. The next will be the fifth since 2009. Current basketball coach Rick Barnes is Tennessee’s sixth since 2000. Newly hired athletic director Danny White is the sixth since 2010. The amount of money Tennessee has spent on contract buyouts in football and basketball could fund a number of Third World governments for months at a time.

There is nothing wrong with wanting championships and excellence, but the enthusiasm for hoisting the big trophies must be tempered with the reality of circumstances. Dan Mullen and Mike White are winning. Their players are graduating. We’re not seeing the mugshots of players on the front page of the Gainesville Sun. Former players sing the praises of both Mullen and White and not just for coaching, but their involvement with them personally to make better men of them. There is something to be said about that.

So, while we wait for that generational talent that can be the lightning in a bottle that takes the Gators to the football and basketball promised lands, it’s time to take a realistic look at what is being accomplished in both sports and to be thankful. The Gators are winning in both sports and making inroads toward championships. There is nothing wrong with that.

After all, we could be Tennessee.