This is either rock bottom or dangerously close to it

Perhaps you were of the mindset that things just couldn’t get worse, that the LSU and Georgia beatings were rock bottom for the Florida Gators. Well, you were wrong, but don’t feel bad because you aren’t the only one who was thinking at least we have those four cupcake games in November to ease the pain.

You can scratch that idea.

The LSU loss was bad. Any time your defense takes a powder and gives up 316 rushing yards and your offense tacks on 21 points for the other team because your quarterbacks complete four passes to the other team, it’s really, really painful.

The Georgia loss was worse because the defense actually showed up but the offense had its lousiest 3-minute stretch since the Nebraska Chainsaw Massacre of 1995 when the Gators were poleaxed in the national championship game. Georgia was gifted three touchdowns in three remarkably horrendous minutes at the end of the first half, turning winnable into disastrous.

You can at least make the excuse that even if LSU is losing the Tigers have a lot of good football players. You can also reason away the Georgia loss because Georgia is good enough to win its first national championship since Herschel Walker was running over people instead of running for the United States Senate.

So what’s the excuse for losing 40-17 to a South Carolina team that came into the game 18-point underdogs?

The flu bug had something to do with it. That much isn’t an excuse but reality.

“We had anywhere from 20-30 guys missing from practice every day this week,” Dan Mullen said postgame. “I give some guys credit. Emory Jones tested positive for the flu this morning, we had several guys not even come out onto to the field, onto the bus. I don’t want to make an excuse for those guys, but I want to give our guys credit for battling, with facing that adversity. We had a bunch of guys dealing with sickness. We had to fly some guys up separately from the team, keep everybody separated. Those guys still went out. Even though there was a large number of guys that missed practice, we had quite a few ... Our training staff tried to do a good job today of IV-ing guys and trying to get them ready to be able to go out and perform.”

Was the flu responsible for a 23-point final deficit to a team whose only previous SEC win was Vanderbilt? Even flu-ravaged it just doesn’t make sense that the Gators gave up 286 rushing yards (6.8 per carry) to a team that came into the game averaging 117 per game and 3.37 per carry. And how is it that South Carolina’s third-team quarterback, playing in just his fourth game of the season and whose last starting gig was in D1AA for the St. Francis (PA) Red Flashes, looked like the reincarnation of Francis Asbury Tarkenton the way he bought time scrambling and then found wide open receivers?

Let’s assume the flu had more to do with the loss than we want to credit. Healthy or not, it doesn’t change the fact that the Gators made the same kind of mistakes on defense that they make when they’re healthy. When they’re healthy they botch coverages, give up chunk plays on the ground and tackle as if the ball carrier has been greased. It also doesn’t change the fact that the Gators turn the ball over way too much. The Gators had another pass intercepted (their 15th this season) and South Carolina returned a Florida fumble for a touchdown. That makes 75 points opponents have scored this season that are the direct result of a turnover. Good teams don’t give points away. The Gators seem to pass them out like they are trick or treat candy.

Another fact to contemplate and this one really hurts. The Gators are 4-8 since last December 12 and the four wins are sandwiched between two three-game losing streaks.

Think about that for a moment. The Gators lost their last three games of the 2020 season and their only four wins are bookended by another three-game losing streak. Three-game losing streaks are not the sign of healthy football programs. Not at all.

So what is wrong with the Florida football program? There is no solution that can make 2021 less of a disappointment, but something has to be done to salvage next year and the years after.

What seems obvious to fans, media and experts alike is that Mullen has to do a no sacred cows evaluation of his entire football operation. By no sacred cows it means that nobody’s job is safe. One by one, Mullen needs to identify those that can be part of the solution and tell those that aren’t that he’s thankful for their service but it’s time to seek gainful employment elsewhere. Once that is accomplished, he has to bring in some people who can rejuvenate every aspect of the program from the daily operations to recruiting to coaching.

Staff changes aren’t easy but sometimes – like now, for instance – they’re necessary. Asked about staff changes after the South Carolina loss, Mullen responded, “I’m not going to get into any of that stuff right now of what we are going to do. We are going to evaluate where we are at and look.”

The minutes after a drubbing like the one the Gators experienced in Columbia is not the right time to be openly discussing staff changes. Staff changes are done in private and not in public. Mullen might come across as arrogant and haughty much of the time, but he’s not cold hearted and to publicly announce he’s going to be firing some coaches immediately after a game would be the kind of classless move that would prevent him from hiring new coaches when the time comes.

Dan Mullen is a very smart guy who knows that if the Florida program isn’t broken, it will be soon if he doesn’t make some significant changes. The most obvious change has to be the defensive coordinator because if the last 21 games (12 last year, 9 this) have taught us one thing it is that Todd Grantham’s schemes and adjustments aren’t getting it done with the kind of consistency that it takes to field an exceptional defense. The only way Florida is ever going to make it back to a championship-level football program is with a consistent defense that can stop opponents and get off the field. The last 21 games have told us it won’t happen with Grantham.

No matter what happens with these next three games – Samford, Missouri and Florida State – this season is going down as a total disappointment. Perhaps our expectations were way too high and undoubtedly, we underestimated just how big a loss it was when Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney left for the No Fun League. Even so, none of us expected to see the football program’s respectability hanging on by a thread.

That’s what we have, a football program that is hanging on by a thread. The buck stops with Dan Mullen. He’s the one who got the Gators into this mess and it’s up to him to get the Gators out of it. The question that looms on everyone’s mind at this point is does Mullen have the resolve to own up to the shortcomings of his entire program and then take whatever steps are necessary to rectify the situation.

If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always be what you’ve always been. It’s time for Dan Mullen to do something different.