I don't take Dooley's account as gospel either.
On Sunday, December 3, 2017, 5:59:18 PM EST, Oliver Barry
<[email protected]> wrote:
Well... I guess the bloggers made up a couple of stories.
Oliver Barry CRS, GRIReal Estate BrokerPARKS Real Estate Services305 B Indian
Lake BlvdSuite 220Hendersonville TN 37075Office: 615-826-4040Mobile:
[email protected]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Shane Ford <[email protected]>
Date: December 3, 2017 at 11:27:48 AM CST
To: GatorNews <[email protected]>
Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Florida’s journey to a football coaching hire
Reply-To: [email protected]
Florida’s journey to a football coaching hire
By Pat Dooley (Gainesville SUN) - December 3, 201718181Florida football coach
Dan Mullen speaks Monday at his introductory news conference at Ben Hill
Griffin Stadium. [Alan Youngblood/Staff photographer]
One week ago, Florida hired the 27th football coach in school history in Dan
Mullen. The hiring came four weeks after a news conference to announce the
departure of coach Jim McElwain immediately. What follows is the UF path to
this hire based on interviews with multiple people.
The day before had been disruptive, to say the least. Any time there is a
coaching change at a major Power Five school in the middle of the season, it
can feel out of control even when control has been established.
But on Monday, Oct. 30 — a day later — it was one of those beautiful
Gainesville mornings and there was work to be done. It was time for the search
to begin in earnest as the tide went out on the emotional uncoupling with the
head coach. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin had a mental list of who
might be a candidate for the suddenly vacant Florida football job, but nothing
set in stone.
On that Monday after Jim McElwain and UF parted ways, it was time to start
chiseling out a serious list.
Stricklin met with his top lieutenants at the University Athletic Association —
executive associate athletic directors Laird Veatch, Lynda Tealer, Mike Hill
and senior associate AD Steve McClain — to discuss the possible targets.
Names came up and some were dismissed. By the end of the meeting, there were
two names that were at the top of a short list — Dan Mullen and UCF’s Scott
Frost.
Some of the other potential candidates had buyouts that made them less
attractive than they normally would be. Matt Campbell at Iowa State had a $9
million buyout. Justin Fuente, the Virginia Tech coach, has a $6 million buyout
and might be reluctant to leave after only two years with the Hokies.
Stricklin spoke with several former UF players — Tim Tebow, Danny Wuerffel,
Kevin Carter, Steve Spurrier, Jesse Palmer and Chris Doering among them — to
get their input on what kind of coach would be right for the Gators.
The following day, agents began to pepper UF with calls. One of them was
intriguing. A representative of Chip Kelly called to say the former Oregon and
NFL coach was interested.
Initially, Kelly had been crossed off the list because of his show-cause
penalty from the NCAA. But after making calls to a handful of people, Florida
thought it might be a possibility.
One of them was Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens, who spoke highly of
Kelly. Florida also checked with several people who were involved in the Oregon
case with the NCAA and were assured that the issues were more about overseeing
the program rather than any actual violations.
On Thursday, Nov. 2, the UAA brain trust met again and Stricklin announced that
Kelly was back in the picture. At that point, Florida had three coaches in mind
as serious candidates — Mullen, Kelly and Frost.
Had Stricklin not had special ties to Starkville, Miss., it would have been a
one-man race and Mullen would have been the target. But leaving his alma mater
behind had been tough enough. Reaching in to swipe the best coach in
Mississippi State history would be brutal for people he cares about.
And there was this — Kelly was especially inviting because Florida could engage
with him before the season was over because he wasn’t coaching.
On Nov. 6, after daily discussions with Kelly via phone, Stricklin, Tealer and
Veatch took a commercial flight from Orlando to Boston, rented a car and drove
to Portsmouth, N.H. The next morning they met with Kelly for five hours.
They found him fascinating, but there was time to continue the process because
no working coaches could be contacted.
After more telephone conversations, six UF officials, including president Dr.
Kent Fuchs, took a private plane Nov. 19 from Ocala to Portsmouth. They knew
this flight would probably be tracked and joked about whether or not there
would be media waiting upon their return (there was).
Dr. Fuchs was on the trip because of the NCAA issues. If Kelly decided a couple
of days later he was willing to take the job, Florida wanted to already have
the meeting between the school president and Kelly taken place.
Still, at the end of the visit with no agreement reached despite erroneous
Internet reports, Florida’s contingent returned home and continued to do its
homework on Mullen and Frost.
On Tuesday, Kelly called to say he had decided that Florida’s fish bowl was not
for him. A few days later, he decided to become the next coach at UCLA,
describing it as “the best fit.”
Florida turned its attention to the other two candidates, but another name had
popped up. A successful Power Five head coach had let it be known through a
third party that he might be interested (according to multiple reports it was
Mike Gundy of Oklahoma State). He and Stricklin had several phone
conversations, but Stricklin could never get the feeling that the interest was
legitimate.
A representative for Frost had reached out to Florida, but UF was concerned
about two things — 1. Frost might want to wait to see what Nebraska — his alma
mater — was going to do; 2. Frost only had two years as a head coach, none in
the Power Five.
Stricklin and his staff knew how vital it was that Florida get this hire right
after UF had made a pair of risky hires post-Urban Meyer (McElwain and Will
Muschamp), neither of whom had worked out. If the Gators waited for Frost too
long and Mullen went elsewhere (such as Tennessee), they would basically be
starting from scratch again.
UF needed the closest coach to a sure thing. In a staff meeting, Stricklin let
it be known that he had no doubt Mullen would be a big winner at Florida, but
the thought of stealing a coach from his alma mater where he had so many deep
relationships made him queasy.
So Florida continued to flesh out Frost, while also sending word to Mullen
there would be conversations after his final game, the Egg Bowl, on
Thanksgiving night.
On the Friday before Florida’s season-ending game against FSU, Stricklin called
Mullen and the two former co-workers had a 45-minute conversation. They planned
to talk again after the FSU game. Mullen had other suitors, but Stricklin asked
him to hold off until UF’s season was completed.
Late in the FSU game, Stricklin let Mullen know he would call after visiting
the Gator locker room. During a series of Saturday evening and night
conversations on the phone, Mullen accepted the job, agreed to terms and
Stricklin worked things out with Mullen’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, later that night.
After discussions about logistics and staffing Sunday morning, the plan was to
wait until after players from both Florida and Mississippi State were informed
Sunday at around 6 p.m. But the story leaked sometime after noon that Mullen
was UF’s top target.
By that evening, Florida released the news that Mullen was the new Gator coach.
Finally, on Monday, Florida’s plane flew the Mullen family to Gainesville and
Stricklin couldn’t help but have a surreal feeling wash over him.
Nine years ago, he was on a jet as an associate athletic director at
Mississippi State. That jet flew to Gainesville to pick Megan Mullen up at the
private Gainesville airport to take her to Starkville, Miss., where her husband
was waiting to have a news conference that would introduce him as Mississippi
State’s new coach.
Here Stricklin stood on the tarmac at the same airport, welcoming her back to
Gainesville.
“This is where we met for the first time,” Stricklin told her.
Everything had come full circle.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at [email protected]. And follow
at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
Sent From Shane's iPhoneGo Gators! & Skål Vikes!
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006
National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National
Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim
Tebow (2007)
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006
National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National
Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny
Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006
National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008
National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier
(1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007)
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