Gators HC Dan Mullen Owns It After Blowout Loss to Georgia: It 'Falls on Me'

The Florida Gators suffered its worst loss of the season on Saturday vs. the Georgia Bulldogs.

Photo: Dan Mullen; Credit: Alex Shepherd

Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen is taking responsibility for the program's downfall following the football team's 34-7 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, the team's worst loss of the season in a game that appeared to be close until it simply wasn't.

The loss marked the team's fourth of the season, a lost year after the program entered the season with such high expectations following its appearance in the SEC Championship Game last year.

Now, it appears the Gators will have to fight tooth and nail over its final four games of the year in order to reach any sort of Gator Standard.

"We're not where we want to be," Mullen said following the game on Saturday "Obviously, I'm not, I'm certainly not where we want to be through this point of the season. Our players certainly are not where we want to be at this point in the season.

"I mean it's a mindset right now that we got to go change and we got to fix, and football's a great team sport, the ultimate team sport, and you know, as the head coach, the mindset of the team falls on me and where we're at the attitude, the approach and everything we take falls on me."

The team's issues haven't come from one particular area of weakness. Each loss Florida has taken this season has come due to different reasons. Against Alabama, the team missed an extra point, leading them to chase points. Against Kentucky, the Gators simply couldn't get anything done in the red zone and committed far too many penalties in critical situations.

Against LSU, the Gators run defense fell off a cliff, surrendering over 300 rushing yards to the Tigers. And finally, against Georgia, the team surrendered 21 points in the final two minutes of the contest, something caused by far too many mistakes offensively in short succession.

The sum of all of those issues has to be attributed to something and Mullen is fine with taking the lot of it as the team's head coach.

"I know our players are certainly not pleased with where we are. I know the Gator Nation, I know it's not pleased with where we are, with the standards and the expectations within this program," said Mullen.

"But in this final third of the season, that’s on me to get this fixed and the approach that I take and the mindset that we play with, that's on me to get it fixed."

Although it does appear that the program is at a crossroads, especially with how the season is headed, Mullen doesn't believe it is, and the final third of the season will ultimately tell the tale.

"I think we have some good young talent on this football team, some guys that can look and say, 'Hey, here's things we do well, here are things we do poorly, here's how we've got to continue to improve and get better. So, you know, I don't really see it as a crossroads, I see it as we have one-third of the season to go play and I've got to really make sure we go finish this season the right way."

Finishing the season the "right way," likely involves winning out. With games against South Carolina, Samford, Missouri and Florida State upcoming, it appears that the Gators will have plenty of opportunities to prove they are a talented bunch, and that all starts with its head coach, Dan Mullen.

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