Mullen: Florida Should Have Hired Kiffin

Written By Tucker Harlin

Credit: University of Mississippi Athletics

By Tucker Harlin

The swamp is now a desert.

The very same desert Tennessee wandered through for the better part of 15 years.

Like the Vols, the Gators have now run through four different coaches that will last no more than four years apiece in Gainesville.

Dan Mullen, the third of the four, was easily the best in this group. Mullen finished his first two seasons as Florida’s head coach with double digit wins and led the Gators to an SEC title appearance in 2020.

However, losses to SEC teams that were fighting for bowl appearances like LSU, South Carolina, and Missouri in 2021 were enough for Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin to pull the plug and move in a different direction.

Out the door, Mullen had some advice for Stricklin’s next move: hire Lane Kiffin. Mullen revealed what he told the AD in an interview Thursday.

Kiffin had taken Ole Miss an investigation-torn mess to an 10-3 season within two years of taking the job in Oxford. SEC fans assume anything is possible in regard to Lane taking a new job on a whim based on what happened at Tennessee

But the Lane Train in Gainesville is a match made in heaven.

For one, Mullen said the style of football Kiffin prefers his teams to play would fit right into the culture at Florida.

Gator fans were spoiled by the senseless beatings Steve Spurrier put on their opponents in the 1990s. They got it to some extent with Urban Meyer and even Mullen, but that’s not been the case with most of the coaches from 2011 onward, Billy Napier included.

There’s a level of arrogant swagger Florida fans have grown to expect from their coach in the decades following Spurrier, and Kiffin would absolutely check that box.

The other criterium Kiffin would fulfill is the inexplicable Tennessee ties many of the Gators’ head coaches seem to possess.

There are ***EIGHT*** Florida head coaches that are either from the state of Tennessee or spent time at the university, dating all the way back to Bristol native George Pyle back in 1909 all the way up to Cookeville native Billy Napier in 2024.

Another coach on the Florida hotboards happens to be Caryville native Jamey Chadwell, which would go well with this apparent trend. Gator fans also seem interested in Alex Golesh at USF, who served as Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator from 2021-22.

So, would Lane Kiffin consider leaving what he’s built in Oxford to take a job where he’s under constant scrutiny from his fan base in the swamp?

Keep in mind the number of wins in important games Lane Kiffin has racked up in his career.

That’s right, it’s virtually nonexistent. His win in the Peach Bowl against Penn State in 2023 is the best win in his career.

Florida fans already don’t take losses to LSU, Georgia, and Florida State well, and they’d just get more of that with Kiffin as long as those teams are strong.

Ole Miss fans don’t have the highest of expectations among SEC fan bases, so it’s probably safest for Lane to stay in Oxford. But the college football universe would not be surprised if Kiffin didn’t flirt with the idea of “Lanesville.”

Tucker Harlin
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