| NEWS Dan Mullen needs to stop whining~ AL.com

[SEC Sports]

Dan Mullen needs to stop whining; Judge Malzahn on Nix

After an inexcusable loss, Florida coach Dan Mullen weakly tried to divert attention to the playoff discussion.

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Dan Mullen couldn’t help himself.

Minutes after losing a game over a shoe, Mullen put his foot in his mouth.

“I know we’ve played 10 games, so I guess probably the best thing to do would have been to play less games,” Mullen said, “because you seem to get rewarded for not playing this year in college football.”

All these flavors and you still had to choose salty, Dan.

Why the Florida head coach felt the need to take an indirect shot at Ohio State minutes after losing to an LSU team that lost to Alabama, 55-17, a week earlier is beyond comprehension. Mullen just had to fire off a College Football Playoff take minutes after watching one of his players pick up a shoe and chuck it 20 yards, tossing the Gators’ playoff hopes with that aerial Nike.

There’s a time and place for every argument, and Mullen picked the worst one possible Saturday night after Florida’s 37-34 loss to LSU. You can reasonably question the College Football Playoff’s criteria amid an unprecedented season full of unique challenges and uneven records -- SEC commissioner Greg Sankey succinctly made an argument earlier Saturday -- but Mullen isn’t the right spokesman. His comments reeked of being a sore loser and trying to divert attention away from an inexcusable loss. If your team can’t beat an LSU team starting a true freshman quarterback and down to 54 scholarship players, you have zero business being in the playoff, period.

But as this column pointed out a month ago, this is who Mullen is. He will always think he’s the smartest person in any given room, and that arrogance can get him in trouble. After his first loss of the season against Texas A&M, Mullen quickly tried to divert attention to the Aggies’ home-field advantage and that Florida needed to “pack the Swamp.” Not surprisingly, asking for 90,000 fans to gather in one place during a deadly pandemic so he could gain an advantage didn’t play particularly well. It looked even worse when a COVID-19 outbreak impacted his team the following week.

After he played a role in inciting a player brawl against Missouri and dressed up as Darth Vader to explain his actions, I wrote, “Just know when Mullen is your head coach, there will be more embarrassing moments like Saturday’s on the horizon.”

Fast forward a month, and here we are again.

Mullen just watched a massive opportunity for him and his program evaporate, and all he could do was whine about the playoff committee. Those comments coupled with the pregame ones he made to the ESPN announcing crew that he believed Florida should make the playoff even if it lost to LSU show he wasn’t properly focused on the things actually impacting his team’s chances, namely that mess of a defense.

He may want to start on the excuses now ahead of the unbeaten Alabama team that awaits him next weekend in Atlanta. Not sure the playoff committee is going to buy the argument that no losses to anyone currently or previously employed by LSU should count, though.

 

[RollllTide!]

 

[Tidestalker]

At what point does he get embarrassed?

The TAMU covid fan complaining and subsequent shutdown should have been a humbling experience... But there seems to be a serious lack of self awareness. You see it quite often with a lot of big time college coaches across football and basketball. He appears to be one of the worst offenders

 

[#80]

I've said it before and I will say it again Mullen is a PUNK.

 

[BamaFan334]

I mean, he ain't wrong about playing less games and being rewarded for it. Ohio State and their conference made a decision to start late giving themselves zero room for error. They amended their own rules to get them in, and the Playoff committee is simply rewarding them because they're undefeated against a schedule most top level high school teams would be embarrassed over. Ohio State would have lost a game this season in my opinion had they played a ten game conference schedule. Their conference is protecting them by amending their championship rules, not re-scheduling any games last weekend, and simply allowing them to do below the minimum to make the Playoff. The SEC rescheduled a game most thought meant nothing as LSU was down and out. low and behold, look what happened. The SEC did not protect Florida the way the Big Ten protected Ohio State. For me, that shows way more sack on Florida's behalf than Ohio State's. Just like we've all said in the past, we're punished for playing a Championship game that usually pits two of the best programs in the country while others stay at home (Notre Dame in normal years) or play much inferior opponents (Ohio State, Oklahoma, USC and Clemson every year).

That being said, Mullen is full of other excuses and BS that taint his correct point about being rewarded for playing less games.

 

[Tidestalker]

Ohio State would have lost a game this season in my opinion had they played a ten game conference schedule.

Agree with a lot of your sentiment... But have to wonder, who would they be losing to?

 

[BamaFan334]

Agree with a lot of your sentiment... But have to wonder, who would they be losing to?

I don't know to be honest with you, but I think with Indiana hanging with them that another team likely pushes them once they feel the rigors of a full season. Indiana has had a nice season, but I think we can all agree that anyone else in the Top 10 likely handles them. Indiana and Coastal Carolina would be a good game in my mind. Ohio State just hasn't shown me the firepower the media gushed over in the offseason. A team comes and punches them in the mouth and I think they have a hard time staying with them.

For the sake of seeing what they are made of, I hope that tough and gritty Northwestern team comes to play this weekend instead of the one that lost to Michigan State and allowed Purdue and Nebraska to keep it close.

 

[Rolltide24]

Mullen is starting to sound a lot like the Kirby we’ve been hearing the last few years.