The last sentence says it all....
Fair question. In short, yes, Mullen is the problem. Does that mean UF could replicate Bama/UGA recruiting results without further investment? Probably not. But there is ample reason to believe the results could be significantly better with improved leadership. The results are bad because of bad process and things within Mullen’s control.
Now for a few specific examples, most of which I’ve mentioned before.
* Mullen has one of the worst hiring/firing records of any coach I can remember. His first secondary staff at UF included Cordell Landers (who was fired right before he got UF in major violation trouble), Otis Yelverton (who was arrested for cyberstalking), a guy I can’t remember who left for being a dud, and Lee Begley Davis, who had to delete her Social media due to a personal scandal.
* Yelverton & Landers, along with Ron English, talked Mullen into an initial plan of filling 10-15% of his classes with West Coast bluechip prospects… which was incredibly dumb. It fizzled of course.
* When I was doing the Gator media thing, recruit parents constantly complained to me about the disorganization and miscommunication from the staff. The dad of national top-50 safety Jordan Battle even told me they “loved Florida, but we don’t even know who his lead recruiter is”. The chain of command and communication is so bad, that multiple prospects have “committed their way in” without a consensus green light from the staff, but we’re allowed to stay.
* Mullen approaches recruiting with a commitment to work-life balance, which I applaud on a personal level. But he does not out-hustle other coaches and it costs them recruits often. Nick De La Torre just gave us an example of this, when Mullen’s gang was the only one of Shemar James suitors not planning to watch his recent game. Nick said they literally asked him if he “thought they should go”. As I mentioned on another thread tonight, this same problem is currently costing them their foothold with Evan Stewart. Sark just chases him harder than Mullen does. As the culture driver of the Gator recruiting organization, a relaxed, less-than-relentless approach cascades down through Mullen’s assistants.
* Everybody I’ve ever talked to about John Hevesy considers him to be a liability on the recruiting trail who elite recruits don’t want to play for… and he’s responsibe for assembling almost a quarter of UF’s starting 22. He’s a problem and it’s almost inexplicable that he’s managed to hang on with Mullen for 13 years.
I could go on and I’m not the only one who hears these horror stories. There are tons more, with several of the media guys starting to share more freely on the issue.
Mullen is an abomination of a recruiter because he doesn’t approach it like he should, because he built a poor recruiting organization, and because he doesn’t demand excellence from his staff.
Fair question. In short, yes, Mullen is the problem. Does that mean UF could replicate Bama/UGA recruiting results without further investment? Probably not. But there is ample reason to believe the results could be significantly better with improved leadership. The results are bad because of bad process and things within Mullen’s control.
Now for a few specific examples, most of which I’ve mentioned before.
* Mullen has one of the worst hiring/firing records of any coach I can remember. His first secondary staff at UF included Cordell Landers (who was fired right before he got UF in major violation trouble), Otis Yelverton (who was arrested for cyberstalking), a guy I can’t remember who left for being a dud, and Lee Begley Davis, who had to delete her Social media due to a personal scandal.
* Yelverton & Landers, along with Ron English, talked Mullen into an initial plan of filling 10-15% of his classes with West Coast bluechip prospects… which was incredibly dumb. It fizzled of course.
* When I was doing the Gator media thing, recruit parents constantly complained to me about the disorganization and miscommunication from the staff. The dad of national top-50 safety Jordan Battle even told me they “loved Florida, but we don’t even know who his lead recruiter is”. The chain of command and communication is so bad, that multiple prospects have “committed their way in” without a consensus green light from the staff, but we’re allowed to stay.
* Mullen approaches recruiting with a commitment to work-life balance, which I applaud on a personal level. But he does not out-hustle other coaches and it costs them recruits often. Nick De La Torre just gave us an example of this, when Mullen’s gang was the only one of Shemar James suitors not planning to watch his recent game. Nick said they literally asked him if he “thought they should go”. As I mentioned on another thread tonight, this same problem is currently costing them their foothold with Evan Stewart. Sark just chases him harder than Mullen does. As the culture driver of the Gator recruiting organization, a relaxed, less-than-relentless approach cascades down through Mullen’s assistants.
* Everybody I’ve ever talked to about John Hevesy considers him to be a liability on the recruiting trail who elite recruits don’t want to play for… and he’s responsibe for assembling almost a quarter of UF’s starting 22. He’s a problem and it’s almost inexplicable that he’s managed to hang on with Mullen for 13 years.
I could go on and I’m not the only one who hears these horror stories. There are tons more, with several of the media guys starting to share more freely on the issue.
Mullen is an abomination of a recruiter because he doesn’t approach it like he should, because he built a poor recruiting organization, and because he doesn’t demand excellence from his staff.
