Mullen is Making Florida a Place Where Quarterbacks Want to be

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So many positive changes are happening to Florida’s football program under the Mullen Era that it is becoming difficult to keep track. Those changes are starting to extend beyond just the winning record in 2018 to the process being used to create a winning culture.

Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than the success Mullen is showing under center. And I’m not just talking about the massive improvement shown by Feleipe Franks.

Ever since Mullen left for Mississippi State, Florida fans have sat idly by while rival programs have reeled in big-time QBs. Examples include Alabama with Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa, Georgia with Jake Fromm and Florida State with Jameis Winston.

But Dan Mullen is changing that narrative by making the University of Florida a place where quarterbacks want to play. And the QB room in Gainesville has completely changed.

The Last Decade

Since 2011, the program has seen a carousel of quarterbacks. Transfers – both in and out of the program – became the norm.

QBs who have started for Florida since the 2011 season. (Olivia Granaiola/Read and Reaction, adapted from Wikipedia)

It was no secret that Will Muschamp’s specialty was as a defensive coordinator.  And it didn’t matter whether the offensive coordinator was Charlie Weis, Brent Pease or Kurt Roper, or whether the QB was John Brantley, Jeff Driskel or Tyler Murphy, the offenses struggled and those struggles were tied to the QB position.

Jim McElwain got the job in 2015 because of his offensive reputation and ability to develop his dog into a quarterback. But in his three-ish years at Florida, the QB whisperer lost two and tried to compensate with three grad transfers.

He only recruited one high school prospect at the position who has started a game. That one – Feleipe Franks – was a highly rated recruit out of high school. But there were serious questions about whether he was good enough to lead the team after his disastrous 2017 campaign and even this season after the losses to Georgia and Missouri.

Now, this is not a diss on transfers directing an offense. Lincoln Riley turned transfer QBs into back-to-back Heisman winners and a three-peat is not out of the question with Jalen Hurts coming to Norman. But McElwain could not strike gold (or throw the ball on second-and-long) with two-time transfer Luke Del Rio, Purdue transfer Austin Appleby or Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire.

But the transfer QBs were really a symptom of a bigger problem. McElwain needed those guys to fill out the QB room because Will Grier and Treon Harris left and Franks, Kyle Trask and Josh Allen weren’t ready.

But, the past is the past and Florida now has a real QB whisperer at the helm.

The Catalysts

part one

I vividly remember refreshing my Twitter feed on National Signing Day last year.

Here is a summary of my thoughts. “A top five dual threat might want to be in Gainesville?!  No way, this must be a troll. Why would an Ohio State commit who Ala-freakin-bama wants come to UF? Justin Fields went to Georgia! Nobody cares about playing time here. Emory Jones is mean for visiting and getting everyone’s hopes up.”

When me and my dawg in that zone, you know up going up 🐍 pic.twitter.com/vi5b0aoXgG

— Emory Jones (@eXjones6) December 4, 2018

In the end, I was the mean one for thinking Jones’ visit was a free trip to Florida. The reality was that in a few months as head coach, Dan Mullen got a top prospect at the most important position on the field to buy in. In fact, the redshirt freshman spent the entire season working behind the scenes and humbly accepting a redshirt.

part two

Everyone knows that Dan Mullen redshirted three-stars Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald and made them stars. Thus, the question coming into 2018 for many was how long until he plugged in “his guy” and we saw what Emory Jones could do.

But that ignored what Mullen thought he could do with Feleipe Franks. Franks was a highly rated recruit coming out of high school too and certainly had all the physical tools to be successful.

But in 2017, Franks passed for 1438 yards, completed 54.6% of his passes, and rushed for 20 yards on 58 attempts. He was also benched in favor of Luke Del Rio for two of the four wins that season.

In 2018, Franks looked like an SEC quarterback. His only truly bad game was Missouri, and that came after a clearly emotional loss to Georgia. The counting numbers were way up as well, as he passed for 2284 yards, completed 58.5% of his passes, and rushed for 276 yards on 96 attempts.

He capped off the year with an Peach Bowl Offensive MVP award after dismantling Michigan’s top-ranked defense. (For reference, Dwayne Haskins was the only other QB this year who led a team to hang more than 40 on the Wolverines.) Franks also accounted for 31 touchdowns in 2018, which ranks fifth all-time at Florida. His QB rating was 144.1, which was seventh in the SEC.

Franks’ dazzling transformation has to give Mullen immediate credibility with young prospects at the position. It certainly would appear so from the list of commits and prospects on the horizon.

Transfer U, No More

Just one year ago, there was talk of Dre Massey, a WR who caught one pass this season, taking QB snaps. This website advocated for Kadarius Toney. That’s how desperate the Gators were at the position.

Mullen, on the other hand, is stocking the QB cupboard steadily in all of his upcoming recruiting classes. The 2019 class has four-star Jalon Jones already on campus. Gainesville native Anthony Richardson is verbally committed for 2020. Both Jones and Richardson are dual-threats.

There is also strong buzz that Florida’s 2018 Mr. Football Carson Beck could flip from Alabama. Beck is expected to attend Florida’s Junior Day on February 2nd, and while he is a pro-style QB instead of Mullen’s dual-threat specialty, you would have said the same thing about Feleipe Franks.

Let’s say Richardson sticks and Beck commits. With Trask still on the roster, that’s a six-man quarterback room in 2020. Franks still has two more years of eligibility and Emory Jones has four after redshirting in 2018.

Likely some of those QBs will decide to transfer away as others get a stronghold on the job. But that’s a good problem to have if the incumbent is playing well. The issue with the list of QBs above transferring wasn’t that they decided to leave the program. It was that they decided to leave a program that had no answer at the position.

Regardless, having a blue-chip QB recruit come in every year is a welcome change at Florida. In three recruiting cycles under Jim McElwain, it only happened once (Franks).

Final Thoughts

Likely one or more of these players will end up transferring away from Florida. Beck may not ever even commit. But that’s not really the point.

The point is that Florida is now a destination school for elite QB recruits who believe they can be successful. The point is that we now know that if a recruit transfers away, it will be because the players in front of him are going to play well.

That was something we hoped with Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain, but were proven incorrect over and over again.

Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel transferred away and played well enough to get drafted by the NFL. Will Grier is about to be a first round pick. Florida hasn’t had its QB drafted by the NFL since Tim Tebow.

But that will change if Feleipe Franks shows steady improvement again in 2019. And while it would be great if he is, Emory Jones doesn’t have to be “the one” because Jalon Jones can step in if he struggles. That’s why bringing in a new QB commit every year is so important. Not only does it increase competition, but it gives the staff another shot to hit on a star.

Florida’s success this year shows that this particular staff can take a QB who isn’t a star and get capable play at the position. But to truly take the next step forward, Mullen is going to have to identify someone who can command the offense, not just manage it.

Maybe that is Franks. Maybe it is Emory Jones. Maybe it is Jalon Jones, Anthony Richardson, Carson Beck or some other recruit just on the horizon. Again, who it is isn’t really the point.

The point is that over the next three years, Mullen will get to pick from multiple blue-chip options. These guys want to be in Gainesville and believe that a QB can succeed here.

And when you consider the quarterback conveyor belt the school was known for, that is yet another victory for Mullen.

Featured image used under a Creative Commons License via Photo-gator