In defense of ‘Mama Mullen’ and a Vanderbilt preview

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So apparently Florida coach Dan Mullen’s wife – Megan Mullen – is sexually harassing the Gator football players.

So says Carron J. Phillips, a writer for The Shadow League, in a scathing article accusing Mrs. Mullen of being “gross, disrespectful” and “the definition of white female privilege.”

The impetus of Phillips’ ire is that Mrs. Mullen greets many of the Gators players prior to the game right as they get off the bus to embrace them and give them a word of encouragement. Sometimes the player is greeted with a hug and sometimes a kiss on the cheek.

To Phillips, a white woman hugging and kissing African American athletes on the cheek is obscene.

What’s really obscene is that Phillips didn’t take the time to find one Gators player to quote in his article – even anonymously – who said he was made uncomfortable by Mrs. Mullen. Had he taken such time, he might have asked someone like, oh, I don’t know, wide receiver Trevon Grimes.

Crazy how you have the audacity to create a false headline for Clicks Mr “reporter” .. Mrs Mullen has been nothing but a blessing to us players .. Smh https://t.co/UG8ZVszoHD

— GrimeTime™ (@Trevongrimes8) November 8, 2019

Of course, then Phillips proceeded to block Grimes.

He might have also asked someone who’s written about this very topic – Kassidy Hill – to see whether the players thought it was weird and whether it was required for each player to embrace Mrs. Mullen (hint, they don’t and they aren’t).

Hi Carron,

I know it’s easy to assume & I imagine that’s what led to this piece. But actually being here, I see some guys pass on by but also see many wait in line to greet her.

In fact I spoke to players & their parents about it. Check it outhttps://t.co/G9Cr1RmA2u https://t.co/u81TJYNKv9

— Kassidy Hill (@KassidyGHill) November 7, 2019

I can’t put myself in Phillips’ shoes as we’ve clearly lived very different lives. Maybe his upbringing and his life circumstances give him a very different view of Mrs. Mullen’s actions than I have.

But he fails to consider that others – even other African Americans – have different life experiences than he does when he opens his article by saying “Since the football players at the University of Florida are probably too afraid to say this publicly, I’ll do it for them. What Megan Mullen doing is gross, disrespectful and the epitome of a double standard.”

I’ve written repeatedly about sexual violence, domestic violence and how people in power need to be held accountable when they abuse that power.

But I don’t think that’s what happening here.

Instead, I think what’s happening here is that Mrs. Mullen is an advocate for players who do something really difficult: withstand the scrutiny that comes with being a football player at the University of Florida.

If a teammate blows a coverage, you have to listen to idiots like me telling you what you should have done better when it wasn’t really your responsibility. If you miss a tackle you get to see “fans” call you garbage on Twitter and beg for your backup to get your playing time.

I’ve had parents reach out to me in the middle of all this noise questioning whether their sons should have gone somewhere else.

Having Megan Mullen there to support these players is a positive thing. She shouldn’t be ashamed of her actions or be shamed for treating these men like family.

For Phillips, or anyone else, to suggest otherwise says more about them than it does about Mrs. Mullen.

I know Gators fans are mad at Phillips. There are some out there on Twitter willing to dox him to get that point across. I wish they wouldn’t.

The reality is that I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for him because if he had the experience of someone like Megan Mullen in his life, he wouldn’t have written his article.

Because sometimes you need to know that someone is in your corner. Sometimes you need to know that someone is going to be there win or lose.

Sometimes you just need someone to give you a hug.

Vanderbilt

Oh yeah, there’s a football game going on this weekend.

There’s only really one statistic that I think it truly important for this weekend’s tilt against Vanderbilt.

Yards per play gained and allowed against FBS opponents for Florida and Vanderbilt thus far in 2019. (Will Miles/Read and Reaction)

By yards per play against FBS opponents, Florida has been just slightly above average on both offense and defense. But Vanderbilt has been absolutely abysmal.

This is a team that has lost to 3-6 Purdue, 3-6 Ole Miss and 2-7 UNLV by a combined score of 107-40.

The Gators should absolutely roll in this one.

The only thing that prevents that is two things: a hangover from the loss to Georgia and Ke’Shawn Vaughn.

Vaughn has rushed for 790 yards on 151 carries (5.2 yards per carry) and has caught 23 passes for 234 yards (10.2 yards per catch). Gators fans certainly remember Vaughn’s 131 all-purpose yards in last year’s game and how the game shifted in the Gators favor after he left with an injury.

But that Vanderbilt team had senior starter Kyle Shurmur at quarterback. Shurmur wasn’t Tim Tebow, but to say it’s a step down from Shurmur to the guys playing QB at Vanderbilt this year is the understatement of understatements.

Riley Neal is a graduate transfer from Ball State. While in Indiana, Neal averaged 6.1 yards per attempt. This year with Vanderbilt, he’s averaged a similarly anemic 6.4 yards per attempt.

That might be acceptable if Neal was a dual-threat QB. But he has 35 rush attempts for -7 yards on the year. That amounts to a yards above replacement (YAR) value of -1.36.

But Neal might not even be the QB this weekend against the Gators as he’s apparently in the concussion protocol.

The player who stepped in for Neal last week was junior Deuce Wallace. In limited action, Wallace has completed 43 percent of his passes at a 2.9 yards per attempt clip. He has 5 rush attempts for -14 yards.

There’s a reason Vanderbilt’s offense is 124th in yards per pass attempt.

The Commodores aren’t any better on the defensive side of the ball. While Florida’s struggles on the ground are well documented, Vandy is ranked 109th against FBS opponents in yards per rush allowed. But they’re even worse against the pass, ranking 116th.

So I’d suspect that Florida is going to be able to get its running game going. But even if they’re not able to, Kyle Trask should have a field day against this secondary.

That is exactly what has happened this year against better competition. Georgia put up 323 rush yards and so didn’t to pull Jake Fromm out of the garage. LSU’s running game wasn’t nearly as efficient, but Joe Burrow threw for 398 yards as the Tigers put up 66 points.

Yes, the Commodores beat Missouri. But those Tigers look to be falling apart after following up the Vanderbilt loss with a shellacking at the hands of Kentucky.

So normally I spend a lot of time looking at matchups, trying to figure out where Florida can find mismatches and exploit them. But I don’t need to do that here.

Kyle Pitts is a mismatch against anyone, but especially here. Trevon Grimes, Van Jefferson, Kadarius Toney, Josh Hammond and Freddie Swain are all mismatches.

If Florida loses this game, it isn’t because Vanderbilt had a better scheme. It’s because for the second year in a row, the Gators will have allowed Georgia to beat them twice.

Florida (-26.5) wins, 42-14.

Picks this year: 8-1, 4-4-1 ATS

Featured image used under Creative Commons license courtesy Photo-Gator