UNLV coach Dan Mullen throws dig at former employer, Florida, but numbers tell a complicated story

The Florida Gators, being coached by former championship-winning offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, just knocked off bitter rival Georgia to take a stranglehold of the SEC East.It's the first time in four seasons that the Gators have gotten the best of the Bulldogs, and if they can just hold serve against a relatively weak back half of their schedule, they will stamp their tickets to Atlanta to take on the Alabama Crimson Tide for a chance to make the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.ONE OF THESE EIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAMS WILL BE HOISTING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY IN 2026Just over a year later, the Gators would fire Mullen, kickstarting a coaching search that would ultimately lead them to Louisiana head coach Billy Napier.How did it all go so wrong so fast?Mullen has some theories, and he shared his insight while discussing the end of his Florida tenure with Paul Finebaum earlier this week."We won a lot of games," Mullen said."But you know what? In today’s world, when you’re when you’re at premier schools, you expect to win.

At Florida, they expect championships...that's the standard."He's not wrong.Florida has hired seven coaches since 1990, and without counting their newest hire, Jon Sumrall, who doesn't even have a single game as a Gator under his belt, every coach who has failed to win a national or SEC championship in Gainesville has been shown the door.That includes Mullen, who was 34-15 at the time of his firing.A nearly 70% winning percentage hardly seems like a fireable offense, but as Mullen said, the goal is to win championships at Florida.Florida head coach Dan Mullen walks with his team to the field prior to an NCAA college football game against Missouri, Saturday, Nov.

20, 2021, in Columbia, Mo.(AP Photo/L.G.

Patterson)"We got to an SEC championship game, fell a couple points short to Alabama," said Mullen."But our standard from the day I got there was championships.

We weren’t able to come through, ev...