FLORIDA
Last season: 4-7 (3-5 SEC)2018 opener: Sept. 1 vs. Charleston Southern in Gainesville (7:30 p.m. on SEC Network)Fun fact: Florida has lost 17 SEC games in the last five seasons. The Gators lost 12 league contests in Steve Spurrier’s 12 seasons as coach from 1990 to 2001.COMING THURSDAY: Georgia
Dan Mullen didn’t inherit the same Florida football program he left.
Mullen was the offensive coordinator for Urban Meyer’s Gators from 2005 to 2008 and was a part of two national championships in that four-year stretch. Now Mullen must restore the success and pride at Florida, which has made just three bowl trips during the past five seasons, with one of those being to Birmingham.
Florida’s tumultuous 4-7 season last year went off the rails in late October, when the Gators endured a 42-7 loss to Georgia and third-year coach Jim McElwain was fired for failing to prove his claim of receiving death threats.
“The thing to me that’s really interesting with the program is that I don’t just look at last year but the last four or five,” Mullen said last week at the Southeastern Conference’s annual Media Days extravaganza. “Florida’s had two four-win seasons and played in two SEC championship games. That inconsistency shows me that individual teams at the university right now are playing at a high level, but the program itself is not performing consistently at the level it needs to be at.”
The Gators did earn Eastern Division titles in 2015 and 2016, but they were promptly smacked by Alabama in the Georgia Dome by a combined count of 83-30.
Senior defensive end Cece Jefferson has lived through much of the chaos Mullen detailed, and he develops somewhat of a bewildered look when trying to explain it. In the last two seasons alone against Missouri, the Gators have produced a 40-14 victory and endured a 45-16 loss.
“We went to back-to-back SEC championship games my freshman and sophomore years, and then, in my junior year, we went 4-7,” Jefferson said. “It was like, ‘Why is this happening?’ It has been a roller-coaster ride.”
Florida has the potential of skyrocketing back up the league after losing just four starters from last season’s team – receiver Brandon Powell, defensive linemen Taven Bryan and Jordan Sherit, and cornerback Duke Dawson. The 6-foot-1, 242-pound Jefferson had the chance to leave but came back for more after tallying 47 tackles and a team-high 13.5 tackles for loss a year ago.
The former five-star signee from Glen St. Mary, Florida, has a combined 20 tackles for loss the past two seasons.
“A lot weighed into that decision, but I personally felt like I wasn’t ready physically or mentally for that drastic change,” Jefferson said. “I decided it was best to come back and develop more and learn more about the game.”
Jefferson is working under new defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who has previous SEC stops at Georgia and Mississippi State, where he worked under Mullen last season. Yet it’s the offense that again figures to be the primary factor in determining Florida’s fate.
Feleipe Franks is the returning starter at quarterback, but he could be challenged in preseason camp by fellow redshirt sophomore Kyle Trask and from true freshman Emory Jones, who Mullen snagged from Ohio State last winter in recruiting.
Florida finished 11th in the SEC last season in passing offense and 13th in total offense.
“You’ve got to go through some things to get some things,” Jefferson said. “This past year was our go-through year, and this is our get-some-things year. We’ve had our share of bad times. Tough times don’t last, but tough people do, and all we can do is embrace this new staff and buy into everything they’re saying.
“Coach Mullen has a great history with quarterbacks and how they progress.”
Jefferson senses there is much more excitement around the program compared to a year ago, claiming there were more people at the “Gator Walk” for Mullen’s first spring game than before any contest last fall.
Florida’s 35-point loss to Georgia was its worst in that series since a 44-0 shellacking in 1982, which was the third and final time the Gators were tormented by Herschel Walker. The Bulldogs are the overwhelming choice to repeat in the SEC East, but Jefferson believes the sizable gap will be narrowed in no time.
“Hats off to Georgia for a successful season last year,” Jefferson said. “To have the season they had in the fashion they had it was tremendous, and when we beat them this year, it’s going to feel good.
“I definitely want to go out with a bang. They’re going to have all that hype from last year’s game around them, so it’s going to feel that much better.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.