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re: Who destroyed Florida Gator football?
Posted on 2/22/24 at 8:39 am to paperwasp
Posted on 2/22/24 at 8:39 am to paperwasp
In all seriousness, I think the shoe toss played a significant role. Florida was #6, on a 6 game win streak (including against UGA) and needed to win for a shot at their first playoff appearance.
Instead, they lost to a 3-5 LSU because of the shoe toss, then lost a 1 possession game to Bama, and got pounded by OU by 35 points in the Cotton Bowl. Went 4-5 the following season before they fired Mullen. OOF.
Instead, they lost to a 3-5 LSU because of the shoe toss, then lost a 1 possession game to Bama, and got pounded by OU by 35 points in the Cotton Bowl. Went 4-5 the following season before they fired Mullen. OOF.
Posted on 2/22/24 at 1:38 pm to LordLouisiana
quote:
In all seriousness, I think the shoe toss played a significant role
I concur, and I think we can also drill it down to Mullen deciding to not play Kyle Pitts in that same game, as some assumed he was choosing to rest him for Alabama.
IMO that decision was overshadowed later by the shoe, and so he was never fully brought to answer for it by the media.
Posted on 2/22/24 at 5:45 pm to LordLouisiana
quote:
In all seriousness, I think the shoe toss played a significant role. Florida was #6, on a 6 game win streak (including against UGA) and needed to win for a shot at their first playoff appearance.
Instead, they lost to a 3-5 LSU because of the shoe toss, then lost a 1 possession game to Bama, and got pounded by OU by 35 points in the Cotton Bowl. Went 4-5 the following season before they fired Mullen. OOF.
Dan Mullen's first year was 2018. Went 10-3 in 2018, 11-2 in 2019, and were 8-1 in 2020 going into that LSU game. They were 24-6 against P5 teams under Mullen going into that game. The remainder of Mullen's tenure (he got fired after the Mizzou game in 2021) they went 2-9 against P5 teams, one of them being Vandy and the other being 7-6 Tennessee in Heupel's first year. Overall they are 10-23 against P5 teams since that game.
In reality there's never really just one singular reason for these kind of collapses, but it's hard not to point to that 2020 LSU/Florida game as where it all began. It was all going very well for 3 seasons up until then and then the bottom dropped form under them.
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