In what has been a whirlwind of a week for the Florida Gators head coach, Dan Mullen addressed two controversies regarding his own comments and decisions involving the football program that occurred on Monday.
During his weekly press conference with local media, Mullen made waves by dismissing a question about the program's recruiting efforts and strategies by suggesting that he would discuss recruiting after the Gators' season concluded. His wording was suspect, which led to an uproar across social media.
“We’re in the season right now, we'll do recruiting after the season – when it gets to recruiting time we can talk about recruiting," Mullen said at the time.
Shortly after the brief press conference, the most abbreviated Monday availability Mullen has held this year, Florida proceeded to eliminate availabilities for defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and select players, an unprecedented move during Mullen's tenure as head coach.
Mullen opened his segment of Wednesday's SEC coaches teleconference by addressing the comment and cancellation of availabilities, noting that he believes each event was taken out of context.
You can read the full transcription below.
"First, I'd like to touch on something for all the Gator Nation, all our great fans on something that was taken out of context in Monday's press conference. As it pertains to recruiting, our staff recruits nonstop. We grind in recruiting every day, we're always recruiting and working the best to get great players that fit the Gator Standard and bring them here to our program. And as I said on Monday, we're just, weren't going to get into the specifics of everything we do in recruiting and how we do all of that until after the season.
"Also, there were some people that were concerned about our player availability. And on Monday morning, we had our eight o'clock team meeting, we had a great meeting with the team. The energy, the excitement of our players going into this final third of the season and the focus of which we have to take and the approach we need to take in the final third of the season, I felt that the best for our players is to make sure our focus is completely on the work that we have to do in the final third of the season. And as everybody knows, I've, so because of that, I made myself available for media every single day this week, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because we didn't have the players available. So, I just wanted to clarify some of those things that apparently have been taken way out of context over the last several days."
In addition to his Monday Zoom conference and Wednesday's coaches phone call, Mullen spoke with Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel in an exclusive interview on Tuesday evening.
It was clear, while listening to the entire quote on Monday, that Mullen did not want to talk about recruiting efforts during the season, and although his wording could have easily been and was picked apart, he did not mean that the Gators' coaching staff avoids recruiting during the football season.
Still, as the Gators enter November with a 4-4 record amid a disappointing season, any and everything Mullen says on the record will be dissected. The outrage these incidents created, however, didn't sit well with the fourth-year head coach, which led him to offer much-needed clarification on Wednesday.
Stay tuned to AllGators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @SI_AllGators on Twitter and Florida Gators on Sports Illustrated on Facebook.
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