Florida Football: Gators triumphant in Dan Mullen return to Starkville

3. Florida is going to win a lot of ugly football games

When he was at Mississippi State, Dan Mullen mastered the art of doing more with less. He frequently contended with and beat more talented football teams by playing disciplined, creative football. Dak Prescott‘s offenses were fun to watch, but they never cracked the top two in the conference and finished fifth with 34.4 points per game in his senior season.

Mullen became a master at winning hard-nosed, challenging football games. Earning a No. 1 ranking in Starkville is no small task, and Mullen did it with a comparatively lesser group of players than he’ll ever have in Gainesville.

That talent difference covers up a large portion of the growing pains typically associated with a new head coach. There will still be off days, like the streak-stopping loss to Kentucky, but by and large the Gators are going to keep winning based on carefully planning on Mullen’s part and a decent-sized dose of pure talent.

People are going to look up at the end of the season and see a 9-win or 10-win Florida team that kept themselves in the hunt for the SEC East and be surprised. Don’t. It’s not going to be pretty, but this team has already proved it doesn’t have to be pretty to win.