Florida football: 5 potential replacements for Dan Mullen in Gainesville

Florida football hasn’t been living up to the Gator Standard under Dan Mullen recently. If he can’t get things on track, there are replacements to consider.

Dan Mullen is making it hard to buy into his Florida Gators. They’re now 4-3 after losing to LSU in Baton Rouge.

The head coach is 4-6 in his last 10 games and has just two victories against his last eight Power Fiv opponents.

A loss to Alabama made sense. Falling to an undefeated Kentucky team was disappointing, but not egregious. However, losing to the struggling Tigers created renewed questions about whether or not Mullen should continue as the Gators head coach.

If things got bad enough for Florida to move on from Mullen, here are some potential replacements…

Florida head coach replacements for Dan Mullen

5. James Franklin, Penn State head coach

James Franklin has been linked to every other coaching job out there. Why not Florida?

The Penn State head coach has spent time in the SEC before at Vanderbilt. There he worked miracles despite being at the hardest place to win in the conference.

He’s taken a step forward with the Nittany Lions but the Gators could give him an even more fertile recruiting ground with the resources to boot.

4. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati head coach

There isn’t a hotter name on the coaching carousel than Luke Fickell. He’s led Cincinnati to the No. 3 ranking this season but it no one-season wonder. This campaign has been coming with 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019 before posting a 9-1 record in 2020.

Fickell has developed lower-end recruits into lean, mean fighting machines.

He’s on the radar for just about every opening but getting him to leave the state of Ohio for Florida would be tricky.