Texas Football: What the firing of Dan Mullen means for Longhorns?

In recent memory, some of the bigger head coaching hires and firings around the college football landscape didn’t have a huge impact on the Texas football program as much as the very recent departure of Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen. Florida parted ways with the former Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Mullen this weekend after a really rough stretch in the last few weeks.

And this is following a narrative this fall that involves a number of struggling blue blood programs that are going to experience notable coaching changes. While the Longhorns likely aren’t going to change head coaches in the near future, there could still be some notable changes to the staff around first-year head coach Steve Sarkisian.

There are so many high-profile job openings at this point of the season around the college football landscape. The last few offseasons did see some high-profile job openings around the country among the top-tier/blue blood programs, but this is really unlike anything we’ve seen in the middle of the season in recent years.

Florida now joins a list of big-time programs that already have head coaching vacancies this fall that also includes the USC Trojans, LSU Tigers, and Washington Huskies. That’s not even taking into account some of the other notable Power Five programs with head coaching vacancies right now including the TCU Horned Frogs, Virginia Tech Hokies, and Washington State Cougars.

Texas football can note some of the impact that the firing of Dan Mullen will have on the program upon the move to the SEC

The college football coaching carousel is spinning faster than it was in recent memory in the middle of a regular season. Adding Mullen to the list of casualties might be one that impacts the Longhorns more than most, though.

One thing of note here for the Longhorns in relation to the firing of Mullen is the fact it obviously now looks good on the Texas administration that they didn’t hire him. There were some rumblings that Texas was considering reaching out to Mullen at one point during their coaching search last year to replace former head coach Tom Herman.

While Sark definitely isn’t off to the best start with the Longhorns, hope remains that he can right the ship soon. Meanwhile, Mullen really turned Florida into a sinking ship since the latter portion of the 2020 season.

Following a nice 2019 campaign where the Gators finished up with a record of 11-2, Florida was on the downfall. Florida finished up last season with a record of 8-4, including pretty bad losses to LSU and the Oklahoma Sooners to round out 2020.

At the time of his departure this weekend, Florida owns a rather poor record of 5-6. Florida now has a losing record following a disappointing overtime loss to the Missouri Tigers on the road on Nov. 20.

Moreover, another important thing to note with the firing of Mullen is the indication of some of the shorter leashes that coaches are getting around the SEC landscape. The same could be said for Ed Orgeron with LSU. The short span of time for which some of these big-time SEC programs are willing to part ways with their head coaches should serve as a warning sign of elevating pressure on Sark heading into next offseason.

Texas has to give Sark time to right the ship, but the pressure will start ratcheting up on him before the Longhorns officially make the move to leave the Big 12 for the SEC a couple of years down the road.

Another point of note here is the impact that the firing of Mullen can have on the recruiting trail. Texas might be able to find a few new targets to flip the commitment of with some additional Florida coaching staff turnover likely looming heading into next offseason.

The college football coaching carousel is clearly spinning faster in the midst of a season more so than usual. Not only could all of these high-profile head coach firings around the college football landscape ramp up some of the pressure in Sark next year, it could also change the look of the Texas coaching staff as soon as next season.