Dan Mullen insists foresight was 20/20.
Fired with time left in the 2021 season, Mullen revealed this week that he urged Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin to go raid a rival SEC program.
Namely, Mullen believed the Gators should have gone and hired Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss once Stricklin elected to dismiss Mullen.
"You know what's pretty funny is when I got let go at Florida a couple years ago, they asked me and I said, 'Hey, I'd go hire Lane Kiffin right now,'" Mullen said on Zach Gelb's Sirius XM radio show. " I said, 'You're going to get rid of me, I'd go hire Lane Kiffin from Ole Miss right now.'"
Mullen said he outlined the factors that he believed would have made Kiffin an ideal replacement and also a natural fit for the Florida program, which instead hired away Billy Napier from Louisiana. The Gators are just 12-16 a quarter of the way through Napier's third season, and no seat in college football is more heated.
"(Kiffin) has that little bit of you know, at Florida they love points," said Mullen, who's interviewed for head jobs in recent years and continues work as an analyst for ESPN. "He's going to continue the offense to run points, he's walking in with an Anthony Richardson. You're walking in with a top-five (NFL) Draft pick at quarterback, so the program's in good shape offensively that way. There was some high-powered receivers committed and on the roster.
"So, I think he would have been a great fit right off the bat, but that was several years ago."
Mullen doesn't profess to have a crystal ball now as to whether or not Kiffin might still be willing to consider the Gators. Kiffin's Ole Miss squad is ranked No. 5 and widely viewed as a College Football Playoff contender with one of the sport's more talented rosters.
"He's now gotten Ole Miss to be in playoff contention. I don't know if that's something (Florida's expected opening) that would interest him or not," Mullen said. "You never know in the coaching profession why someone can make a decision, they're going to have their personal or whatever reason to do it. I think a couple of years ago he probably would have taken the job if offered to him."
Mullen said the Kiffin conversation evolved three years ago as he visited with Stricklin after he was dismissed.
"We were just talking, and you were getting let go and there was still a game left in the season, and I said, 'Hey, you guys gotta go hire a coach,'" said Mullen, 34-15 at Florida. "I told that to the athletic director, I told Scott Stricklin I'd go hire Lane Kiffin if I were you right now.
"Florida wants points. They love that kind of a swagger, that attitude that (Steve) Spurrier used to bring, everybody, the coaches all the coaches that have been successful there has had. And I thought he would kind of fit right into that role and especially given the administrative support. Finally have a (indoor) facility, have a budget, let him create a recruiting budget that's competitive. He would do well with that."