Don’t overlook importance of Florida potentially winning ten games

If Florida defeats Florida State this weekend, the Gators will have ten wins on the season. By now, UF is of a stature where it will take that but not throw a parade about it. While I wouldn’t argue anything different, it’s worth taking a step back and understanding what exactly it means in the context of program history.

Of course, this being college football there is an argument about what being a “ten win team” means. Some fans think only teams that win ten regular season games merit that title. Others will bestow the title on any team with double-digit wins, including conference championship games and bowls. I did an unscientific Twitter poll about it and more than 400 voters were almost evenly split.

Winning ten regular season games is hard, because it means a team takes on no more than two losses (unless it gets a bonus 13th game for playing at Hawaii). It used to be a lot harder back when teams only played 11 regular season games and ties still happened. The 11th game only came about in 1970, so winning ten before then required running the table or going to a bowl with no more than one loss or tie.

I personally go with winning ten games regardless of venue, but I’m not here to argue it. Rather, take it up with the Alabama fans who boast that every Crimson Tide head coach since Bear Bryant has won ten games in a season. That streak requires both counting postseason wins and the Hawaii 13th-game exemption. I’m sure they will enjoy having a calm, reasoned discussion about it.

Going off of the more restrictive definition, beating FSU will give Dan Mullen his first true ten-win season. It still is notable in the annals of Florida football since the first ten-win season of any kind was less than 30 years ago. Steve Spurrier broke two barriers in 1991 with double-digit wins and the program’s first SEC Championship that stuck.

Getting to ten wins will elevate Mullen above Ron Zook and allow him to join the other three post-Spurrier head coaches who can boast of doing it. Will Muschamp went 11-1 in 2012 and Jim McElwain went 10-2 in 2015, so a 10-2 campaign will make Mullen the fifth Florida coach to get to double digits.

Being more expansive with the “ten win season” definition actually puts Mullen in more exclusive territory.

Counting 2018’s 9-3 regular season with a bowl victory as a ten-win campaign, beating FSU on Saturday will give Florida back-to-back ten-win seasons for only the second time this century (which began in 2001). The only other instance was 2008-09. For a program as proud as UF is, it’s been a rough couple of decades outside the 2005-09 stretch with three head coaches fired for underperformance on the field.

Only Spurrier and Urban Meyer have pulled off ten wins in consecutive seasons at UF. The Head Ball Coach did it six straight years from 1993-98 and then again in 2000-01. Meyer then had his two in a row as mentioned above. A victory over the Seminoles will put Mullen into rarified air in this regard along with the two undisputed best head coaches in Florida football history.

Any time a Florida head coach can put himself in the same category as Spurrier and Meyer, it’s a notable achievement. Mullen pulling it off would have a little extra to it.

Both Spurrier in ’91 and Meyer in ’06 won ten games with teams largely composed of inherited players. Once they got their streaks going in ’93 and ’08, those were their teams stocked with their hand-picked guys. They both had 9-4 seasons in between their first ten-win seasons and the start of their consecutive stretches.

If the Gators win Saturday, Mullen will have his streak in his first two seasons. He’ll have pulled it off with teams that aren’t entirely stocked with his guys. It’ll mostly be with a backup quarterback this year too.

Now, to be clear, he has some advantages that his decorated predecessors didn’t. The graduate transfer rule didn’t exist in Spurrier’s day, and Meyer only got to use it in 2006 (for starting corner Ryan Smith). Mullen’s defensive line needed Adam Shuler last year and Jonathan Greenard this year.

More critically, Mullen has the 12th regular season game. Spurrier and Meyer only had 11 in their first seasons, and they each won nine games. Give them an extra game against an FCS team like Mullen has had, and they get to ten. Spurrier was doubly hampered because his first team was bowl banned too.

And as long as we’re doing caveats, Jim McElwain might’ve won ten in each of his first two seasons if not for a hurricane-related cancelation of his FCS opponent during his 9-4 campaign in 2016. I’m not sure UF beats LSU in mid-October, though, considering all the goal line stands and how three Gator defensive linemen missed the game before LSU’s original spot to injury. That one solidly stands as a nine-win season.

And while Mullen’s second year came with two regular season losses versus one each for Spurrier’s and Meyer’s, it’s because he inherited a weaker roster than his two great predecessors did.

We can keep going down the rabbit hole of differences all day, but at some point you have to stop and take the achievements for what they are. Every season has its details and turning points, from individuals having random career days to opponents being without key players due to injury.

Winning ten games still means something, and Mullen appears likely to do it in two straight years. We can’t put him in the same tier as Spurrier and Meyer yet, but he’s well on his way to claiming the No. 3 spot with a few more quality years. It looks more sustainable at the end of his ten-win second year than it did after two seasons for Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain. If anything, misfortune in the form of injuries struck this year, as opposed to the good close game luck Muschamp and McElwain had. Mullen coached his way around it to ten wins anyway.

Florida may not have returned to its all-time high just yet, but the wandering through the wilderness of 2010-17 appears to be over.