Dan Mullen runs gassers with Florida players if they miss class

When a new coach arrives on campus, he always aims to establish a reformed culture or identity for his program — on and off the field.

At Florida, Dan Mullen is following that path. To set that tone, Mullen is making the entire team run gassers when players are late for class. Yes, the entire team.

And that includes Mullen.

From InsideTheGators.com:

“Yeah, they weren’t real happy. That was pretty simple, that was about going to class. I don’t control that, they control that. If you’re late for class, everybody that’s late for a class would run a gasser for it. If they don’t wanna run gassers, then show up on time for class and we don’t run gassers.”

“I’m part of the team, so I should run the gassers too, you know? And make sure I’m not just standing there telling them to do it. So if they ever look and say, ‘Hey, you just stand there with a whistle,’ I’m — hey, if you guys mess up — if we make mistakes, we’re all gonna pay the price. Whether it’s discipline issues, academic issues, football issues, training issues, we all pay the price, and so I’m gonna pay the price just like them.”

Mullen was hired by Florida in November after Mullen spent nine seasons as the head coach at Mississippi State. Before he went 69-46 with the Bulldogs, Mullen spent four seasons — 2005 to 2008 — as Florida’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Urban Meyer, helping the Gators win the 2008 national title.

Dan Mullen is entering his first season as the head coach at Florida. (Alan Youngblood/Star-Banner via AP, File)
Dan Mullen is entering his first season as the head coach at Florida. (Alan Youngblood/Star-Banner via AP, File)

After the underwhelming tenures of Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain, the UF faithful hope Mullen can get the program get back to the winning ways of the Meyer years. Perhaps this kind of accountability-based approach, even in spring practice, is the way to lay the groundwork.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!

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