Dan Mullen’s arrival was unannounced. This wasn’t long after Mullen became Florida’s head football coach, and to those around him on this day, he was an unfamiliar face. When Mullen entered Serra High School in Gardena, Calif., alone earlier this year, he was 2,400 miles away from Gainesville … recruiting.
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“I have had guys where you’d think the president is coming,” Serra football coach Scott Altenberg said. “They’re calling ahead, they have advance people coming, and it’s like, all right, whatever. But he just kind of rolled in and was like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ When he first came in, I didn’t know who he was. I just knew he was from Florida.
“I don’t know him very well so I didn’t even know he was the head coach. Then he said, ‘Hey, I’m Dan Mullen.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I know you.’ By sight I had no idea who he was.”
Before Oaks Christian (Calif.) defensive endKayvon Thibodeaux, the No. 2 overall player in the Class of 2019, took an official visit to Florida over the weekend, before four-star cornerback Chris Steele from St. John Bosco (Calif.) became a major target for the Gators’ 2019 class, there were meetings in California like this one for Mullen.
Mullen waited for Altenberg to finish teaching a class that day. Then the two spoke for an hour. They discussed how Mullen had just landed the job, the differences recruiting in the South versus the West and Mullen’s vision for recruiting in California.
Six of Altenberg’s players are ranked among the top 60 players in California for the 2020 class, per the 247Sports Composite. Three have offers from Florida. They aren’t alone.
Since Mullen took over in late November 2017, there has been a significant uptick in offers from the Gators to prospects in California. This is part of an aggressive increase overall in sheer offers for Florida, but the percentages involving California stand out because the Gators haven’t signed a player from the Golden State since 2010.
- Of Florida’s 350 offers to players in the 2019 class, 8.9 percent have been issued to prospects in California, according to 247Sports.
- Last year, only 3.9 percent of Florida’s offers went to California prospects. Under former coach Jim McElwain, the percentages were: 2 percent in 2015, 3.9 percent in 2016 and 6.3 percent in 2017.
- Already, 10.7 percent of Florida’s offers in the 2020 classhave been issued to California players.
Mullen decided he was going to recruit nationally upon becoming the Gators’ coach. For Mullen, that meant trying his luck out west.
“Recruiting is a lot more national than it used to be with kids,” Mullen said. “A lot of it is because of the media, the hype and all of the recruiting websites. It’s become much more national. I think the Gator brand is a national brand, so when you have that national brand, you’re going to go out there. You have the opportunity to get players from all around the country because their initial attraction is to the brand, which really gets you in the door. Then once you’re in the door, you find out, do they fit the brand? Or are they someone that’s going to fit wherever we’re going to come here?”
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There is a precedent for this strategy in Gainesville, and Mullen is familiar with it. When Urban Meyer was Florida’s head coach from 2005-10, the Gators signed seven players from California, inking a prospect from the state every year except in 2006. Mullen was Meyer’s offensive coordinator from 2005-08, and he helped recruit California players such as former Florida defensive end Duke Lemmens.
The majority of players on Florida’s national championship teams in 2006 and 2008 were from the state of Florida, but several superstars on those squads hailed from elsewhere.
Florida’s attempt to nationally recruit more under Mullen has not meant less attention locally. Florida has prioritized the Ocala region, for example, with major commits from Vanguard High School in the 2021 class.
The idea is for Florida not to limit itself while not missing anything nearby.
“We’re still always going to have a majority of players from the state of Florida and our focus is always going to still stay in the state of Florida and the surrounding area in the Southeast, but we also want to nationally recruit the top-flight people,” Mullen said. “Our targets outside of our footprint are, and should be, top national prospects.”
To that point, of the 53 total players in California for the 2019 and 2020 classes with offers from Florida, only six aren’t either a four-star or five-star prospect.
There’s also another reason why Mullen has offered so many California kids and why he refers to the state as a “natural place” for Florida to expand in its quest to recruit nationally.
“The other thing you know about California,” he said, “is they leave to go to school.”
The numbers support Mullen’s claim.
- California has averaged 43 blue-chip (four- or five-star) prospects over the previous four recruiting cycles. Of the 171 total, 51 percent have signed with an out-of-state school.
- Several of those players left California go to western schools such as Oregon and Washington, but 24.6 percent signed with a school east of Colorado, such as Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Texas or Ohio State.
- Five California prospects have signed with a Florida school since the 2015 cycle; it just hasn’t been the Gators (three went to Florida State, two picked Miami).
- In comparison, Texas averaged 50 blue-chip prospects over the past four cycles, and 46 percent signed out-of-state, including a total of only three players choosing a Florida school.
There is some credence to the theory that Florida hasn’t been able to sign a California player in eight years while others have because the Gators didn’t try hard enough, as the percentages of offers indicate. Former Florida assistant Travaris Robinson recruited California and had solid relationships in the state, California high school coaches said, but Florida’s presence diminished when Robinson left the Gators before the 2015 season.
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“Florida State has been pretty active in general out with us.” Altenberg said. “I would see (former coach Jimbo) Fisher every year. We’d see (former FSU assistant Tim) Brewster a lot. Florida State, we saw them a ton. But we did not see Florida that much.”
Florida offered three blue-chip 2019 prospects from Cajon High School in San Bernardino. Cajon head coach Nick Rogers said when he saw Gators safeties coach Ron English this year, it was the first time he had seen a Florida coach at his school in 20 years.
“That was different,” Rogers said.
English is the Gators’ primary recruiter in California because he was born in Pomona and went to school at California, where he played safety. English previously coached at Arizona State and San Diego State. He recruited California when he was defensive coordinator at Michigan and head coach at Eastern Michigan. He was San Jose State’s defensive coordinator in 2016.
“I recognized him because we had another kid play at Eastern Michigan,” Rogers said. “He was a familiar face.”
“I know him pretty well and our kids seem to like him,” Altenberg said. “He knows the L.A. landscape in where to go and everything, so that’s probably why a bunch of guys have been offered.”
Not all of Mullen’s meetings in California were like the one he had with Altenberg. Some other longtime California high school coaches like Upland’s Tim Salter view Mullen in a similar way to how they view English. That’s because Mullen used to recruit California heavily when he worked with Meyer at Utah.
Salter is the coach of five-star linebacker Justin Flowe, the No. 1 2020 prospect in California. Florida has offered him.
“A lot of times (Flowe) has a backpack on that’s a Florida Gators backpack and that is all over the place in the locker room, and he got it because he has family ties to Florida,” Salter said. “I am glad Florida is recruiting the area. The school is very popular out in Southern California. So I am just glad to see it is being done again.”
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The coaches in California interviewed for this story all agreed that Florida’s strategy made sense, and for different reasons. Altenberg said players view Florida as “one of the ‘wow’ schools.” Rogers said the comparable weather to Southern California made it an easier sell. Players want to see how they compare to top talent in the SEC, Salter said, and appreciate coaches traveling long distances to see them.
“The brand has become national where we have interest from kids all over the country,” Mullen said. “If you even look into the 2020 and the 2021 class, the national players are very interested in the Florida brand.”
They certainly have the offers.
But success recruiting in California for Florida will be measured by commits and signees, and the Gators have none. Florida lost early battles like the one for Calabasas four-star wide receiver Mycah Pittman, who chose Oregon over the Gators in July after multiple trips to Gainesville. Mullen’s goal and theory make sense, but there are practical obstacles: While prospects can fly out to Florida for official visits on the Gators’ dime, they can’t do that for unofficial trips, per NCAA rules.
Still, Florida is ranked No. 10 and will play in a New Year’s Six bowl against Michigan on Dec. 29. Being a national player would help the Gators, and statistics indicate that as long as Florida remains a contender and puts in the effort, it should be able to land at least one California player like other top teams have. That could prove to be especially true this year with a down season in the Pac-12 and prospects taking notice of poor attendance figures in the conference. Steele, for example, quote-tweeted “Facts,” in response to a tweet recently from a reporter about the Pac-12 falling behind other conferences.
Facts. https://t.co/eaE1qFyU4f
— Steele. 🖤 (@KinggChris7) December 1, 2018
Those close to Florida feel good about its chances of landing Steele. Things likely aren’t as promising with Thibodeaux, but, by his account, he had a great visit and previously said he was intrigued by the idea of getting significant early playing time at Florida, which is something he wouldn’t have known had he not met with the staff. Being a remaining top school with the No. 2 prospect in the country isn’t a bad place to be in. It’s worth noting that Thibodeaux agreed to the visit after receiving an in-home visit from Mullen last week. Securing an official visit with an elite prospect from California may be a sign of positive things to come in the state for Florida in the future.
Or maybe not. Although recruiting is more national, like Mullen said, distance can sometimes make evaluating talent more difficult.
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When asked directly about his general thoughts on whether or not he would be wasting his time in California if he didn’t end up getting a player to sign, Mullen said, “No. You’re going out there for a day.”
“We’ll see if it pays off,” Mullen said. “We’ll see if it pays off this year for us, but I think in the future, something we are going to continue to do is try to build a national brand.”
(Photo by Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
Will Sammon is a staff writer for The Athletic, covering the New York Mets. A native of Queens, New York, Will previously covered the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Gators football for The Athletic, starting in 2018. Before that, he covered Mississippi State for The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi’s largest newspaper. Follow Will on Twitter @WillSammon
