Tim Tebow defends Dan Mullen, reinforces job security at Florida

Florida head coach Dan Mullen has the full sport of Gators legend Tim Tebow, despite recent questions regarding Mullen’s job security.

Mullen in June inked a three-year contract extension at the University of Florida, bringing his contract through the 2026 season and raising his annual salary to $7.6 million a year, but Mullen’s tenure at Florida has been far from perfect. Across four seasons, Mullen has a 33-12 overall record with a Peach Bowl win, Orange Bowl win and Cotton Bowl loss, but the Gators got off to a rough start in 2021 — highlighted by a loss to a struggling LSU team — and hold just a 4-3 record heading into a rivalry game against Georgia.

As Mullen continues to receive questions and criticism about his tenure at Florida — some going so far as to question his job security — Tebow was quick to defend the head coach, who previously served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach while Tebow played at Florida.

“Well, if you look at them being 4-3, you look at their record, it has been one of the hardest schedules in college football,” Tebow said Friday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “I think secondly, you look at what happened in those games. You played the number one team in the country in Alabama and you honestly outplayed them for the majority of the game. The refs were awful in that game, and you had a kicker miss an extra point or that game goes to overtime.”

Mullen’s Florida Gators, then-ranked No. 11 in the country, welcomed then-No. 1 Alabama to Gainesville in Week 3, a game that looked to be all Alabama early on. The Crimson Tide jumped out to a 21-3 first-quarter lead, but the Gators clawed back, outscoring Alabama 26-10 in the next three quarters. Eventually, as Tebow alluded to, Florida scored a touchdown with just three minutes left in the contest; a subsequent two-point conversion would have tied the game, but Mullen’s playcall was unsuccessful.

“You look at that, and if you are really sitting back and evaluating it — you have to say ‘you went toe-to-toe with the best team in the country and a few more changing calls, you might win that game,’” Tebow continued. “And then you go to Kentucky, and you are dominating that game and you get a field goal block that goes back. That’s a 10-point swing or else you win that game. Let’s just say one or two of those go different and you are 6-1 coming into this game, ranked in the top 10. Then I think people would look at it very differently.”