Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.
A beloved member of a program’s glory days gets hired as head coach. That guy transforms a seven-loss team into a 9-3 outfit, including two top-25 wins.
Oh, you thought this guy was Jim Harbaugh? It was meant to be Dan Mullen. On second thought, both fit the description.
The head ball coaches, Harbaugh in 2015 and Mullen this fall, produced very similar results in their first years in Ann Arbor and Gainesville.
As mentioned, both inherited seven-loss teams. Harbaugh turned around Brady Hoke’s 5-7 team from 2014, while Mullen took over the Gators after Jim McElwain floundered to 4-7.