Dan Mullen Still Can't Hit The Road To Recruit Because Of NCAA 'Show Cause'

If you were wondering why Florida head Coach Dan Mullen hasn't been on the road recruiting high school football players this fall, it all stems back to penalties handed down by the NCAA for recruiting infractions. These infractions occurred a few years ago, but COVID halted one of the penalties for Mullen.

Last December, the Division 1 Committee announced that Dan Mullen "did not promote an atmosphere of compliance." The Florida head coach was under investigation for recruiting violations, including having made contact with a recruit during a period in which he was not allowed. The NCAA pushed back his punishment until 2021 because coaches were not allowed to travel or meet recruits in 2020 because of COVID precautions.

Dan Mullen's punishment has been ongoing, but is scheduled to end in December, according to a Florida spokesperson.

This excerpt comes from the NCAA's report on the infractions.

"The university, the head football coach, an assistant coach and NCAA enforcement staff agreed that the assistant coach and head coach had impermissible in-person contact with a prospect when they met with a prospect’s high school coach while the prospect was in the room. At that meeting, the Florida coaches expressed an interest in recruiting the prospect. Leading up to that visit, the head coach sent the prospect texts about his upcoming visit to the high school and his interest in recruiting the prospect. NCAA rules were violated because off-campus recruiting contacts are not allowed until after a football prospect’s junior year of high school. The violations were Level II.

"The head coach agreed that he did not promote an atmosphere of compliance in light of his personal involvement in one of the violations."

Florida also had a Level III violation, which was also included in the report.

For now, Mullen is allowed to interact with recruits while they are on visits, but he cannot travel to visit recruits like other college football coaches have been doing all season. On Monday, a reporter asked Mullen several times whether he had personally been out recruiting, to which he replied, "I am not going to get into the specifics of where everybody went or what's going on with it."

Mullen was then asked again whether he had personally been on the road recruiting, and he did not bite.

"I am not even gonna comment on any of that stuff, on who was where, why and how."

The infractions report was released in December of 2020, but since most of the punishment handed down from the NCAA has already been handled, fans have wondered why Mullen hasn't been on the road this fall.

Well, there's your answer.