Dan Mullen, ESPN College Football Analyst

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Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. Alright, this is Zach Gelb showing the Infinity Sports Network. We'll talk to Coach Dan Mullen right now as we get set for the NFL Draft coming your way on Thursday.

And also coach is once again partnering up with the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge as they always put on their very entertaining charity golf tournament. So we'll chat it up for a few minutes with Coach Dan Mullen right now. Coach, great to see you.

Thanks so much for doing this. How you been? Yeah, I've been great. I've been great. It's, you know, that exciting time of year.

You got NFL Draft, you got playoff hockey, playoff basketball, and it's golf season. Yeah, how was your golf game? I got out over the weekend. I had to go to a wedding Saturday night, so I played early Saturday morning with a few of my buddies before we had to go over to the wedding.

I did not play well. I had a birdie, so it will get me to go back. But outside of that, man, it was a lot of double bogeys and triple bogeys. Yeah, you just remember the birdie, especially like later in the round.

It's all like, you know, finished with a flourish and then you feel good about coming back. So I actually had to have a knee surgery earlier this spring, so I haven't been out. So this coming weekend will be my first round of golf in quite a while. I don't think I'm getting the bonus handicap strokes for it, but it'll be my first round in a while. Will you use a golf cart?

You'll be like John Daly, right? You're not walking. I'm always, I'm a golf cart guy. I'm a very, I have fun golfing. I enjoy it. I enjoy being out there.

So tell me a little bit about the event and obviously the great cause as well for it. Well, the Peace Ball Challenge does such a great job, you know, and I've done it for, I can't even know how many years, but you know, it's here at Reynolds Lake Oconee. It's a great location out at the Ridge. We play the Oconee course here at Reynolds, one of the six courses that they have.

They've got unbelievable golf here. Day one on, we go out on Monday and it's, you know, the celebrity scramble, you go out with all the sponsors, go play. But Tuesday is basically all the coaches and, you know, they have the coaches in the legends division now and this is my year two getting to be a legend. I've played a bunch as the coach and I've gotten to play as the legend, but a great event. It's actually, you know, I mean, you're the money that's raised for the, that the, the Peach Bowl does through scholarships.

The coaches all play for some money that goes to their specific charities, their individual foundations to help people. And so it's a, it's a lot of fun and you know, it's really fun as I've done it through the years, we have people come out, we have spectators come out. It's a great opportunity. You get to see coaches from all over the country, you know, current and past coaches out there and going to play at a beautiful golf course. Talking to coach Dan Mullen, we'll get to the draft in just a second, but let me hit you up with two college football questions. First, you've seen the good moments, you've seen the bad moments at Florida. This is a crucial year for Billy Napier.

You're just having an interesting perspective with how many years you're with that program. Just what advice would you give him to try to get this thing right at Florida, moving in the right direction in year three? Well, you know, one thing for Florida fans is to score some points, right? That, that always just at least puts a smile on their face.

I mean, they want to, they got to win games, but when you're scoring points, that keeps a smile on people's face. But, you know, I think, you know, Florida's finally caught up. You know, you look, they finally built a football facility. You know, they're putting themselves in a position, really. They've been playing catch up for probably a good near 10 years in college football of being way, way behind everybody else. So I think they've finally caught up and it's just going to take some patience now that they've built some facilities. They got themselves even with other people.

There's a changing landscape with NIL that you got to adjust to on top of that. So I think, you know, some of the patience within programs, you, you look at a lot of programs right now, they're being successful. Our programs that have had some patience within, within what's going on with their coaches.

And now they're starting to see the success. And then we get to Alabama. It's going to be a weird adjustment, no longer seeing Coach Saban on the sideline. But they got a heck of a coach who took Washington to a national championship in Kalin DeBoer.

We know Alabama fans every year are going to say championship or bust. But what are your realistic expectations for Coach DeBoer going to Tuscaloosa in year one? Well, I think one thing that Coach DeBoer knows is what the expectations are. You know, and he's going to have, listen, he took Washington to the national championship game last year. He's got really high expectations for himself, for his coaching staff, his program. And he's going to bring those with him, even though Alabama already has them.

He's going to have them as well. I think he's an awesome fit for that, that job, that program, you know, getting, getting to talk to him a little bit. His demeanor, you know, you got to go in there and you got to go in there with being able to balance the expectations, being able to balance what you're following and following Nick Saban and coming in, handling all of that. And I just think his demeanor, he's going to go in, he's going to coach ball. He's got a little bit of a relaxed demeanor, if you will. And don't confuse that for lackadaisical.

Don't confuse that for anything else. I just think his demeanor coming in, being able to accept Nick in the building, he's going to, you know, I think the ego wise, he's going to sit there and say, I have one of the greatest coaches of all time here to learn from. I'm going to sit and listen to everything you have to say.

I think you have to be able to handle that. His personality is going to be a great fit. I think he's going to come in with a great offensive mind, you know, with some talented players. And I think you're going to see some, you know, the continued success for the Alabama program with Coach Devore at the helm. Talking to Coach Dan Mullen, it feels like as we're two days away from the draft, Caleb Williams will go one to the Bears and Jayden Daniels will go two to the commanders.

Does that sound right to you when you're ranking these quarterbacks in the NFL draft? Oh, boy, that's a tough one, isn't it? You know, I mean, there's so many different variables, right? And it's hard to say there's ever a perfect one, right? There's ever the perfect fit. That's so hard to find, so hard to do.

So I think that's about right. You know, Caleb Williams, I'm sure there's question marks. I watch him. I have question marks. I'm sure, you know, you hear the different things with the question marks people have about him. But what are your question marks with him?

Just wondering. You know, I just want to look and say, okay, you want the most important trait of a quarterback, right, is leadership and winning. You know, does he have that it leader hold everybody, you know, kind of grab the reins and make it all go factor? You know, and can he carry his team to a championship?

You know, I mean, that's what they want from quarterbacks. You know, Patrick Holmes has an it factor. He can carry his team to a championship. The talent's not the question, though, when you look at Caleb Williams. He has the talent. He has all those things.

You know what? And it's going to be to see, you know, I mean, he hasn't played in the NFL yet. He hasn't seen how his game fits, his leadership, what he's like in the locker room and getting guys to play, right? Because the quarterback's job is to raise the play of everybody around him. And is he going to be able to do that, you know, with the Bears?

That's that's the question will be interesting to see. Jake, I'm really excited. I was really excited with him at LSU. I thought he took some huge strides last year and strides in the pocket game, which is, you know, something. It was almost like he was training for the next level all year, if you will. You know, when you watched him play.

We know he has the right. He has the athleticism. When you see him make these long runs at LSU, the escape ability, the ability to extend plays, uses legs and the dangerousness.

How dangerous he is running the football for explosive plays. But really watching him throw the ball vertically down the field, stand in the pocket and make throws really interesting, you know? And then, you know, you still throw out the Drake May, some of the other guys.

You just, I mean, once you kind of hear this is who people like, it tends to go that way. But boy, you never know what the NFL draft is. It's always there's always going to be some surprises.

Yeah. And McCarthy, JJ McCarthy, it seems like he's rising up the draft boards. Now, a lot of that is based off potential.

Michigan, they would have been stupid to not run the ball as much as they did with Coram and Edwards behind those offensive lines the last few years. That's always the difficult part is projecting how they'll do it the next level. But with more opportunity, how do you think JJ McCarthy will fare? I think he'll do great. I think one of the hardest thing for guys coming out early. You know, I you look and you say, OK, especially, you know, really, JJ's one.

But, you know, I don't know, depending on what they're going to do offensively, you know, they're going to change a little bit to put more on his shoulder. Say, hey, you're going to have to carry the team now, not manage the game. And, you know, everybody freaks out with the game manager tournament. That's like I love game manager. Game manager to me is somebody that does what he needs to do for the team to win.

Right. I mean, and if it is, I got to come out, throw for 500 yards and seven touchdowns, I'm going to do that. If I can check us into the right play and hand the ball off and just let the guys around me perform, I'll do that. You know, I mean, maybe maybe I just need to lead a two minute drive to win the game. That's what you want to see. And, you know, so for a guy like JJ with more situations where he kind of has to put more on them, you know, they they played such great defense for in so much control of games.

Very rarely did he have to have the game thrown on him to go win it during last season. Drake Mays, another guy really would love to see one more year of development. And, you know, it's not boy stay in college or do this. You think of the reps that guys get. You know, you're talking about a thousand live reps, throwing the ball under pressure, under duress. And you're doing it at a level where you are the best guy instead of the rookie. You're the veteran experience guy instead of the new guy learning.

So I think there's some there's always opportunities. You would love to see these guys maybe get some more reps in development so they're ready. They're ready sooner at the next level.

You know, the worst thing I think you see some of these young quarterbacks come into the NFL. If your pro organization is not ready for that. Yeah. Right.

Where you have you have a good old line. Fantastic. Go take a young quarterback and throw him in early. Let him because, you know, I mean, coach, for example, if McCarthy goes to the Vikings with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.

Okay. I could see him having your one success. He goes to New England. He goes to the Giants.

I think it's going to be ugly. Different deal because, you know, you think just think of the old line. You know, I go back. I was fortunate enough to coach Dak Prescott. You look at his career. He came back late a fifth year in college. Got so many reps and, you know, under direct.

He went to an organization where they had a pretty good outline. And so, you know, you're talking about fractions a second. I mean, you're point four seconds is a long time. Now, your line gives you an extra point for seconds.

That's a long time in the NFL. Well, that allows you to give that margin for error where you're learning how to be a better decision maker early in your career. And you're not just getting smacked around all over the place. And you look at some quarterbacks, younger guys that have come in and have success. A lot of these guys came into some good situation. You know, and they're able to get on the field in a good situation and they have positive results. And then they get the experience in good situations. Then as they get older, they have that experience already. So, you know, they're making quicker and faster decisions and all of those things. And, you know, a lot of these quarterbacks that are super high rated that go into bad situations, you're like, what happened to them? Well, they never really got the chance to develop or maximize because they didn't have the time to learn and learn to process and learn the right way.

No, it's definitely a great point. Coach are up again. So we appreciate the time.

As always, make sure you check out and help out the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge as well. We appreciate you coming on for a few minutes today, coach. Awesome to be with you.

Awesome to be with you. Enjoy the draft this weekend. You got it. Thanks so much.

Will do. There he is. Coach Dan Mullen does a great job for ESPN now. And we know he coached quite a bunch of years at Florida, Mississippi State as well.

We will take a time out. And I thought it was a good breakdown, especially the fit. The fit with the quarterbacks is everything. I think Caleb Williams has enough to succeed right away in Chicago. There is enough for Jayden Daniels to succeed with the commanders.

But after that, those guys, McCarthy, May, Michael Penix Jr. I think it's more so about where they go if they're going to have a chance to succeed or not. Listen as Delenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her daughter. I definitely felt like the pros far outweighed the cons, the diseases that I am protecting my child against. They're still here, and at the end of the day, it's my job as a mother to keep my child safe.

Talk to your child's doctor and learn more at WhyVaccines.com. Brought to you by Merck. You could spend the weekend doing the same old whatever, or you could conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.