The Florida Gators football team sunk to a nadir unseen since the 1970s during the past 10 years, but the program has been trending back upwards as the decade comes to a close.

Head coach Dan Mullen is a big reason why a lot of people are high on the Gators’ future, one of whom may be a bit surprising. Former UGA and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Aaron Murray, in the interview above with Campus Lore, boldly selected his collegiate rival Gators as his team most ready to make the leap to the next level in 2020.

Despite winning 10 games four times during the 2010s, two of those campaigns have come over the past two seasons. Under the management of erstwhile effective head coach Jim McElwain — who earned one of those 10-win seasons in his first year at the helm — Florida managed just a 3-4 record in 2017 before he was dismissed from his duties; interim coach Randy Shannon added only one more win to the season’s final tally.

Taking over for McElwain after that tumultuous 4-7 season — the second four-win campaign of the decade after Will Muschamp went 4-8 in 2013 — Mullen has turned this team around and restored pride in the boys in orange and blue. He has led his squad to double-digit wins as well as New Year’s Six bowl game appearances in his first two years in Gainesville, and has managed the high expectations that come with the job quite well.

The biggest reasons for Murray’s bullish outlook for Florida are his belief in Mullen’s abilities and the stability that Kyle Trask brings to the quarterback position. He had the following to say about the importance of Trask’s ascension as the play-caller for Mullen’s offense.

What Dan Mullen has done in his first two years — back to back ten-win seasons — he now has a quarterback, you know. Instead of last year, ‘Oh, Felipe is going to be better this year.’ I think we can all agree that Kyle Trask is the man that is — I wouldn’t say perfect for Dan Mullen’s system — but still he runs the offense effectively. He gets it done.

Murray went on to commend Mullen’s ability both on the recruiting circuit and in player development.

He might not have a top-5 class, but he knows how to get the diamonds in the rough. At Mississippi State he wasn’t getting four- and five-star recruits. He was getting two-star recruits, three-star recruits, he was getting a couple four-star recruits and then developing them. Or finding those guys that no one wanted to go recruit, in the middle of nowhere, he finds those players, he sees them, he knows how to fit them into his scheme both offensively and defensively. And he has success. So he doesn’t need to get the four- and five-stars to go out there and win football games. Right now he’s got a quarterback, he’s going to have good skill guys, and he has a good defensive coordinator in Todd Grantham.

When it came to summarizing his thoughts on the future of the Gators program, Murray’s words were music to every Gator fan’s ears.