GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the head of an oversized conference table in the middle of the Florida staff room a few minutes after 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday morning, Dan Mullen spun his wedding ring to channel his nervous energy. As the ring twirled like a top on the smooth glass surface, it played bumper cars with Mullen’s three cell phones stacked on the table. He mostly ignored the cacophony of buzzes, bells and beeps.

Mullen spent most of the morning pacing around the Gator football offices in his blue suede Air Jordans, slugging Diet Pepsi and asking some version of the question, “What do you got?” to his assembled staff members.

By 11 a.m. on Monday, Mullen had gotten most of the 14 commitments – 13 high schools recruits and one transfer – that would mark his first signing day as Florida’s head coach. And that left Mullen locked in on the recruit that would ultimately define his day – Ohio State quarterback commit Emory Jones. It had been known for a while that Jones wouldn’t be going to Columbus, as the Buckeyes staff had even gone out and signed another quarterback. But the drama remained thick in Gainesville, as Jones visited both Florida and Florida State over the weekend.

That set up the first high-stakes recruiting battle between Mullen and new FSU head coach Willie Taggart. With Jones’ announcement expected at 11:30 a.m., Mullen spent the morning with his body a coil of nerves. He’d snap his fingers to release the tension, and hounding Jones’ primary recruiter, assistant coach Brian Johnson: “What’s going on with the quarterback?”

In the 27-day sprint since Mullen left Mississippi State to take the Florida job, he’d attempted to juggle five giant tasks – building a staff, putting together a recruiting class, familiarizing himself with a new team, organizing the structure of the program and spending time with his family. “I feel reborn,” Mullen said. “It’s a new challenge.”

It’s also a daunting one, as Mullen jokes that he’s gone from an underdog program at Mississippi State where people initially laughed at him when he said they’d compete for the national title. Now, they expect it. To get there, it’s no secret that Florida needs improved quarterback play.

View photos Dan Mullen, the new head football coach at the University of Florida, is introduced during a news conference in Gainesville, Fla., on Monday, Nov. 27, 2017. (Alan Youngblood/Star-Banner via AP) More

Mullen called plays as the offensive coordinator on Florida’s 2006 and 2008 national title teams, led by quarterbacks Chris Leak and Tim Tebow. Since Tebow has left campus, the quarterback position has been a rotating door of mediocrity and the offense a quagmire of the unwatchable.

There’s already talent in the room, including sophomore Feleipe Franks, who started eight games last year. But Mullen knew he needed a marquee quarterback in this class, and the 6-foot-4, 179-pound Jones ranks as the No. 2 dual-threat prospect in the class. Mullen’s success with dual threats like Tebow and Dak Prescott made Jones an ideal building block, which is why he kept asking Johnson: “WHAT ABOUT THE QUARTERBACK!?”

6:45 a.m.

There are four black leather chairs and a glass table in the foyer outside of Mullen’s office at the Florida football facility. Early on Wednesday morning, director of recruiting operations Lee Begley sat down in one of the chairs and popped open her computer.

The actual signing day is more nerves than work, as the nearly month-long sprint here began when the school plane landed to deliver Mullen on Nov. 27. When Mullen arrived, he delivered authoritative chomp. His wife, Megan, followed him with 8-year-old Canon and 5-year-old Breelyn. Begley came next, as the only other Mississippi State employee who came on the initial flight from Starkville to Gainesville. (She would have been joined by Mullen’s longtime operations director, Jon Clark, but he stayed behind because of the birth of his new son, Dakota).

Begley had spent seven years running State’s recruiting and her job offer at Florida came by the form of a question from Mullen: “So you’re on the plane tomorrow, right?” When Begley stepped off the plane in Gainesville, she stepped foot in the town for the first time.

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