Few breakups are this nice.
The departure of former Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen seems to be the exception. Mullen took the Mississippi State head coaching gig in December and jumped on a plane to Starkville mere days after a winning a national title with the Gators.
This fall is the first time since 1998 that Mullen and Urban Meyer will not share a sideline.
The duo first crossed paths at Notre Dame, where Meyer was a wide receivers coach and Mullen was a graduate assistant.
When Meyer left to take the head coaching job at Bowling Green in 2001, he brought along Mullen to be his quarterbacks coach. They stayed together for two years there, spent two years at Utah and then the last four in Gainesville.
"The thing that makes Dan unique is he's very, very smart," Meyer said. "I mean like really smart and has a great awareness of the game of football.
"We hit it off pretty good pretty early. He's very intellectual as far as understanding the game."
Mullen was with Meyer through four conference championships and two national titles, but the 37-year-old is about to give UF's coach another first. Five of Meyer's former assistants now have a team of their own, but Saturday will be Meyer's first showdown with a former cohort.
"A lot of guys have ambition to be a head coach. You get a chance to be a head coach in the Southeastern Conference, I'm not sure anybody in the country would've turned that down," Meyer said. "So much of taking a job is your vision with the athletic director and expectation levels.
"When I talked to Dan, that was my No. 1 thing - could you recruit and is this AD a real guy? Does this AD live in a different word, or does he understand what it takes and all that? One thing about Dan, he's very smart. He's not just gonna make emotional decisions."
Mullen's move to Starkville also upset another close relationship - that of him and a particular Heisman Trophy winner.
Tim Tebow and his former quarterbacks coach were very close, and the pair still talk, according to Tebow, although their busy schedules hinder communication. Mullen called to wish Tebow well after his concussion during the Kentucky game, and they make a point of text messaging before and after each other's games.
Tebow said it wasn't even that hard to watch Mullen go because he was so happy for him.
"I knew he wanted a head coaching job. Not that he didn't like being here, (but) he wanted that next goal, that next task. The next thing that he could go out there and accomplish, and that was being a head coach," Tebow said. "If anything, I was happy for him to get it, too, because he had earned it with his coaching here and his reputation."
While Mullen will be the headliner of this coaching matchup, he also took with him former UF tight ends coach John Hevesy to be Mississippi State's offensive line coach.
Florida junior Aaron Hernandez remembers getting a message from his former position coach to call him. Hevesy then told him he would be moving to Starkville.
"At first, you're frustrated because you're so close and you're with them more than you are with your family at home," Hernandez said. "You are definitely mad at first, but you know it's the best decision for them.
"We basically considered each other as family, but he had to go make money or whatever he's doing over there. It was the best decision for him."
