Dan Mullen’s Stock Has Risen

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Dan Mullen

When Dan Mullen became the head football coach of the Mississippi State University Bulldogs in 2009 he had his work cut out for him. Priot to Mullen’s arrival the Bulldogs only had enjoyed two winning seasons since 2000 while getting lost in the shuffle in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference. Prior to taking over at Mississippi State, Mullen was the offensive coordinator at Florida for four years. In his stint at Florida, Mullen helped the school reel in a pair of national championships. By 2010, Mullen led the Bulldogs to their first 9-win season since 1999. Mullen has guided Mississippi State to four consecutive winning campaigns, but they have been unable to hang with the upper echelon teams in the SEC West; until now.

This season the Bulldogs began the season unranked, but it isn’t how you start as it is more about how you finish. In the past month Mississippi State has knocked off three teams that were ranked in the top 10 in the form of LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn. And now for the first time in school history, Mississippi State is sitting atop the Associated Press Poll and there is a huge buzz in Starkville that Mullen has created. Now the Bulldogs have shown that they can hang with the Auburn’s and the LSU’s of the world as they currently have a record of 6-0. The Bulldogs are in pursuit of their first Western Division Title in the SEC since 1998 and they are actually thinking about bigger things which is the school’s first national championship in college football. The rise of Mississippi State has increased the value of Mullen and with the potential of some big head coaching jobs opening up in college football this winter he could become a very wanted man.

Mullen was previously the offensive coordinator at Florida and he was the man behind quarterback Tim Tebow who won the Heisman Trophy there in 2007. Florida is coming off of its first losing season since 1979 and with a 3-2 start this year, some fans in Gainesville are ready to bid adieu to the current head football coach there in Will Muschamp. Mullen knows about winning at Florida and his popularity would win over the boosters and alumni there very quickly.

The University of Michigan has seen its beloved Wolverines football program become extremely mediocre in the past seven years as they have only had one 10-win season over that stretch which was once the norm in Ann Arbor. Mullen runs a spread offense which didn’t work previously at Michigan when Rich Rodriguez was the head football coach there from 2008-2010. The expectations at Michigan are unrealistic and it is a place that Mullen should steer clear of now matter how much money could be thrown at him.

Aside from working with Tebow at Florida, Mullen was the quarterbacks coach at Utah from 2003-2004 where he tutored quarterback Alex Smith who would go on to be the first overall pick of the 2005 National Football League Draft by the San Francisco 49ers. This season Mullen has turned Mississippi State junior quarterback Dak Prescott into a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate as he has thrown 14 touchdown passes along with being second on the team in rushing and he has become that heart and soul of the Mississippi State offense.

With conference games left remaining for Mississippi State that includes a home tilt against Kentucky next Saturday, a road game versus Alabama, and the Egg Bowl to end the season in Oxford, Mississippi as they’ll face Ole Miss, the odds are somewhat stacked against the Bulldogs finishing 2014 with an unblemished record, but you cannot discredit what Mullen has done in Starkville. Mullen is under contract at Mississippi State through 2018 as he signed an extension this past March. Mullen earns nearly $3 million per year at Mississippi State and he will be in line to get another bump in pay real soon if the powers that be in Starkville want him to remain there. If not the almighty dollar could lure Mullen out of town to once again don the blue and orange in Gainesville. Unless the Florida job were to become available I don’t see Mullen leaving Starkville for another rebuilding job as he is cementing his legacy with the Bulldogs.

Source: Sports-reference.com

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By | 2014-10-16T10:11:36+00:00 October 16th, 2014|Categories: College Football|Tags: , , |0 Comments

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