Virginia Tech Coaching Candidate Profile: Dan Mullen TSL Pass

This is the second installment of a series of articles that profile potential candidates for Virginia Tech football’s open head coaching position. I’ll begin by putting in my usual qualifier at the start of the article.

First, I plan to run one of these articles per week from now until the end of the season. They will generally appear on Wednesdays in place of my usual Inside The Numbers article, because who really wants to read about the numbers that this team will most likely put up this year? The one exception will probably be the week of the Cal game, which is a Friday night game and will alter our coverage schedule slightly. I’ll also probably do more than one profile during the bye week.

Second, the order will be totally random. We began with James Madison head coach Bob Chesney. That doesn’t mean he’s my top choice. I just woke up and randomly picked him. This week, we’re going to go with UNLV head coach Dan Mullen.

Third, I think most of the articles will be structured similarly, though that partially depends on how much information I can dig up. I’ll go over their career so far, put in a few videos of how they handle themselves in front of the media, go over some random facts (if I can find any) and then give you my basic thoughts. Then I’ll close each article by letting you vote on the suitability of each candidate.

With all that said, let’s get started.

Dan Mullen: His Career So Far

Dan Mullen coached under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida, serving as Meyer’s quarterbacks coach and later offensive coordinator (2005-08) with the Gators back when Tim Tebow was the quarterback and Percy Harvin played wide receiver. He parlayed that success into the head-coaching job at Mississippi State, where he stayed from 2009-17, going 69-46 in the process.

Mullen led the Bulldogs to eight straight bowl games and they finished ranked in the top 25 on three occasions. They won eight or more games five times. He replaced Sylvester Croom, and since Mullen departed, he has been replaced by several coaches. Let me break down Mississippi State’s record before, during and after Mullen:

• Pre-Mullen, 2004-08: 21-38 (10-30 SEC)
• Under Mullen, 2009-17: 69-46 (33-39 SEC)
• Post-Mullen, 2018-Present: 46-45 (19-38 SEC)

The Bulldogs were terrible before Mullen got there and have basically been a .500 program since he left (and gotten worse in SEC play as well).

Mississippi State’s all-time leader in wins is Jackie Sherrill, who coached there from 1991-2003. As a comparison, he went 75-75-2 with a 43-59-1 mark in SEC play. Mullen had a much better winning percentage in Starkville and also won at a higher clip in the SEC.

In short, the Bulldogs have historically been a very bad program and Mullen is the only head coach who proved he could win there on a consistent basis. It’s considered one of the hardest jobs in the country for a reason.

Then Mullen to Florida, where he did well until he didn’t.

• 2018: 10-3 (5-3 SEC)
• 2019: 11-2 (6-2 SEC)
• 2020: 8-4 (8-3 SEC)
• 2021: 5-6 (2-6 SEC)

Why did things get worse later in his tenure? Not being a Florida fan, I’m not plugged into the program, but reading several articles led me to the same place: lack of recruiting and too loyal to underperforming staff members. Here’s a good couple of paragraphs that seem to sum of the feelings of most Florida people:

“In 2020, the Gators declared their love for Mullen amid a historically efficacious season from his offense. Following that junior campaign with a contract extension, the two tied the knot in a move that ignored the early red flags of detrimental loyalty, recruiting becoming an afterthought and a dwindling competitive fire.

“Those alarms were set off by his refusal to move on from struggling staffers — namely defensive coordinator Todd Grantham — [and] questionable effort in their season finale against Oklahoma and a slew of misses on the trail during his time as head coach.”