After watching the Monday night game and listening to the coaches in the room with Nebraska Coach Mike Riley, we had a few questions about the group. First on our list was Coach Mullen. Who is Dan Mullen? Some say he’s part of the New Hampshire Mafia. But that’s a reference to his ties to the state where he attended high school and was a State Champion. It also is a reference to Chip Kelly and Gary Crawton who have ties to New Hampshire. But that was a while ago and this is now.
Mullen is the Mississippi State Coach that was seated to the left of Coach Riley during the National Championship game Coaches show on ESPN2 Monday night. To start with the softer side of Mullen, his wife’s name is Megan, and they have 2 children, Breelyn and Canon.
Nov 22, 2014; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen and his son Canon Mullen after the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
Dan played tight end at Ursinus College. No, that’s not a typo or autocorrect. It’s a college in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Seriously, who could make that up? He graduated college in ’94 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise and Sport Science. He was later to coach wide receivers at Wagner College in New York and obtain a Master’s Degree in Education. So we know he has some paperwork to put up on the walls in his new office.
From there he coached Wide Receivers at Columbia, and then a year at Syracuse and a couple years at Notre Dame, and then he spent a couple years at Bowling Green, where he was in charge of the quarterbacks. That’s when he really started to specialize his craft. He was at Bowling Green at the same time as Urban Meyer and then moved with him to Utah for the 2003-2004 seasons.
Aug 22, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tim Tebow (5) on the sidelines in the second quarter of a preseason game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
When Urban moved to Florida, Mullen followed to be in charge of his QBs. Yes, Tim Tebow is a product of Dan Mullen. So is Alex Smith. Pretty good guys. And they can throw the rock around a bit.
In 2008 he became the head coach of Mississippi State Football program. Although it wasn’t a great start, he was bowl eligible in all but his first season in the SEC. I spoke to NE Miss Daily Journal beat reporter Logan Lowery, and he shared with me his take on their coach.
Q: How would you describe Mullen?
A: He’s a good guy. He’s a coach that is involved with his players. He really coaches them up. He’s someone who can do a lot with little. I think he’s only ever had one 5 start recruit and yet he’s competed well against the other teams.
Q: Is he media friendly?
A: Yes. There are even times when we would talk about wrestling, the weather, or just whatever and he’s a likeable guy. There are the times when he’s doing the coach speak thing, but he gets the relationship between the media and the program so it works for everyone. He doesn’t like talking about injured players though. That’s about the only frustrating thing he does.
I also spoke to the JD Davis, the Sports Editor for the Oxford Citizen (think Ole Miss mostly) in order to see if he had the same take about Mullen. He pretty much agreed but I specifically asked him “Would an SEC coach ever want to leave there?” He responded, that “Miss State isn’t the gem of the SEC. I mean it’s got a really nicely renovated stadium and it looks good, but having seen UNL’s stadium back in June when I was in town for the CWS, to compare it to Mississippi State for example, it’s much bigger.”
I asked JD about recruits. He told me that Mullen is really good at recruiting but that may have been a product of being able to recruit Mississippi players to play in the state.
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Both reporters agreed that it was time for Mullen to start to shop his services as he’s increasingly upped the program value at Miss St over his 6 year tenure. Dak Prescott even had Heisman chatter and for the first time in a long while, the program was winning significant games.
So there you go, a little insight on who was sitting next to our Coack Mike Riley. In the meantime remember, there is no place like Nebraska and GO BIG RED!