Dan Mullen
Daniel Mullen is an American college football coach who is currently the head coach at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 2009 to 2017 and the University of Florida from 2018 to 2021. From 2022 until 2024 he worked as a studio analyst and color commentator for ABC and ESPN.
Early life
Mullen attended Trinity High School of Manchester, New Hampshire, where he helped lead the Pioneers to the state championship in 1988.College career
Mullen attended Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, where he lettered for two years playing tight end and was a first-team All-Centennial Conference selection his senior year. He graduated in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in education. He went on to Wagner College, where he coached wide receivers and earned a master's degree in education in 1996.Coaching career
After serving as a graduate assistant at Syracuse and Notre Dame, Mullen was hired by Urban Meyer to coach QBs at Bowling Green from 2001 to 2002. Mullen would stay in the same position with Meyer after the latter was hired by Utah where they both stayed for the 2003 and 2004 seasons. During his tenure at Utah, he also recruited and briefly coached Brian Johnson, a quarterback who led Utah to 13β0 and a Sugar Bowl victory for the 2008-2009 season.Following an undefeated 2004 season which led to Utes QB Alex Smith being the first overall pick in the draft Meyer was hired by the University of Florida. Mullen served as interim offensive coordinator for the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and led the team to a 35β7 win over the Pittsburgh Panthers. After the victory Mullen would join Meyer's staff at Florida as offensive coordinator and QB coach.
As a coach, Mullen has coached several notable players, including quarterbacks Alex Smith, Heisman Trophy-winner Tim Tebow, Dak Prescott, and Kyle Trask.
Mullen, along with former Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly, and former Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive coordinator Gary Crowton, are part of the so-called "New Hampshire mafia" as they all have strong connections to New Hampshire.
Mississippi State
On December 11, 2008, Mullen was hired as the head coach of Mississippi State by former athletic director Greg Byrne.Mullen's first recruiting class at Mississippi State was ranked 19th in the nation by Scout.com. and his 2012 recruiting class was ranked 18th in the nation. In his first season as head coach at Mississippi State in 2009, his team went 5β7 against the toughest schedule in the nation.
In 2010, his Bulldog team went 9β4 overall and 4β4 in the SEC including victories over Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, and Mississippi; the four losses came to teams ranked in the top 12. Mississippi State capped off the 2010 season by defeating traditional power Michigan in the 2011 Gator Bowl, 52β14, and achieved a number-15 ranking in the final AP poll.
In 2011, Mullen's Bulldogs entered the year ranked number 19 in the nation. A loss to Auburn in the first SEC game of the year hurt the Bulldogs, and they went into the game vs Ole Miss with a 5β6 record. They defeated the Rebels, 31β3, and defeated Wake Forest, 23β17, in the Music City Bowl to finish 7β6 on the year.
In 2012, Mississippi State opened with a win over Jackson State and a win over Auburn, the first time the Bulldogs defeated the Tigers since 2007. Mississippi State had a 7β0 record, and a number 13 ranking, entering a game vs number 1, undefeated Alabama. MSU lost, 38β7, and lost two more, to number 16 Texas A&M and number 9 LSU. MSU defeated Arkansas, and was looking for a fourth straight win over Ole Miss, who was 5β6 going into the game, similar to MSU the year before. The Bulldogs lost, 41β24, and then lost to Northwestern, 34β20, in the Gator Bowl to finish 8β5.
Mississippi State started the 2013 season against number 13 Oklahoma State, losing, 21β3. They defeated Alcorn State, but lost to Auburn, 24β20. They defeated Troy, Kentucky, and Bowling Green, and lost to LSU, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Alabama, to drop to 4β6, traveling to Little Rock, Arkansas, to battle Arkansas. MSU won, 24β17, in overtime, and was 5β6 entering the Ole Miss game. MSU missed a game-winning field goal to send the game into overtime, and Dak Prescott got a 3-yard touchdown run on 4th and 2, giving Ole Miss the ball up 17β10. Bo Wallace fumbled in the end zone, giving MSU the 17β10 victory, and for the first time in school history, a fourth straight bowl berth. MSU defeated Rice, 44β7, in the Liberty Bowl to finish 7β6.
In 2014, Mullen led the Bulldogs to one of the greatest seasons in school history. He claimed his first Top 10 win at Mississippi State, as the Bulldogs knocked off #8 LSU, 34β29, at Death Valley, allowing them to enter the polls at #12. He followed that up by beating #6 Texas A&M, 48β31, in Starkville, vaulting them to third in the nation. A week later, they beat #2 Auburn, 38β23, which propelled them to the top spot in both major polls β the highest ranking in Mississippi State's history, and the highest that any FBS team in Mississippi had been ranked at that late date in almost half a century. Losses to Alabama and Mississippi ended any hope of a national championship. The Bulldogs finished 10β2 β only the third 10-win season in school history. This netted them an appearance in the Orange Bowl, where they lost to Georgia Tech, 49β34, the third major bowl appearance in school history, after the 1937 Orange Bowl and the 1941 Orange Bowl.
On December 26, 2016, Mullen made SEC history when he became the first football coach in conference history to win a bowl game and still finish with a losing record on the season; Mississippi State finished the season with a 6β7 mark.
On February 27, 2017, Mississippi State Athletic Director John Cohen announced a four-year extension for Mullen through February 2021.
Primarily on the strength of his sterling 2014 season, Mullen was already the third-winningest coach in Mississippi State history, behind only Jackie Sherrill and Allyn McKeen. On October 14, the Bulldogs defeated Kentucky 45β7, giving Mullen his 66th win with the Bulldogs and vaulting him past McKeen to become the second-winningest coach in school history.
Florida
On November 26, 2017, Mullen signed a six-year, $36.6 million contract to become the new head coach of the Florida Gators football team. ESPN ranked Mullen's first recruiting class at Florida at 13, an increase of six from the previous season. After a 4β7 campaign the previous year under coach Jim McElwain, Mullen's first Gator squad went 10β3 and finished ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll after a 41β15 victory over then-No. 8 Michigan in the Peach Bowl. He led the Gators to an 11β2 record the following year including a 36β28 win over Virginia in the Orange Bowl.In his third season at Florida, Mullen's Gators began the season 8-1 and were ranked as high as #4 as quarterback Kyle Trask put up record-breaking numbers, including a nation-high 4,125 passing yards and 43 passing touchdowns, the latter of which set a school single-season record. However, they lost their last three games while giving up 144 points, including a 55-20 loss to [2020 2020 Oklahoma Sooners football team|Oklahoma Sooners football team|Oklahoma] in Florida's first ever trip to the Cotton Bowl Classic. Though the offense performed well, Mullen drew increasing criticism for his seeming disinterest in the bowl game, his struggle to recruit elite players to Florida, and the Gators' porous defense, which gave up more points per game than any Florida squad in over a century. Though many fans and observers called for Mullen to fire defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and shake up his defensive staff, he decided to keep Grantham and limited staff changes to two defensive assistant coaches.
The Gators were 3β1 and ranked No. 10 at the end of September during the 2021 season, but a series of upset losses saw Florida's record slip below.500. After blowout losses to arch-rival Georgia and 18.5-point underdog South Carolina in October, Mullen fired defensive coordinator Todd Grantham. After an overtime loss to underdog Missouri, Mullen was fired as the head coach of the Florida Gators on November 21, with the Gators' record at 5β6, Mullen having posted a 2-9 record in his last 11 P5 games at UF.