Dan Mullen Looking To Make The Next Step At Mississippi State
By Ryan Wooden
Jan 01, 2013; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen before the game against the Northwestern Wildcats in the Gator Bowl at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports
In the SEC, you have Nick Saban sitting triumphantly at the top of the hill–the tiny little czar of college football–and then you have the fresh meat folks (Mark Stoops, Gus Malzahn, Butch Jones and even Bret Bielema, with all his success at Wisconsin) looking longingly from the bottom. Hovering somewhere in the middle is Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen.
We who aren’t of Oxford like Dan Mullen. He’ll send your mom a Mother’s Day card, even if you’ve only got an offer from Memphis. Yet, Mullen is getting closer than you’d think to the end of his rope.
Following on the heels of Sylvester Croom’s historic tenure in Starksville, Mullen was tasked with winning consistently, and after an initial 5-7 season in 2009, Mullen got his Bulldogs to bark, finishing 15th in the AP Poll in 2010. However, since surging into that next grouping of SEC coaches, Mullen has hovered, struggling to break into what most would call the upper-echelon.
After regressing to 7-6 in 2011, it looked as if Dan Mullen might finally be set to challenge the LSU Tigers and Alabama Crimson Tide for SEC West superiority when Mississippi State plowed out to a 7-0 start in 2012. Unfortunately, as the schedule stiffened, Mullen’s Bulldogs were exposed.
Mississippi State was pounded in consecutive weeks by Alabama, Texas A&M and LSU, and after grabbing a win from the overwhelmed Arkansas Razorbacks, they’d finish the year with losses in the Egg Bowl against Ole Miss and in the Gator Bowl against Northwestern. And while 8-5 is enough to keep Dan Mullen employed (for now), it’s far from satisfactory for a guy who became accustomed to winning as the offensive coordinator of the Florida Gators.
Winning consistently in Starkville has been a lot like bowling on roller skates for most–damn near impossible, but it looks fun to try. Allyn McKeen did it successfully, but that was in the 1940s and even Jackie Sherrill, the program’s all-time win leader, cashed out in 2003 with just a .500 record (75-75-2). To date, Mullen has been one of the most successful coaches in program history. His 29 wins already ties him for fourth all-time at Mississippi State.
Yet, in today’s SEC, even a program that is 34 games UNDER .500 in its history expects to win and win quickly. What Dan Mullen has done at Mississippi State, given its past, is nothing short of remarkable. However, with every winning season the voracity of Starkville’s appetite grows. It will continue to grow.
They want 10 wins. They want to win the SEC West. Before long, they’ll have the audacity to demand an SEC title… even a national championship.
Sometimes, not even that’s enough. Ask Gene Chizik.
Now I don’t mean to insinuate that Dan Mullen’s job is at stake in the immediate future. Mississippi State fans and administrators are still getting used to temporarily holding real estate in the Top 25 and going to bowl games. But soon, that simply won’t be enough–perhaps even 2014 soon, depending on where 2013 takes Mullen and his cowbell toting flock.
As of now, Dan Mullen is somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy of SEC coaches, and that’s good enough. However, he’ll have to stay somewhere between the stationary Nick Saban and the hard-charging Hugh Freeze if he wants to keep the folks in Starkville happy.
The space between realistic expectation and actual expectation is thinning daily in the SEC. And, as ridiculous as it seems considering what he’s accomplished with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, I’m not sure that anybody in the conference is feeling the squeeze like Mullen.
Outside of Missouri Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel, Dan Mullen is probably closer to the chopping block than anyone in the Southeastern Conference. That’s crazy.
But, that’s the SEC.