Mississippi State Football: Mullen to Maryland?

As the annual coaching carousel gets underway in earnest, Dan Mullen’s name again appears on many coaching searches.

Michigan fans think Dan Mullen may be headed to Maryland; Terrapin nation seems to be on board with that idea. Saturday Down South, however, is reporting that Mullen views the vacancy at Georgia as his “dream job”.

Are there any truth to these rumors? Does Dan Mullen even want out of Starkville? It is tough to tell about any head coach and the rumors that pop up every year. Much is being made about Mullen’s “attitude” at the post game presser, though, which you can watch below.

I don’t claim to be a master of psychology. Whether he is showing any signs of a coach that is already headed out is beyond me. The extra persistence of these rumors resonated with me, however, and I decided to reach out to a few people with close ties to the Mississippi State program.

*Disclaimer: Neither are decision makers; neither are big time boosters. Much of their knowledge is second hand, but the hand it is coming from usually is in the know. One of these same people called the firing of Rick Ray and eventual hiring of Ben Howland months in advance, although of course then it was just that the Bulldogs would be using their Adidas connection to pursue Howland.*

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I posed essentially the same question to both: Is there any truth to the rumors that Dan Mullen intends to leave Mississippi State this off season? There responses (paraphrased) follow below.

Source 1: No chance. Admittedly Mullen seems a little more fatigued than usual, but he and his wife are far too happy in Starkville to seriously entertain the idea of leaving for any other school. As far as Maryland goes, Dan would be a hypocrite for saying Collins’ move to Florida to take the same position was a ‘lateral move’ if he pursued that opening. Overall Mullen and Megan (Dan’s wife) have established roots here (Mullen has been at Mississippi State since 2009) and I think he’ll eventually retire here. He hasn’t given administration any reason to think any differently, either.

Source 2: Absolutely. He will be the coach at Maryland within the week. Under Armour is trying to make Maryland the Oregon of the Atlantic Coast and they have tabbed Mullen as their man. I’ve heard it from reliable sources that Mullen agreed to a 6 year contract in the range of $30-36 million. Mullen is a B1G man in SEC country. He’ll jump at the opportunity to go to Maryland with that type of contract.

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