SEC Football Head Coach Evaluation: Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen
Jul 15, 2014; Hoover, AL, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen talks to the media during the SEC Football Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
SEC football coaches are constantly being evaluated, and we do our part to add to that. This is the 13th in our series of head football coach evaluations for the conference. Dan Mullen’s evaluation is the sixth of the SEC West evaluations.
SEC West Head Coach Evaluation: Kevin Sumlin
SEC West Head Coach Evaluation: Les Miles
SEC West Head Coach Evaluation: Bret Bielema
SEC West Head Coach Evaluation: Gus Malzahn
SEC West Head Coach Evaluation: Nick Saban
Dan Mullen is entering the 2015 season with the highest approval rating among Mississippi State faithful that he has ever had. After leading Mississippi State to the #1 ranking for the first time in school history, Bulldog faithful are ready to name their kids after Dan.
2014 was not supposed to be a special season. The Bulldogs, like in 2015, entered the season unranked. They then managed to rise to the #1 AP ranking in just five weeks, making their climb from unranked to first the fastest in the history of the 78 year old poll according to espn.com.
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While Mississippi State fans themselves likely did not expect such a meteoric rise in 2014, they were likely more confident than most. After taking over in 2009, Mullen has been slowly turning around a program that was annually near the bottom of the SEC. Mullen is 46-31 six years into his tenure at State. While that may not blow you away, understand the Bulldogs were 23-48 in the six seasons before Mullen arrived.
The most ironic thing about Mullen and Mississippi State’s 2014 season is that it almost didn’t happen. But we’ll get more to that in the “case against” slide. First, let’s take a look at why Mississippi State faithful are happy to call Dan their man.