Maryland football head coach profile: Dan Mullen

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It’s been a little over two weeks since Maryland decided to move on from head coach Mike Locksley, as the search continues, it is important that Maryland continues to make an impression on their targets early in the coaching cycle as there are more head coaching jobs opening every week around the country, most recently with Florida State with the firing of Mike Norvell. Here, we dive into our fourth head coaching profile of UNLV head coach Dan Mullen.

Name: Dan Mullen

Age: 54

Record: 118-68, 15th year

Background:

Dan Mullen is an intriguing option for the Terps for many reasons. Mullen has a lot of experience as a coach, specifically as a head coach. His coaching career started back at Wagner, his alma mater where he was hired as the wide receivers coach in 1992. As Mullen worked his way up in the assistant coaching ranks, Mullen became the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Florida in 2005, where he remained until 2008. In 2009, Mullen would get his first head coaching job in Starkville, Mississippi where he was tasked with leading the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Bulldogs would go 5-7 in their first year under Dan Mullen with what many considered to be the toughest schedule in the country. Things in Starkville turned around in 2010 where Mullen would lead Mississippi State to a 9-4 season (4-4 in SEC play), due to the help provided from his previous two recruiting classes that ranked 19th and 18th in the country respectively. Mullen would finish out his second year in Starkville with a win over Michigan in the Music City Bowl. Mullen followed that up with a solid third season, leading the Bulldogs to a 7-6 record with a victory over Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl. After another 7-6 season in 2013, Mullen really made a name for himself as a head coach in 2014. With the help of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, Dan Mullen propelled Mississippi State to a very successful 10-2 season, where they appeared in the Orange Bowl. This marked just the third 10-win season in Mississippi State history. That included wins over #8 LSU, #6 Texas A&M, and #2 Auburn. Mullen would remain in Starville up until late 2017. Despite signing a 4-year extension in February, Mullen would sign a 6-year deal with Florida to be the next head coach of the Florida Gators.

Mullen spent four years in Florida, leading the Gators to an overall record of 34-15. In year one of the Dan Mullen era the Gators would finish with a 10-3 record, a big improvement from their 4-7 record the previous season. A successful year one was then followed up by an 11-2 season and a win over Virginia in the Orange Bowl. Despite an 8-1 start in year 3, things got rocky for Mullen when the Gators finished the season losing their remaining three games. Although Mullen signed the number 13 high school recruiting class in the country his first year in Gainesville, he struggled to maintain that presence on the recruiting trail. This ultimately would lead Mullen to the end of the road with Florida when he was fired in November of 2021 after posting a 5-6 record with his lack of recruiting being cited as a cause of the firing.

After his tenure in Florida, Mullen took a break from coaching and shifted towards television, working as a college football analyst for ESPN. It’s hard to keep a coach from coaching and Mullen realized that. On December 12, 2024, UNLV hired Dan Mullen as their next head coach. So far, Mullen has led the UNLV Rebels to a 15-7 overall record. He also noticeably took in transfer quarterback Anthony Colandrea last season, and that has shown to be very beneficial for Colandrea as he has put together a nice season at Nebraska this year,

Profile

Mullen has produced positive results at every stop. Especially during the pre NIL and Transfer Portal era, Mississippi State has always been arguably the hardest job in the SEC and Mullen found a lot of success there. Despite his flaws on the recruiting trail at Florida, Mullen showed off his ability to perform at a big time program.

What stands out about Mullen is his on field coaching ability and his development of quarterbacks, most notably coaching Alex Smith at Utah, Tim Tebow at Florida, Dak Prescott at Mississippi State, and Kyle Trask at Florida. This hire would be a big change from what we saw with Mike Locksley, who had a lot of success on the local recruiting trail, but often struggled in the on field coaching department.

If Maryland is able to retain Malik Washington, Dan Mullen could be the perfect coach to develop Malik’s elite raw talent into a high level college football quarterback. This is a hire that would be a big change for Maryland, but if this athletic department has their ducks in a row and are able to supply Mullen with the resources necessary to help him in the talent acquisition department, it could be a successful hire for athletic director Jim Smith. If anything, Mullen is better suited for the NIL and Transfer Portal era than he was in the previous era and Maryland could be the spot he proves that as he looks to get back into coaching in the Power 4.

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