Thursday, December 11, 2008

Meyer's Lieutenant, Mullen, New Mississippi State Head Coach

After five dismal seasons at Mississippi State Sylvester Croom, the first black coach in the SEC, resigned. Miss State wasted no time and was able to claim Urban Meyer's right hand man as their next head coach.

Dan Mullen, a former All-Conference tight end at Ursinus College, has been with Meyer at three different stops. He was the QB coach at Bowling Green and is credited with tutoring Josh Harris, who wrecked havoc as the Bowling Green signal caller. He then moved with Meyer over to Utah and continued his QB work with future #1 overall pick Alex Smith. He filled in as interim offensive coordinator in the Fiesta Bowl and lead the Utes to a big-time win over Pitt. Once again he made the leap with Meyer to Florida, but this time as the offensive coordinator and QB coach. He is credited with Chris Leak's performances in 2006, which lead to a BCS championship and more recently has worked closely with Mr. Tebow himself. In fact Tebow holds him in such high regards that he said Mullen's status would weigh into his decision to stay at UF another year.

Those are pretty solid credentials. Although the big question is whether he can bring in the necessary talent to win the SEC. He is going to have to compete with Ole Miss over the states top players but should be able to get a foothold in Florida after his years as coordinator with the Gators. Mullen said after his introduction that "We’re going to get on the road recruiting right away, get those players in here from the state. We’re going to try to control this state in recruiting as best we can right now and get it cranked up and put a great team on the field next year."

Mississippi State is not known for their long line of great QBs. Mullen should be fine though, being able to walk into a young man's house and tell him he could be the next Tebow is a pretty good recruiting line.

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