CC: Dan Mullen there for the taking?

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Now that the biggest threat of taking Mullen, Florida, has hired McElwain, is Dan Mullen a very possible option now?

This is if Harbaugh doesn't work out, of course.

mdonley

December 4th, 2014 at 11:57 AM ^

Carr stole McCartney's brothers wife. I wish people would stop saying Les banged Moeller's wife when the truth of the story is Carr banged and stole McCartneys wife and Les and McCartney were tight.

TheMadGrasser

December 4th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^

2005 LSU 11–2 7–1 1st (West) W Peach 5 6
2006 LSU 11–2 6–2 T–2nd (West) W Sugar 3 3
2007 LSU 12–2 6–2 1st (West) W BCS NCG 1 1
2008 LSU 8–5 3–5 3rd (West) W Chick-fil-A    
2009 LSU 9–4 5–3 2nd (West) L Capital One 17 17
2010 LSU 11–2 6–2 T–2nd (West) W Cotton 8 8
2011 LSU 13–1 8–0 1st (West) L BCS NCG 2 2
2012 LSU 10–3 6–2 T–2nd (West) L Chick-fil-A 12 13
2013 LSU 10–3 5–3 3rd (West) W Outback 14 14
2014 LSU 8–4 4–4 T–4th (West)      
LSU: 103–28 56–24

 

 

7/10 seasons with 10+ wins. That is all.

lilpenny1316

December 4th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ^

1. Never developed a QB into a top flight, win a game on my arm/legs, type of QB.

2. Does not have a great offense.

3. Seems to be trending downward at LSU despite being the only program in the state and is next door to talent-rich Texas.

4. Is 61, so teams will start negative recruiting against his age within a few years.



Rumors that are not proven true are just rumors.  I'd rather look at the on-field product which has been kinda stagnant the last few years at LSU.

Jaqen H'ghar

December 4th, 2014 at 11:20 AM ^

We have gotten really gunshy with the whole QB situation (and rightly so with Gardner's performance) but we really don't need a stud QB to win. Look at AJ McCarron or Colt McCoy. Neither really took over a game, they were just game managers. What we need, at the worst, is a competent QB that won't turn the ball over and put our defense in bad positions. The emphasis on developing QBs is crucial but not as crucial as we are making it out to be

lilpenny1316

December 4th, 2014 at 11:44 AM ^

And McCoy was a finalist twice.  So they developed into something more than just game managers, but people you could trust to win a game for you.

Les Miles has been criticized locally (in Baton Rouge) for his handling/development of quarterbacks.  I would argue that even as game managers, his QBs are mediocre at best in that area.  

Stay.Classy.An…

December 4th, 2014 at 3:17 PM ^

probably wasn't the best QB and he led them to a National Title and won the MVP of the BCS NC Game. I'd say Les does a pretty good job with what he has. Wasn't LSU pretty much a defense team on the whole anyways? When the really great part of your team is defense, common sense tells me the bulk of your "higly touted" recruits will be defensive players. For better or worse, Les probably wasn't thinking about scoring 60 points a game, when you are only giving up ~20. FWIW.

WolvinLA2

December 4th, 2014 at 12:04 PM ^

Yeah - that's what I was thinking.  I know he was an NFL bust, and that has a lot more to do with his attitude than anything else, but he was incredible in college.  He absolutely slaughtered a pretty talented ND team in his last bowl game, a big reason he went #1 over Megatron.

IvyLeague

December 4th, 2014 at 2:22 PM ^

You don't want a coach who runs a dominant power in the toughest conference the past decade and has won a national title? LSU, trending downward? Have  you actaully watched a LSU game this year? Does not have a great offense? Do you know who Odell Beckham is? How about all their NFL draft picks on the offensive side of the ball? LSU has had more QBs drafted in the past few years than Michigan. Also, the majority of their skill position players are basically Freshmen and Sophomores and they took the clear #1 team in the country to overtime a few weeks ago.

This line of thinking is beyond obnoxious and ridiculous for a program that can't beat Maryland, and barely pulling out games against MAC Teams. Unreal. Everyone in the country thinks Miles is our best choice after Jim but yet we are knocking Miles for recruiting states next door to where his school is.  

LJ

December 4th, 2014 at 11:17 AM ^

I don't get why people are so high on a guy who hasn't ever been a head coach in college and hasn't been a college position coach in nearly 20 years.  If he didn't have Michigan connections, would John Harbaugh really be that high on your list?  And isn't the one thing we all despise around here the hiring of a less qualified coach based on his connections to the university?

LJ

December 4th, 2014 at 11:43 AM ^

I agree he has some appeal, but NFL coaches are huge unknowns.  Bill Callahan was very nearly a Super Bowl winning coach.  The style required to succeed at each is very different.  Would you prefer Mike Tomlin to any other candidate other than Jim Harbaugh?  Very similar resume.  To prefer guys like this over a known quantity like Stoops is odd to me.

Tater

December 4th, 2014 at 12:22 PM ^

Mullen is 42, runs a spread, is considered creative, and is winning at a school that was considered "impossible" to win at without pulling in a bunch of five stars..  Miles is 61, runs the pro style offense with "old school" mentality and is winning at a school where it is expected with top five talent.

Other than that, they are EXACTLY "the same person..."

saveferris

December 4th, 2014 at 11:04 AM ^

I don't know if I buy that.  Mullen has to know that what he accomplished this season at Miss. State is not sustainable long term.  He can certainly keep MSU at a good level, but fielding a team year-to-year that will win 10-11 games playing against Alabama, LSU, and Auburn?  No way.

This was the best MSU team probably...ever, and who is the SEC West representative this weekend for the Championship Game?

Mullen may have no interest leaving Mississippi State to come coach in the Big 10, but he'll leave MSU for the right higher profile job.

UMaD

December 4th, 2014 at 11:35 AM ^

because it's not true.

People can say,/did say,/are saying it's not sustainable to win at Oregon, TCU, Baylor, Miami but the reality is that the college football landscape is not fixed.

There is no reason Mullen can't build on this success. Winning leads to better recruiting and better job security.

Mullen's next stop might be the NFL a la Kelly, Harbaugh, Schiano, Riley, etc.  All those guys turned down 'name' jobs to stick with their "unsustainable" programs.  Patterson and Briles are doing it now too - why can't Mullen.

LJ

December 4th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^

Those programs are completely different than MSU.  I think people underestimate the epic level of historical suck that defines MSU.  They have 1 SEC title in their history!  The other programs you mention either have more history (Miami), outrageous resources (Oregon) or are in easier conference situations (TCU).  Baylor might be similar, but you can bet that if Briles was Mullen's age, he would be thinking about leaving too.

And the coaches you mention didn't turn down name jobs to stick with "unsustainable" programs.  Kelly (either Chip or Brian) went to name programs (Oregon, ND) and had huge success.  Harbaugh left his unsustainable program (Stanford) to go to the NFL.  Schiano did stick with Rutgers, and guess what?  He couldn't sustain the success of his 2006 season because he was at an unsustainable program.  And has Riley really turned down offers at big programs?

UMaD

December 4th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^

Miami had no history whatsoever when it emerged in the 70s and 80s under Schnellenburger and Johnson.

Oregon had a long history of suck before Belloti/Kelly too.  Resources certainly helped them...and check out MSU's new facilities, which are elite.  If Mullen has the coaching ability that Kelly does there is no reason he can't do the same there.  Oregon faced a much bigger hurdle with regards to recruiting than MSU has.  They completely turned it around and are now an elite power.  If they can do it - anyone can.

"Easier conference" - sure.  But I don't think Patterson and Briles are sticking around because it's easy.  How often to hear coaches say "I took this job because it's easier."  How often do head coaches even downgrade their conference when they've had success?

Riley has repeatedly been courted by USC and others.  He's in the ever-diminishing group of proven pro-style head coaches.  He left for the NFL and then came back to Corvallis where he is has well established roots.

WolvinLA2

December 4th, 2014 at 12:15 PM ^

No one is saying there aren't reasons to stay where you are or that you can't turn any school into a proven winner.  Could Urban Meyer have stayed at Utah and done everything he did at Florida?  It's possible, but very unlikely and at the very least it would have taken a whole lot longer.  

TCU and Baylor are both unique situations, in a league that lost three of its best teams (TAMU, Nebraska and Missouri) and has it's giant (Texas) currently in a downturn.  And Gary Patterson has been building TCU for a while now, so that wasn't just an overnight success.  Also unlike Miss St, TCU and Baylor are in a super talent-rich state, where convincing kids to stay at home isn't a bad sell.  The Dalles-FTW Metroplex has the highest concentration of D1 talent of anywhere in the country, and the only P5 school within a hundred miles is TCU.  The one that's 100 miles away?  Baylor.  Miss St. doesn't have any fertile recruiting grounds like that.  

UMaD

December 4th, 2014 at 12:50 PM ^

Utah is not in the SEC, and if it was in the Pac12 at the time Meyer might have stuck around. 

Also, Utah is in Utah, so they will never be able to recruit at a level that MSU can.  You could have argued the same thing with Oregon I suppose, but ...lets just say Eugene is very different than SLC.

Meyer went from the Mountain West to the SEC.  Mullen would be doing the opposite in many respects.

UMaD

December 4th, 2014 at 12:58 PM ^

Are in very similar situations.

Miss IS a talent rich state, but more importantly they can easily recruit Texas, Lousiana, Florida, and everywhere in between.  Ole Miss is showing you what a Mississippi school can do in recruiting.  Their ceiling is higher than TCU because they are SEC.

Mullen has been building MSU up for several years.  He's seen that it takes time.  Why go through it again.  And if you think it will be faster at Michigan, you're ignoring very recent history.  The Rodriguez situation is a red-flag for any spread-oriented coach considering Michigan.

Hannibal.

December 4th, 2014 at 1:58 PM ^

TCU went 4-8 last year, and I don't remember anyone at all saying that winning at Miami was unsustainable in the 1980s and 90s.  That was a top notch destination job.  In the meantime, it has been proven that short term successes at Iowa, Utah, Rutgers, Okie State, Oregon State, and Northwestern weren't sustainable either.  Every one of those programs that i just mentioned had a coach who at one time was considered elite and untouchable and has seen his market value decline considerably since then because reversion back to the mean reared its ugly head.  I might throw 7-5 Stanford in there as well.  There are a lot of lower tier coaches who have fucked up big time by not taking a big time job when their market value was at their highest.  Schiano is probably one of them.  It's hilarious how he turned us down 7 years ago to stay at Rutgers (for the same reasons that Dan Mullen might turn us down to stay at MSU), and now he is everyone's "I'm burning my season tickets" candidate. 

UMaD

December 4th, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^

It's all mumbo-jumbo about "resources" and "prestige".

Here is a fact:  he has a top 10 team that competed for a national title, right now.

A lot of people say "it's really hard to win there" but he has already done it.

Regardless of the many reasons NOT to come to Michigan there are a ton of reasons for him to stay at MSU.

WolvinLA2

December 4th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^

I think people are saying he will likely leave his situation because everyone always does.  Young coaches who win at non-elite programs leave for elite programs when given the opportunity.  Strong left Louisville for Texas.  Urban left Utah for Florida.  Franklin left Vandy for Penn State.  Sarkisian left Washington for USC.  

There are situations where guys stay at their non-elite school, but those examples are few and far between.  And when they exist, it's often and age or geography thing.  There are very few instances where a hot, young coach is at a lesser school and forgoes big offers from big programs.  Even Chris Peterson eventually caved.  

Tater

December 4th, 2014 at 12:25 PM ^

Mullen made one comment that makes me believe he would leave for a "name" program.  When asked about his second loss knocking MSU out of the playoff, he said something like, "We weren't going to be chosen anyway."  If Mullen got asked by a program with more access to talent in an easier conference where he would make it to the playoff more easily, he would take it in a heartbeat.