Dan Mullen exits the broadcast booth and returns to the sideline.
According multiple reportsthe former Florida and Mississippi State coach will be UNLV’s next coach. Mullen has been working as an analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage for the past three seasons.
The Rebels went 10-3 in 2024 and need to replace Barry Odom when he left for Purdue. Like Mullen, Odom was also previously an SEC head coach.
Mullen was fired with one game left in the 2021 season as Florida was 5-6. The Gators won 21 games in his first two seasons with the team before the school went 8-4 and reached the SEC title game in 2020. But Florida lost three straight games to end that season and that trend. continued in 2021.
Florida lost five of its last seven games under Mullen, including as a three-point favorite against South Carolina.
Prior to coaching at Florida, Mullen was the head coach at Mississippi State for nine seasons. The Bulldogs achieved their longest bowl streak in school history under Mullen, as they reached postseason games in each of his final eight seasons after finishing 5-7 in 2009. Before Mullen arrived in Starkville, Mississippi State had never been to more than three bowls. games in a row.
The Bulldogs took first place in the first College Football Playoff standings in 2014, en route to a 10-3 season. MSU finished the season ranked No. 7 in the final rankings before losing the Orange Bowl to Georgia Tech.
Before taking the MSU job, Mullen was a longtime assistant to Urban Meyer. He coached under Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida, and served as the Gators’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
At UNLV, Mullen takes over a program that has posted back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 1983 and 1984. A win in the LA Bowl later this month will give the Rebels their first 11-win season in 40 years . UNLV has won 19 games in Odom’s two seasons after winning just 20 games total from 2017 to 2022.