Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen has had some kind of swag-factor ever since he has been coaching. In two short years, he has taken an SEC West division team that has been virtually overlooked and underachieved for several years now and transformed them into a divisional contender in only his second year. Mullen has his team sitting at 7-2 overall and 3-2 within the conference, with two of those wins coming against SEC East schools and traditional powerhouses in Georgia and Florida.

Dan Mullen has been an offensive guru for as long as he can remember. He played offense in high school and tight end in college. Mullen was an offensive coach at Notre Dame, Bowling Green and Utah. He was the offensive coordinator at Florida before coming to Starkville. During that time, he coached two NFL quarterbacks and a Heisman trophy winner – one of those NFL quarterbacks, Alex Smith, was the first pick in the draft. Do I need to mention Tim Tebow and what he did in college under Mullen? It’s safe to say Dan Mullen can develop quarterbacks and run an offense.

While at Utah, he took over as the interim offensive coordinator (he was QB coach) when Meyer was hired at Florida, and he led an offense that put up 35 points and trounced Pittsburg in the Fiesta Bowl. Utah finished with a 12-0 record that year.

Mullen then went to Florida as the offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer. In 2008, Florida averaged 45 points per game, third nationally, and the Gators’ 587 points broke a school record that was set in 1996 when Steve Spurrier was the head coach. The Gators led the SEC in scoring and total offense during Mullen’s final two seasons as the offensive coordinator. He was also instrumental in two national championships with the Gators.

Fast-forward to Starkville – the Bulldogs called on Dan Mullen to be a light to a somewhat dark program. Everyone doubted Mullen and told him, “Take a job where you can win. Surely there are better jobs out there.” However, Mullen has hushed the critics ever since he arrived in Starkville.

This year, in Mullen’s second year, the Bulldogs are in the thick of an SEC West race. He is at the helm of the third best rushing offense in the conference and is tied for the best turnover margin in the SEC at +15. The turnover margin has been spectacular the last four weeks, as MSU has only committed one turnover while forcing 12 in their last four wins. He is arguably doing more with less than what someone else could do right now.

So, looking ahead, this Saturday is what every Bulldog fan has been waiting on for two weeks – Alabama. They have a date with the defending national champions this Saturday in Tuscaloosa to get their 8th win of the season. After this weekend, MSU has Arkansas and hated rival Ole Miss.

It is unknown whether or not the Bulldogs will win one, two or all three of those games, but one thing is for certain – Dan Mullen has breathed new life back into an exhausted fan base.

If you are proud to support Dan Mullen and the Bulldogs, click ‘like’ below:

P.S. Everyone who owns a cowbell may want to invest in some of these shoes, because the Bulldogs will be BOWLing this offseason!

Mississippi State has an all-time record of 8-6 in bowl games. You can bet that Dan Mullen would want nothing more than to bring Starkville it’s 9th trophy…

As we journey together, hand in hand, through this year’s edition of The Men Beneath the Headsets: The Head Coaches of the SEC, we take a pit stop at the arm pit of America: Starkville, Mississippi. Now I know what you are thinking, “Wait a second, America is a country, not a human being, thus it has no armpit.” Smh. It is an expression, pal I just mean it smells bad. That’s all.

Anyway, it has been said that Mississippi State is the yard dog of the SEC, in that they always get kicked around. After they got rid of the Mustached One, Sly Croom, the powers that be in Starkville sought after a coach that could elevate their status to at least the Nicole Ritche of the league: no one takes you seriously, but at least they have heard of you.

That coach is Dan Mullen. Let me ask you a quick question for context. Do you remember the movie Animal House? Good. Do you remember that skinny kid and the fat kid that were the pledges in the movie? Right. The fat one, do you remember his nickname? That’s right, they called him, “Flounder.” Well, Dan Mullen looks like the love child of Flounder and Baby Huey.

Coach Mullen is a legend in his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire, where he quarterbacked the Pioneers of Trinity High School to a state championship in 1988. Dan got caught up in some other coaching jobs that aren’t worth mentioning, but in 2004, Dan woke up one morning in Utah. In his pocket he found a business car that read: “Daniel Mullen, Quarterbacks Coach, Utah Utes.” Coach Dan worked for a little known coach named Urban, and helped develop the greatest scam in the history of the NFL draft: Alex Smith. After being banned from San Franscico and every other major NFL city, Dan was forced to follow Urban Meyer down to Gainesville to help coach the Gatas. Dan worked with Chris Leak and Timothy Tebow, and helped the young men prepare for wearing their national championship rings.

In 2009, Mullen led his bulldogs to a 5-7 record, which would be like a 10-2 record in Baton Rouge. Coach Dan brought in the #25 recruiting class in the country in his maiden voyage into the recruiting seas. In short, the future is bright in Starkville, and rightfully so. We here at SDS anxiously await watching the Bulldogs take the field for the first time during the 2011 Insight.com bowl. What a joyous day that will be.