A college football coach has become a campus legend when his name dons the stadium in which he once roamed the sidelines.

In the SEC alone, there’s Neyland Stadium, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Jordan-Hare Stadium, and Bryant-Denny Stadium, each immortalizing a championship coach that proved himself to be the best in school history.

Given the hyphens already in use, no current stadium name is written in stone (figuratively speaking). It’s very possible given Nick Saban’s success in Tuscaloosa that we could one-day see a change to Saban-Bryant-Denny Stadium, or something similar.

While Saban has won four national championships with the Crimson Tide, the standards to become the G.O.A.T. elsewhere in the SEC aren’t as high. Don’t be surprised if “Mullen” is somehow added to the façade at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville.

After all, Dan Mullen already is well on his way to becoming the greatest coach in Mississippi State history.

Jackie Sherrill paced the sidelines of Scott Field from 1991-2003, and left Starkville as the winningest coach in MSU history with a record of 75-75-2. Sherrill led the Bulldogs to the first SEC West Division title in school history (the first title of any sort for the program since 1941) and the just the second 10-win season in program history.

After Sherrill’s retirement in 2003, Mississippi State made a very important hire by making Sylvester Croom the first African-American head coach in SEC history. But the Bulldogs took a step back on the field under Croom, and he was asked to resign following a 45-0 loss to archrival Ole Miss in the 2008 season finale. Croom ended his MSU career with a 21-38 overall record, with only one winning season and one postseason appearance during his tenure.

Looking to revive the program, Mississippi State hired Mullen, who had helped the Florida Gators win two national championships in his four years as an assistant.

It worked.

In just seven seasons in Starkville, Mullen already ranks third in Mississippi State football history with 55 victories, behind Sherrill (75) and Allyn McKeen (65).

McKeen led the Mississippi State Maroons to the only SEC championship in school history in 1941. Only McKeen, who led State to a 65-19-3 overall record from 1939-48, has posted a higher winning percentage (.764) among Mississippi State head coaches than Mullen (.611).

Mullen’s first squad finished 5-7 overall, but the Bulldogs have posted a winning record every year since. More than half of Mullen’s teams (2010, 2012, 2014, 2015) have won eight games or more, a major accomplishment given that Mississippi State had done so just 11 times in the 114 previous seasons.

The Bulldogs have also gone to bowl games in six straight seasons under Mullen, which is a school record. In fact, the longest bowl streak Mississippi State enjoyed prior to Mullen’s arrival in Starkville came in 1998-2000, under Sherrill. Mullen is already the school’s all-time leader in bowl game victories with a 4-2 record in the postseason, and the next time he leads State to a bowl game, Mullen will pass Sherrill on the school’s all-time list for bowl appearances.

Perhaps even more important to State supporters, Mullen has beaten archrival Ole Miss four times in the Egg Bowl. Only Sherrill (7) and McKeen (5) have more victories over the Rebels, and winning the Battle of the Golden Egg three more times might be enough to earn Mullen a statue in Starkville.

Mullen has also been recognized on a national level. The first finalist for such an award in school history, Mullen was named Maxwell Football National Coach of the Year in 2014, and was also named SEC Coach of the Year by the Associated Press after leading the Bulldogs to a 10-3 record. The historic ’14 season included a 9-0 start, the first No. 1 national ranking in school history, and the No. 1 spot in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings.

The success the Bulldogs achieved in 2014 helped Mullen set a school record for weeks ranked in the Top 10 of the national polls (10), and included three consecutive victories over Top 10 opponents – No. 8 LSU, No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 2 Auburn. As a result, Mississippi State set a record by moving from unranked in the AP Top 25 to the No. 1 spot in just five weeks. That incredible three-game stretch alone gave Mullen the MSU record for career victories over Top 10 opponents, and it was the first time since 1983 that any college football team beat three Top 10 teams in a row.

Mullen has done so well in large part because of the offensive success the Bulldogs have enjoyed under his direction. Mississippi State has set 99 single-game, single-season or career records since Mullen arrived in Starkville, more than one-third of which belong to quarterback Dak Prescott. Overall, Mullen has recruited and developed 14 All-SEC performers and 18 players that were selected in the NFL Draft — a number sure to increase later this spring when Prescott, defensive lineman Chris Jones and others are added to the list.

But, what must Mullen accomplish in order to become the greatest coach ever at Mississippi State — to potentially join the other legendary coaches in SEC history to put their name on a stadium?

There is one mandatory pre-requisite and three potential options from there.

stay put

Most importantly, Mullen must stay in Starkville. Because of his unprecedented success at one of the SEC’s least prestigious programs as well as his strong track record for developing players, Mullen is often one of the first names to be mentioned in offseason coaching rumors.

In the most recent coaching carousel, Mullen was linked to openings at Virginia Tech, Maryland and Miami, and was a rumored candidate at Georgia and South Carolina. In 2014, he was believed to be one of the front-runners at Michigan before Jim Harbaugh was hired and was a common name bantered about when the Florida job was vacant.

option 1: become school’s all-time wins leader

If Mullen does become a lifer at Mississippi State, he’ll easily become the school’s all-time wins leader. Mullen needs just 21 more victories to overtake Sherrill, and could claim the top spot on the leaderboard as early as 2017 (though 2018 is more likely).

Even if Mullen retired or left town with 100 victories, he’d likely be remembered as the best in MSU history. But, at just 43 years old, Mullen is still a very young head coach and the sky is the limit for him. For comparison’s sake, Mullen is 27 years younger than Steve Spurrier, 21 years younger than Saban, and 19 years younger than Les Miles.

It’s a very tall task, but if Mullen were to be a head coach every season until the age of 70 while maintaining his current winning percentage, he’d have 266 career victories – more than Ole Miss’ Johnny Vaught (190), Tennessee’s General Robert Neyland (173), and Auburn’s Shug Jordan (175) in addition to college football coaching legends like LaVell Edwards (257), Tom Osborne (255), Lou Holtz (249), Mack Brown (244), Woody Hayes (238), Bo Schembechler (234), Hayden Fry (232), Spurrier (228), and Vince Dooley (201). Saban enters the 2016 season with a 191-60-1 record as a college head coach.

To reach 300 wins over that same time period, Mullen would need to average 9.1 victories per season, and to pass Bear Bryant (323), the fourth coaching legend whose name graces an SEC stadium, Mullen would need to average 10 wins per season. Though unlikely because of the incredible demands involved, with the ever-expanding regular season schedule that now features 12 games, plus any potential conference championship games or playoff appearances, it’s theoretically possible.

option 2. win an SEC championship

Speaking of conference championship games, the third way Mullen can become the greatest coach in Mississippi State history — and an easy way to jump leapfrog Sherrill and McKeen into the top spot — would be to lead the Bulldogs to an SEC Championship.

State hasn’t won the SEC since 1941 when it was a 12-team league that included Georgia Tech and Tulane – one year after Sewanee left the conference. MSU has played in the SEC Championship Game only once, so the bar is low. Two title game appearances and one league crown would cement Mullen’s status as the best ever to coach in Starkville.

option 3. win a national championship

With the expansion of the SEC in 1992 and again in 2012, as well as rise of the BCS and eventually the College Football Playoff, winning a national title is more difficult than ever for a Mississippi State program that competes annually in the nation’s most competitive division in the nation’s most talented conference.

But, if Mullen can find a way, there will probably be a larger-than-life bronze statue welcoming fans to a recently expanded Mullen-Wade Stadium at Scott Field.