Dan Mullen dismisses speculation over Arkansas job, suggests alternative hire
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Dan Mullen got his fill of being a head coach in the SEC, and he revealed late Friday afternoon on his social media account that he has 0 interest in the vacant Arkansas job.
By 0 interest, he literally meant 0 interest, posting:
“0.0 interest in Arkansas. Thanks for the shout out though. Y’all need to hire Gus Malzahn.”
Mullen, who is currently 6-0 in his first season as the head coach at UNLV, was responding to speculation made earlier this week about his interest in coming to Fayetteville on The Hospitality Room podcast. Mullen was mentioned on the podcast as a prime candidate, but when the clip of that podcast with Mike Irwin discussing Mullen coming to Arkansas was posted, Mullen shot it down on Friday afternoon with his own social media post.
Mullen has had 2 runs in the SEC as a head coach, first at Mississippi State from 2009-17 and then at Florida from 2018-21. It seems like he’s not interested in a 3rd turn in Fayetteville, but he believes that Malzahn would be an ideal candidate for the Razorbacks to consider.
Malzahn is currently the offensive coordinator at Florida State, but he’s been a head coach 3 times, including from 2013-20 at Auburn. So, the 59-year-old Malzahn has been an SEC head coach before, and he went 68-35 during those 8 seasons on the Plains, so he’s also had success as an SEC head coach.
Mullen believes that Malzahn could do the same thing at Arkansas. Just don’t mention Mullen as a candidate anymore, because, just like his current team’s loss total, he has 0 interest in the job in Fayetteville.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
