Joe Moorhead shades Dan Mullen’s perceived success at Mississippi State
By Andrew Olson
Published:
The media perception of Dan Mullen as a head coach is that he “built up” Mississippi State while coaching in college football’s toughest division, going up against three programs that won national championships in the 21st century (Alabama, Auburn and LSU). Mullen also coached in the SEC West during Johnny Manziel’s Heisman Trophy season as well as Ole Miss’ Sugar Bowl season. It’s certainly fair to debate whether success by Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M should be viewed as “strikes” against Mullen or context to better understanding his MSU tenure.
New MSU coach Joe Moorhead, however, appears to have no interest in hearing about the program’s “success” under his predecessor. He came to Starkville to raise the bar.
“I feel I was brought here to take a program that’s really had one winning season in SEC play to compete in the conference,” Moorhead told Brett Hudson of The Commercial Dispatch.
The facts are on Moorhead’s side. Mississippi State was 6-2 in conference play in 2014, but no better than 4-4 in any of Mullen’s eight other seasons with the Bulldogs. (MSU went 4-4 four times during Mullen’s tenure.) Mullen’s defenders will likely point to his overall record of 69-46 along with a bowl record of 5-2.
Moorhead’s recent comments only add to the excitement surrounding the Sept. 29 between Mullen’s Florida squad and the Bulldogs.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
