The firing of longtime Penn State head coach James Franklin last weekend meant that one of the top jobs in all of college football was back on the market for the first time in over a decade, and names immediately started to get thrown around for who the next person to take the position should be.
Like with any big-time job, just about every high-level coach in the country was mentioned as a potential replacement for Franklin, from established Power 4 winners to up-and-coming stars in the profession.
During the latest episode of The Triple Option podcast, former Florida Gators and Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was asked about who the Nittany Lions should hire to fill the vacant position, and he suggested his former protege, Dan Mullen.
“How about Dan Mullen?” Meyer said. “Damn right he is (undefeated)… Scored 51 last week… And you know, he’s from the northeast, by the way.”
Mullen, who is currently the head coach of the UNLV Rebels, is certainly an interesting candidate, and he brings almost 2 decades of high-level head coaching experience to the table.
He resurrected a faltering Mississippi State program in the mid-2010s and saw some moderate success as the head man at Florida from 2018-21, including an SEC East title and SEC Championship Game appearance during the 2020 campaign.
Now, he has UNLV undefeated and sitting atop the Mountain West table as a dark horse to make the College Football Playoff in December.
If Penn State wants a proven head coach who’s found success anywhere he’s gone, then they could do a whole lot worse than a guy like Mullen, who has a track record of winning.
[H/T On3]
