Reports: UNLV hiring former Florida coach Dan Mullen

Dan Mullen is moving out of the broadcast booth and back onto the sidelines.

According to multiple reports, the former Florida and Mississippi State coach is set to be the next coach at UNLV. Mullen has been working as an analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage for the past three seasons.

The Rebels went 10-3 in 2024 and need to replace Barry Odom as he left for Purdue. Like Mullen, Odom was also previously a head coach in the SEC.

Mullen was fired with a game remaining in the 2021 season as Florida was 5-6. The Gators won 21 games in his first two seasons with the team before the school went 8-4 and went to the SEC title game in 2020. But Florida lost three straight games to end that season and that trend continued in 2021.

Florida lost five of its last seven games under Mullen, including as a three-score favorite to South Carolina.

Before coaching at Florida, Mullen was the head coach at Mississippi State for nine seasons. The Bulldogs put together their longest bowl streak in school history under Mullen as they went to postseason games in each of his last eight seasons after going 5-7 in 2009. Before Mullen arrived in Starkville, Mississippi State had never gone to more than three bowl games in a row.

The Bulldogs famously were No. 1 in the first-ever set of College Football Playoff rankings in 2014 on the way to a 10-3 season. MSU finished the season at No. 7 in the final rankings before losing the Orange Bowl to Georgia Tech.

Before taking the MSU job, Mullen was a longtime assistant under Urban Meyer. He coached with Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah and Florida, serving as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Gators.

At UNLV, Mullen takes over a program that’s posted consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1983 and 1984. A win in the LA Bowl later this month will give the Rebels their first 11-win season in 40 years. UNLV has won 19 games in Odom’s two seasons after winning just 20 games total from 2017 through 2022.