IT’S A CLEAR and funky Thursday night time in the course of October in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Dan Mullen is right here as a media member, a face of ESPN’s school soccer protection. He seems on “School Soccer Ultimate” on Saturdays with host Matt Barrie and analyst Joey Galloway. He’s nearly three years faraway from his head teaching days at Florida.
On Thursday nights, he’s Barrie’s coloration analyst and has developed a fame for participating in enjoyable, football-adjacent actions — indulging in several meals with mayo on the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, enjoying flip cup on “SportsCenter” with Larry Fitzgerald at Pitt, and feeding college students barbecue at Georgia Tech. He is discovered the best way to placed on a present. (Full disclosure: ESPN’s Harry Lyles Jr. labored with Dan Mullen on Thursday night time broadcasts.)
On this position, he is nonetheless concerned within the recreation he has beloved his whole life, however he cannot win or lose on Thursday or Saturday. That is a part of the enjoyable. Each week, coaches are telling him how they assume he is residing the life. He will get to be round school soccer with out having the troubles of a coach within the switch portal and NIL period. The sport is altering, however that is not his drawback.
Even somebody as well-traveled as Mullen continues to be seeing locations across the nation for the primary time. In 2023, he skilled his first Thursday night time in Blacksburg, and one in every of school soccer’s nice traditions, experiencing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” earlier than kickoff at Lane Stadium.
Inside Virginia Tech’s services, there’s a hallway tribute to the Sandman custom. The day earlier than the 2023 recreation, Mullen presses a button to play the tune, and he begins to leap round as if he is a part of the gang. He appeared genuinely excited.
Quick ahead to this Thursday night time in 2024: Mullen continues to be glowing with anticipation, but it surely’s changing into more and more evident that one thing inside him is lacking.
Virginia Tech sports activities info director Travis Wells picks up the published crew from the alumni heart in a cart to trip over to Lane Stadium. Barrie sits subsequent to Wells, with Mullen stationed within the again. Because the cart makes its approach towards the stadium, many followers yell out for Mullen, calling him “Coach.” He playfully does a royal wave.
When the crew arrives on the stadium, it makes its approach as much as the membership degree for a pregame meal. There’s an assortment of barbecue and desserts out there, however Mullen sticks along with his typical Celsius vitality drink. At the same time as a coloration analyst, Mullen sticks to a pregame routine, very similar to he did as a coach.
Dialog among the many crew orbits round Mullen’s teaching days, and will get to a spot the place Mullen is discussing recreation habits. His temper shifts. He will get a fiery look in his eyes. “It is in your thoughts, you sit there and you are like, I will go do the pleasant handshake earlier than the sport,” he stated.
“However I would not thoughts punching this man, knocking him out proper right here in the course of the sector.”
For as a lot as Mullen has loved his position outdoors of the sport, it is abundantly clear that the sport is not fairly the identical until he’s immersed in it. There are issues he cannot get from an air-conditioned studio or stadium tv sales space.
It is why after a number of seasons faraway from an disagreeable finish to his Florida tenure, he could not go up a suggestion to turn into the top coach at UNLV.
IN THE SPRING of 2025, seated in his workplace on the Fertitta Soccer Advanced on the UNLV campus, Mullen is complete once more.
He recalled the primary group assembly after being employed. “I walked in entrance of the group and I stated, ‘Boy, I really feel like I really feel extra alive than I felt within the final three years.’ As a result of that is who I’m, to be in entrance of that group, speaking to the group, teaching soccer.”
Mullen’s first day again teaching would not look loads like his final. Las Vegas is not Gainesville. As gamers heat up on this Thursday morning in March, the Las Vegas Sphere is — fairly actually — wanting on, vibrant and yellow, with massive blinking eyes. Mullen is carrying a purple UNLV visor, shades, a purple light-weight hoodie with UNLV throughout the chest, and grey shorts which can be above the knee, shorter than he prefers. He is caked in sunscreen, a great behavior picked up throughout his time teaching Florida.
UNLV athletic director Erick Harper is out at follow in between the 2 follow fields, taking a look at what appears like a miracle.
“The variety of ADs and others that known as me and requested, ‘How the hell did you do this?'” Harper stated with a smile about hiring Mullen. “Generally you must sit again and simply say, ‘I am probably not certain.'”
Harper’s soccer program is coming off of the most effective two seasons in class historical past below Barry Odom in 2023 and 2024. However when Odom left to take the top teaching job at Purdue, the uncertainty round the way forward for this system was palpable. This can be a group that was a recreation away from the School Soccer Playoff again in December. If Harper settled on the improper coach, all of that progress may have been misplaced.
However he noticed a possibility with Mullen, whom he met two years prior.
Mullen flew out to Las Vegas to see Alex Smith, whom he coached at Utah, be inducted into the School Soccer Corridor of Fame on the Bellagio Resort & On line casino on Dec. 10. However at that time, Mullen nonetheless did not really feel that he wanted to return to teaching.
“Even late October, when individuals are beginning to fish, November calls begin coming in. I could not wrap my thoughts round it,” Mullen stated. “I had a hesitant feeling. And when a possibility may current itself, I might sit there and I might say, OK, why would this be a good suggestion? How I could make this thrilling, with out feeling no reservation?’ I could not get there.”
Harper knew Mullen can be on the town and tried to fulfill him for dinner, however Mullen had plans. So that they finally settled on golf the subsequent day.
When Mullen’s spouse, Megan, heard of the assembly, Mullen stated she requested, “Is that this such as you serving to him rent a coach?” He replied, “Yeah, one thing like that.”
So what was it about UNLV that obtained Mullen — who has grappled with lots of the newer facets of school soccer — again into the sport? If Harper had not known as, is that this even occurring?
“No, I would not have even known as,” Mullen stated. However, as Harper helped Mullen be taught, the job met the wants he had at this level in his profession and life.
“The ability right here blows away something that was at Florida once I left. I did not wish to have to return right into a program that you just needed to construct from the bottom up. We now have an important stadium in Allegiant Stadium. We had been a recreation away from the School Soccer Playoff final 12 months.
“So whenever you’re beginning to verify containers, you realize? Services? Test. Stadium? Test. Alternative to win a championship instantly? Test. Great spot to reside? Test. Actually good faculties for my children, I need my household to develop up right here? Test.”
At his first school soccer follow in three years, Mullen is engaged, rolling out tackling wheels and at instances having to evade tackles himself as a result of he is proper within the motion.
Longtime NFL assistant Paul Guenther is on his workers, who Mullen is aware of from his days at Ursinus School the place the 2 lived throughout the corridor from one another. Guenther can see a change in his longtime good friend. “I can see a distinction in him the place he is having fun with it,” Guenther stated. “I do know he favored doing the TV and all that stuff, however I can inform he is completely satisfied [to be] again in it.”
Mullen had follow wrapped up with just a little time to spare, one other good behavior he developed, this one doing tv.
He addresses the group as planes from Harry Reid Worldwide Airport go overhead. He admits that this primary follow was just a little scattered, however he is glad all people obtained some reps. They will want them. He desires this squad to be conditioned, and to maneuver quick.
“Get the thoughts proper, physique proper, able to go for extra,” he says. That is a course of he is personally aware of.
MULLEN’S EXIT FROM Florida wasn’t the best way he needed his teaching profession to finish.
The slide started on a third-and-10 towards LSU in 2020, with the Gators ranked sixth within the nation. After making a cease late within the fourth quarter to power a punt, cornerback Marco Wilson ripped off Kole Taylor’s dimension 14 shoe and threw it down the sector, drawing a number of flags.
Six performs later, Cade York hit a 57-yard game-winning discipline aim with 23 seconds remaining. Florida would find yourself shedding to Alabama within the SEC championship the next week and lacking the School Soccer Playoff.
About 11 months later, with Florida at 4-4 after back-to-back losses to unranked LSU and No. 1 Georgia, Mullen held his weekly information convention on a Monday. He was requested a recruiting query, and replied, “We’re within the season now. We’ll do recruiting after the season. When it will get to recruiting time, we are able to discuss recruiting.”
Mullen was closely criticized for his response. Lee Davis, Mullen’s chief of workers who has labored with him in some capability going again to Starkville, takes exception to the response to that quote.
“I’ve labored at two different locations since I’ve left him, I do know no person works tougher at recruiting than he does. … What he was making an attempt to say — he needed to speak soccer that day and did not wish to discuss recruiting, however individuals took it as he would not recruit.”
Florida was 5-6 heading into the ultimate week of the 2021 common season when the college fired Mullen. He was given the choice to educate towards Florida State; he declined, not desirous to be a distraction to the group. 9 months later, ESPN introduced the addition of Mullen to its school soccer protection for the 2022 season.
Working in tv offered Mullen a wholesome distance from the sport and allowed him to seek out his footing once more. He was nonetheless in a position to be round and watch the sport, however his days weren’t influenced by outcomes. That was high-quality. He had loads of time and vitality invested in his son Canon’s basketball video games and his daughter Breelyn’s cheer occasions and soccer and basketball video games.
As an analyst on the highway in the course of the season, Mullen can be concerned in two units of TV manufacturing conferences with coaches. They might go over rosters, how their seasons had gone, and focus on expectations for the upcoming Thursday night time contest. In lots of circumstances, Mullen already knew not less than one of many coaches, and when he met younger coordinators, he discovered that many admired him.
“You step again away and say, ‘Maintain on. I feel possibly he did do some actually good issues. Was profitable at locations, presumably.’ And that is all notion.”
Mullen had a few moments in the course of the 2024 season that helped remind him why he obtained into teaching to start with. One was the reunion of his 2014 Mississippi State Bulldogs, who had been led by Dak Prescott and had been ranked No. 1 for a lot of the season.
“Once you get round all people at one time, you get again across the gamers, and also you sit there and guys’ wives are arising and like, ‘Hey, you made such an affect on my husband’s life,'” an emotional Mullen stated.
“You get there and you are like, ‘OK, that is what I obtained into all of it for.’ Alex Smith does his speech, which was unbelievable on the Corridor of Fame induction in regards to the affect I made on his life? That is why I’ve accomplished this. That is been your calling in life, to attempt to assist younger individuals succeed and enhance.”
So, regardless of how issues ended at Florida, Mullen knew he needed to get again into the sport after he had time to heal.
“Teaching has been my life,” he stated. “Soccer and training have been mainly my whole life since I used to be a freshman in highschool, excluding three years doing TV. You knew you had a function and also you knew why you do it. And I feel listening to these issues, it brings you again to the enjoyment of why you probably did it, the issues that had been so nice about it.
“I do not like the way it completed at Florida. I did not need that to be the final web page of my guide. Nevertheless, I needed to be in the best house for me to proceed the story on.”
ALLOWING HIMSELF TIME to reset was one factor for Mullen, accepting the brand new world of school soccer was one other.
Within the three years since Mullen left Florida, school soccer has continued to evolve after the NCAA eradicated a rule in April 2021 that required transfers to sit down out a 12 months at their new college. That very same 12 months, it grew to become authorized for gamers to become profitable by way of NIL offers.
Being close to the sport allowed Mullen to higher perceive what he was entering into. “I feel seeing the frustration on [coaches’] faces once we sit in lots of these conferences … It helped me perceive [players leaving your program] that is going to occur.”
Mullen admitted he nonetheless did not need anybody to depart his program after spring ball, however conceded it might possible occur.
“The preliminary feeling … is, ‘How will you do this?’ That is a five-second feeling that I instantly swallow and say, ‘You bought again in understanding that is the brand new recreation.’ It’s what it’s. Guess what? It offers you a chance. I assume if this man’s going to depart, let’s get on the pc and go discover any individual else. It isn’t the tip of the world. It is a part of the deal.”
“And so it will get you rather than the, ‘Boy. It is hurting the group, and it is hurting this.’ It will get you again to why we’re on this. I hope it is the most effective determination for the youngsters.'”
Mullen understands that gamers are going to contemplate cash, particularly given how a lot of it’s concerned in school athletics. “They need to get a minimize of it, and they need to have a possibility to revenue when they’re worthwhile.”
However, he added, “No matter you wish to name them — they’re getting paid now — student-athletes or not, they’re nonetheless college-age children. Let’s nonetheless assist proceed to provide them the steering. … Let’s not throw out all the steering and construction that we’re serving to give younger individuals.”
When he determined to take the UNLV job, he knew he wanted somebody alongside him who had been within the recreation whereas he wasn’t, understood him, and was somebody he may belief. That is why, when he was contemplating the gig, he texted Davis to ask for her dedication as his chief of workers.
Mullen and Davis return — he gave Davis her first job out of grad college from Alabama, bringing her on as a recruiting assistant at Mississippi State. She labored in Starkville with Mullen till he was employed at Florida, the place he introduced her to Gainesville because the director of recruiting operations.
It wasn’t lengthy till it was clear that Mullen had discovered the proper individual for the job.
“He was overwhelmed,” Davis stated of Mullen’s early days at UNLV. “And I am like, ‘Hey, pay attention, you could have two stuff you obtained to do proper now. You have to rent workers, however you’ll want to rent the best individuals, since you desire a good workers, a workers that matches. After which two, you bought to discover a quarterback, as a result of that is an important. You are not going to win with out a nice quarterback.”
Mullen did each, steadily constructing his workers with each veteran and youthful coaches, and nabbing former Virginia quarterback Anthony Colandrea out of the switch portal, together with former Michigan quarterback Alex Orji.
For as a lot because the switch portal generally is a ache for coaches, it stuffed out his quarterback room, after which some. Regardless of being out of the sport for a number of years, Mullen was lots aware of the expertise he may herald.
“Both calling video games, and sitting in studio with each school soccer recreation on and having to speak about it, I obtained to look at lots of guys play this 12 months. So I knew lots of the gamers.”
For instance, Mullen known as one in every of Colandrea’s video games in 2023, towards Louisville.
In some circumstances, there are guys nonetheless enjoying school soccer whom Mullen recruited years in the past. Outdoors linebacker Chief Borders performed for Mullen at Florida, and had seasons at Nebraska and Pitt, earlier than deciding to complete his profession with Mullen in Las Vegas.
Mullen is assured he’ll make issues work at UNLV. He would not want the inherent advantages afforded to coaches on the largest applications. He coached at Utah when it was within the Mountain West and, earlier than that, at Bowling Inexperienced.
“I have not simply been at faculties with limitless sources,” he stated. “So I’ve to return and say, ‘Hey, you realize what? I used to be a younger offensive coordinator and a quarterback coach and a younger offensive thoughts at one level.’ And City Meyer was a younger head coach that took an opportunity on me and stated, ‘Let’s get going and see what we are able to create, yeah?’ So, assume that approach. We did fairly nicely for ourselves.”
Harper likens Mullen’s expertise and strategy to the hospitality trade in Las Vegas.
“It is consistently reinventing itself, it is consistently being modern and artistic,” Harper stated. “You are not going to see the identical factor on daily basis.”
THE VIEW FROM Dan Mullen’s workplace is second solely to 1.
“They inform me that Invoice Hornbuckle, president of MGM, is the one one which may have a greater workplace than I do within the metropolis of Las Vegas,” Mullen stated.
It is a beautiful view of the Strip. For those who’re sitting at his desk, the MGM Grand is at your far left, with the Sphere being the interval on the finish of the sentence on the best. For a coach who simply spent the previous few years studying the best way to put a great present on tv, being on this city feels applicable.
Mullen has fortunately leaned into the Las Vegas of all of it. “It is a very totally different vibe than teaching within the SEC,” he stated. “It is a completely totally different really feel.”
He factors to the group’s management committee. It holds competitions the place the first- and second-place group get awards, and the underside two groups should do group service to make up for factors they missed.
“There’s lots of faculties within the nation like, ‘OK, your reward these two weeks is decide an important restaurant on the town.’ Properly, I imply, mainly there’s one or two eating places they are going to go to,” Mullen explains.
“Right here, guys are on the UFC championship struggle. This week, they are going to David Blaine the illusionist. They are going to Tao restaurant. They are going on helicopter excursions of the town. You’ll be able to’t do this different locations.”
UNLV could not have their spring recreation at Allegiant Stadium due to WrestleMania. “The profit is, our gamers get to go to WrestleMania. The unfavourable is it is truly in our stadium,” Mullen laughed, “so we won’t have the spring recreation that day.”
Mullen views Las Vegas itself as a serious promoting level within the switch portal period.
“You are not going to stroll on campus and get a really feel that you just’re in a Deep South college with lined-up fraternity and sorority homes all over the place. However there’s an terrible lot happening on this city that guys are enthusiastic about, and there is a lot for them to do. You are at a metropolis campus with the town with every thing happening. Gamers assume it is the best factor on this planet that they get to [feel] like a professional athlete in a giant metropolis.”
The setting additionally takes strain off a coach who’s used to probably the most strain that school soccer has to supply.
“What I am studying, for those who win right here, they love you. You’re it. For those who lose, they only do not actually care, as a result of there is a bunch of different issues for them to go do.”
However simply because the strain is not as excessive does not imply Mullen is letting off the fuel. He desires to make UNLV soccer a perennial contender, and he desires to ascertain a really particular identification that can resonate wherever.
“I’ve my regular deal, play with relentless effort, ardour for the sport, you realize, and a group that reaches its potential on daily basis,” Mullen defined.
However there’s an previous moniker that Mullen is making an attempt to earn inside the soccer program that will not simply resonate with Las Vegas, however with sports activities followers throughout the nation.
“If I depart and I am going to the East Coast and I say ‘Runnin’ Rebels,’ you realize precisely who I am speaking about — all people does. That may be a model. Sadly, it is a model that type of misplaced its [luster after] the early ’90s with Coach Tark.”
“However there is not any fogginess to who the Runnin’ Rebels are. I need that model again on the gridiron. You are going to activate [the game] and it is showtime on the soccer discipline, you are going to watch a high-flying offense, a group that is letting it go, guys having a good time up and down the sector, protection that’s going to return after you.”
“I need us, within the sports activities and leisure capital of the world, to be the most effective present on the town.”
