The Penn State coaching search is primed to heat up now that the Nittany Lions have finished their 2011 regular season. Much of this week’s speculation has revolved around the likelihood of Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen heading to Happy Valley, in large part because of Joe Schad’s report that Mullen was the frontrunner for the position.
Whether or not that’s the case, and before we learn if Mullen holds up through the interview process, it was reported on Friday that Mullen is in fact scheduled to interview for the job on campus this coming Monday.
Mullen, a Pennsylvania native who went to college in Philadelphia, has a solid pedigree. He was an assistant on Urban Meyer’s staff first at Bowling Green, and then at Utah where he developed Alex Smith into a No. 1 overall draft pick. Mullen obviously did something right at both schools, as Meyer asked him to join his staff at the University of Florida.
He was then hired to be the head man at Mississippi State in 2009. With the program floundering, Mullen immediately brought in a top 25 recruiting class, won a respectable five games in ’09, then led the Bulldogs to a top 15 ranking in the final AP Poll in 2010 after dismantling Michigan in the Gator Bowl for a final 9-4 record.