Dan Mullen responds to Arkansas head coach vacancy speculation
While it’s not abnormal for a sitting head coach to decline interest about coaching vacancies, UNLV head coach Dan Mullen did that on social media on Friday.
Mullen, whose UNLV Rebels are 5-0 on the season, was the topic of conversation on a podcast with Mike Irwin. He responded to a clip of the podcast on X and said he had no interest in the job, but he did have an idea for who the Hogs should target for the head coaching vacancy.
“0.0 interest in Arkansas,” Mullen’s post reads. “Thanks for the shout out though. Y’all need to hire Gus Malzahn.”
It’s worth noting that just because a coach says he’s not interested in a job doesn’t mean that’s necessarily true. Many coaches, on many occasions, say they have no intention of leaving their post to take the reins of a new program, only to make the move later on.
Mullen has SEC experience and was the head coach at Mississippi State from 2009 to 2017, as well as at Florida from 2018-21. With the Bulldogs, he amassed an overall record of 69-46 with a 33-39 mark in SEC play.
At Florida, he went 34-15 and 21-14 in the SEC with an appearance in the SEC Championship game in 2020. The Gators finished the year No. 12 in the AP Poll, but he was fired after a 5-6 start in 2021.
He then went into broadcasting with ESPN until 2024, when he became the head coach of the UNLV program following the departure of Barry Odom, who was the defensive coordinator at Arkansas from 2020 to 2022.
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