HATTIESBURG — In the Southern culture, there are a few things that bring thousands of folks together on weekends in the South. The biggest is undoubtedly college football. Fans of Mississippi State University gathered Thursday at the Hattiesburg Country Club to hear new head football coach Dan Mullen.
In the past three seasons the National Champions of college football have come from the Southeastern Conference. The newest champion is none other than the Florida Gators where Mullen served as offensive coordinator.
Greg Byrne, athletic director at MSU, believes he has found the right man to lead the Bulldog program in the right direction.
“Before we started looking for our new head coach, I contacted Jim Tressell, head coach at Ohio State, about what he saw the potentials in a good coach should be,” said Byrne. “The last thing he said about new Dan Mullen was that he was a proven winner.”
In the past couple of years, Mississippi State has had proven track records in other programs within the athletic department, such as the baseball program going to Omaha, and the basketball team heading to the NCAA basketball tournament.
“We wanted to go out, and find a guy that had a proven track record who could make the people of Mississippi State University to be proud of the football program,” said Byrne. “We believe Dan Mullen is that man.”
As far as the recent national championship goes, Mullen feels as if he can bring that want-to to Mississippi State.
“I was talking to our players the other day at the team meeting, and there was one of them that stood up to say that he wanted to go to Atlanta for the SEC championship,” said Mullen, “It’s that type of attitude that will get us there.”
As far as recruiting goes, Mullen is going to be strictly focused on getting the top athletes from Mississippi before he goes outside of the state.
“Mississippi has more players in the NFL per-capita than any other state in the country,” said Mullen. “We are going to be getting those players before anybody else.”
Mississippi also has some of the top-notch junior college athletes in the state compared to others in the country.
“We have just recently signed a half-dozen guys from across the state,” noted Mullen. “The great oppurtunity we have at Mississippi State is the same one that Urban Meyer has at Florida. We don’t have to leave the state.”
On Saturday, April 18 MSU will showcase its new spread offense, and Mullen wants it to be a packed house at Scott Field at Davis Wade Stadium.
“On April 18 I’m urging all of you to come up to Starkville to pack the stadium out,” said Mullen. “I want at least 40,000 fans to come out to support these guys because when they see all of you out in the stands wanting them to succeed, then they will want to perform their absolute best.”
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AP Photo/The Hattiesburg American, Matt Bush
Mullen has MSU football fans fired up
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