Florida expected to hire Dan Mullen

After missing out on Chip Kelly, the University of Florida is honing in on Dan Mullen as its next football coach.

As a bad season wound down, the University of Florida got a head start on the search for a new football coach by firing Jim McElwain. Chip Kelly was a rumored candidate, before setting his sights on and ultimately landing at UCLA.

But a quick fallback option may be set to land in Gainesville. According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports, Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen is Florida’s new top target and a decision is expected by the end of the day Sunday.

Mullen is 69-46 in nine seasons at Mississippi State, with an 8-4 record heading into a bowl game this year. He has been a rumored candidate for the opening at Tennessee, also in the SEC, but Florida looks like a far better fit.

Mullen was offensive coordinator at Florida from 2005-2008, under Urban Meyer with Tim Tebow as the primary quarterback. He also worked under Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin at Mississippi State, when Stricklin was AD in Starksville from 2010-2016. So the tie is easy to make on both sides.

Mississippi State is reportedly set to go “all in” to keep Mullen as of Friday morning (which surely hasn’t changed), and bump his salary from $4.5 million to $6 million. After a loss in the Egg Bowl to Ole Miss on Friday, Mullen did say he is happy at the school and “plans” to remain the Bulldogs’ coach. But Florida seems like a situation he would leave for without much regret, money aside, due to past ties to the school and history working under Stricklin.

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One way or another Florida will either be set to hire Mullen, or be set to move on to another candidate (Scott Frost?), before the end of the day.