Mississippi State won more than 4 games only once in the 8 years before he showed up. He went 5-7 his first year then made a bowl game 8 years in a row in the toughest division in football. Mississippi State has finished ranked 3 times in the 21st century, all under Mullen's tenure.
He had 4 years in Gainesville, 3 of those years we're the 3 highest finishes the Gators have had in the last 10 years.
Before his HC career he was Tebow and Leaks OC at Florida and Alex Smith's at Utah.
Oh but Mullen can't recruit!?!
Gators in his transition class: 14th best class in the nation
Gators the next year: 9th best class in the nation
Gators the next year: 9th best class in the nation
then he was fired after his 2021 season. If he can't recruit then every coach not named Kirby Smart, Nick Saban, Ryan Day, and Dabo Swinney can't recruit. If you can recruit enough to win 8 games a year at Mississippi State you can handle recruiting to USF in the AAC.
Mullen is not a retread in the mold of Charlie Strong. Strong never made a bowl game at Texas. Mullen has missed a bowl game once in his 13 year career, only his first year as a HC. Mullen had more success in the SEC than Gus Malzahn and he's doing just fine in the AAC.
Sure his last year was underwhelming, but his offense was still scoring 31 PPG in the SEC while replacing Trask/Toney/Pitts. His defense just completely failed, don't let him bring in Grantham and Mullen is MORE OF A SLAMDUNK than Deion or Chadwell. Before 2021 Mullen was a bonafide top 10 coach in the country! We have a chance to get a steal lets do it!