MSU’s Mullen to be Mississippi Bowl speaker

Once again, the guest speaker at the Mississippi Bowl Banquet will be an SEC football coach. Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen will speak to the participating teams, coaches and administrators on Dec. 1 at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Hospitality Resort Management Center located on the Biloxi-Gulfport city limits.

It’s the second time Mullen has spoken at the event, having first done so in 2013.

Mullen became MSU’s 32nd coach in December 2008, and this year the Bulldogs will play in their eighth consecutive bowl game. He is the second-winningest coach in school history and is the second-longest tenured coach in the conference.

He won the Maxwell Football Club National Coach of the Year and Associated Press SEC Coach of the Year awards in 2014. That season saw Mississippi State make the fastest ascent from unranked to No. 1 in history.

At Mississippi State, Mullen led the development of Dak Prescott, who won NFL Rookie of the Year in 2016. As offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach and Florida, he mentored Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow, and as quarterbacks coach at Utah developed Alex Smith into a first-overall selection in the 2005 NFL Draft. Mullen was also an assistant at Bowling Green, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Columbia and Wagner.

A two-year starter at tight end for Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., Mullen earned first-team All-Centennial Conference honors as a senior. He is married to the former Megan West, and they have two children, a son, Canon, and a daughter, Breelyn.

The Mullens created the Mullen Family 36 Foundation, raising close to $500,000 for charity in the last five years. The foundation has impacted 36 different children’s charities throughout Mississippi and annually chooses a deserving student for a college scholarship. In spring 2017, the foundation hosted its first golf classic, bringing back former Bulldogs and celebrities that raised over $100,000 for children’s charities.

Mullen crossed a bucket list item off in April 2016. Two days after coaching in the Bulldogs’ spring game, he received a sponsorship exemption through Adidas to run the 120th Boston Marathon, which he completed in 4:28:35. In the process, the Mullen 36 Family Foundation raised over $60,000 through race donations.

Mississippi Bowl speakers