LAS VEGAS — Dan Mullen could’ve returned to coaching sooner, but the timing never seemed right and, regardless, he was fine remaining at ESPN giving his insights about the latest in college football.
But when coach Barry Odom, fresh off taking UNLV to back-to-back appearances in the Mountain West championship game, left for Purdue in December, this time felt different.
Now, the former Mississippi State and Florida coach is back on the sidelines overseeing the Rebels, who began spring practices Thursday.
“He was doing TV for three years and you want to know if that fire’s still in his belly,” UNLV athletic director Erick Harper said. “The first conversation, you could tell. The more we talked, the more you could feel the fire in his belly to get back out on the field and do what he loves to do.”
Mullen first became impressed with UNLV while in Las Vegas in 2023 to attend former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow’s College Football Hall of Fame induction. He couldn’t believe the $35 million Fertitta Football Complex that opened in 2019 and knew the Rebels spent gamedays at an NFL stadium.
“This (practice) facility was so much better than anything I had when I took the Mississippi State job,” Mullen said. “I had to build the facility there. Florida had nothing like this. Not even close to this.”
UNLV, for most of its history, has been a reclamation project. Then Odom came along and showed in his two seasons that the program could not only win, but compete for conference championships and even reach the doorstep of the College Football Playoff.
Mullen’s reputation as an offensive mastermind was the reason he was hired to keep the Rebels at that new-found level.
As Florida’s offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer, he was instrumental in helping the…
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Publish date : 2025-03-31 23:57:00
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