UNLV's Dan Mullen reveals why working as college football analyst had its advantages
UNLV Rebels football head coach Dan Mullen said working as a college football analyst was advantageous as he was able to watch any game and any player he wanted to.
Mullen, who was an analyst at ESPN, appeared on OutKick’s "Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich" to talk about some of the transfer players he landed since he took over the Rebels job late last year.
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"Well, you look at the guys, we actually got two [quarterbacks]. Anthony Colandrea from [the University of Virginia] that I’ve seen make a ton of plays, and Alex Orji; and the greatest thing you have being at ESPN, I’ve gotten to watch everybody play," Mullen said. "You sit in that room all day, and I’m watching every game in college football. I’ve seen them all."
Mullen also talked about what Orji can bring to the table for the Rebels.
Orji was listed as a quarterback while with the Michigan Wolverines, but he had more rushing attempts (78) than pass attempts (48) in his three seasons.
"Alex Orji, I mean, he is undefeated against Ohio State. I mean, he’s won, and … I look at what he does, and you look at the strengths of players, and he was a guy that was head-scratching to me last year, sometimes," Mullen said. "I’m watching him, and I don’t know, I’m not in the game-plan meetings, don’t know everything going on [at] Michigan, but I don’t know that their highlighting his strengths.
"In football, the job of the coach is to put a guy in position to do what he does well. That’s what coaching is all about, and if you don’t do that – you know you’re like, ‘Hey, we have a system, you have to run a system.’ Our system is: What do our guys do well, let’s tweak it as coaches to put them in a position to succeed."
"I was watching some of the games, and I’m saying, ‘Hey, when they put that guy in a position to do what he does well, Ohio State wasn’t tackling him, and they are playing for a national championship.’ But to sit there and put him in a position to do things where you’re not highlighting his strengths all the time is confusing to me."
Mullen last coached at Florida from 2018 to 2021. He was 34-15. Before that, he was at Mississippi State from 2009 to 2017 and was 69-46.
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