Dan Mullen Brings Fresh Perspective To UNLV Football After Time Away From Coaching

New UNLV Rebels head football coach Dan Mullen had been out of coaching since losing his job with the Florida Gators back in 2021. He had since been serving as a college football analyst on ESPN. A lot has changed since he last held a coaching job for a college football team. The landscape has completely changed, most notably with the rise in relevancy of the transfer portal and the introduction of NIL deals. Mullen believes the perspective he had on the outside looking in gives him an advantage when it comes to all the changes because it gives him a different point of view from everyone else. 

“It's been a benefit to be on the outside looking in of all the changes,” Mullen told Athlon Sports. “You can kind of look at the game a little bit differently and understand what the changes are, and how the changes are, and how kids are processing things, how decisions are being made. When you come back into it, there's a little bit more of an understanding.” 

This also applies to the UNLV football program. He got to sit in the studio and hear what other analysts had to say about the Rebels. Mullen was able to understand what the perception of UNLV was and watch how the program was developing from a football standpoint.

“I've always thought UNLV is kind of a sleeping giant... We're UNLV, I mean, we represent the city. I think there's this kind of a different perception or mindset of the team that really has excited me of where the program is, what it is, and where we can take this program.”

Mullen will now look to take all his insight and perspective with him to Las Vegas and use it to turn UNLV into a powerhouse in the Mountain West Conference. If what we've seen so far is a sign of things to come, the Rebels are in good hands. He's already done a fantastic job with the transfer portal and building a roster that can compete against the best of the best in the Mountain West.

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