UNLV Football Eyes Championship Under Dan Mullen After Bold Preseason Ranking

This offseason, after former head coach Barry Odom left to take the vacant job at Purdue, the UNLV Rebels went all in and hired former Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen. They hired him with the expectation he would take their program to the next level. They also understand the expectations of what making a splashy signing means for the school. After the Rebels were picked to finish in second place in the Mountain West Conference in the preseason poll, and were the only team other than the Boise State Broncos to receive first place votes, head coach Dan Mullen addressed those high expectations at the annual Mountain West Media Days this week. 

Mullen on the team's high expectations and their finishing in second in the preseason poll:

“That’s nice. I never pay much attention to the preseason. I think in 2014 we were picked to finish last in the SEC and we spent half the year at number-one in the country at Mississippi State. I just think a lot of it looks off of where everybody finished last year... I think the expectations, though, within the program are to win championships. My expectations of our team, our players’ expectations, why these guys came here, why guys stayed from last year’s team, is to go not just compete for, but to win a championship... Now to do that, you have to focus on the long process and … what is the effort we’re playing with? Are we playing with the effort needed, are we practicing with the effort needed to be successful every single day? If you’re worried about the result and the destination, not the journey, we’re going to be in trouble. But if we can pay really close attention to the journey and how we are improving every single day, we’re going to get to the destination we want to go to.”

Mullen seems to enjoy the expectations and has high expectations himself, but he also understands that they have to put the work in. Nothing people are saying in the preseason matters if you don't go out and back up when it's time to actually play the games. He has the perfect mentality to lead this team and take them to higher heights than they've ever seen.