Potential $10.3M Temptation Forces Dan Mullen to Backtrack on His Words to Pat McAfee With UNLV Announcement

Now, Barry Odom wasn’t a bad coach. Got UNLV two Mountain West title game appearances. And with his 2 season stint, he also managed to snag a 19-8 run with the Rebels. But hey, the regular season is over, and we all know what this means: new hiring. With Odom leaving for Purdue, no one was exactly prepared to find out that the Rebels managed to snag the cream of the crop for their new HC role. Dan Mullen is in. And with that, the Rebels get years of SEC coaching experience and a head coach who has a massive 103-61 career record. But, this hiring has left Pat McAfee quite confused.

When Pat and Mullen had the conversation a week back about this UNLV coaching job, Mullen just remarked, “Are you trying to get me out of TV? I love this TV.” A subtle way to say that he won’t be making a comeback. But now, with the hiring news out, Pat couldn’t help but point out how Mullen backtracked. “Dan Mullen literally, just what? A week ago, two weeks ago, told us, ‘I love TV’,” McAfee pointed out. But hey, if you were UNLV, would you give up the opportunity to hire an HC who has coached the Gators and Mississippi State? Also, how can you say no to a $10.3 million payday?

Rebels have kind of hit the jackpot. Mullen has the 2nd best record with Mississippi State, standing at a tall 69-46 win-loss. Not only that. His first few seasons with the Gators were massive. 6 Bowl Game appearances? Along with a 29-win run? How impressive is that?

Yeah, by the time the Gators hit 2021, that same power had faded away. Mullen was fired after the 5-6 season disaster, but at the end of the day, this man knows what it takes to change a program’s history.

Right now, what UNLV needs the most is something that can get them a title win. Yeah, Odom took them to two appearances, but when will they feel the pleasure of calling themselves the Mountain West winners, huh?

Under Dan Mullen? That time has come

See, the Rebels were in a bit of controversy during the 2024 season. First of all, they lost their QB. Matthew Sluka left the team stating that there were “unfulfilled commitments”. Now when the web started untangling, it was found that Sluka left because he was promised $100k in NIL, and that money never showed up.

Following this, UNLV lost their 4th leading rusher, RB Michael Allen. He also called it quits on a mysterious note. “Expectations for opportunities unfortunately were not met,” the running back had pointed out. This also pointed towards an NIL issue. Why is all of this important? See, the Rebels lost two important players because of NIL problems.

This, paired with the fact that the drafts are coming, means they might end up losing more. Now, this is where Mullen’s master plan comes in. In this NIL era of college football, it is VERY important to have a good budget to grab the best of the best from the transfer portal.

You know, the entire Bill Belichick and UNC hiring… Yeah, that was called a failure from the start because UNC doesn’t have the financial backing needed to compete with the big shots. For the Rebels, with Mullen coming in and a massive NIL package in play, we could see some major changes in the roster.

This would directly impact how the team does next season, but from Mullen’s overall record and UNLV getting ready to sign on that NIL package, we could expect good things.