SEC Coverage

"You bought into that belief and that philosophy," Mullen said, closing his question-and-answer session less than 48 hours before MSU’s season opener against Memphis. "And you didn’t have to buy in. There’s a lot of different ways you can be successful but we felt we had a plan that worked and we asked you all to buy in, and you all bought in 100 percent. You had no idea if you bought in if we would go to the Gator Bowl or not. You could have bought in and we could have been 5-7 last year. But you did it and you all bought in. You believed in what we were doing and now we’re reaping the rewards for that."

I have zero respect for that school up north. In fact, I’ll probably never call them by their actual name. The only thing red and blue in my life is the American flag. I successfully paved my son’s college football career by naming him Canon. You’re welcome world.

And UM was turned off by Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen's big ego, with one trustee saying he acts like he invented the game.

"The only administrator I’ve talked to at any university about coaching football is Scott Stricklin. Right now we’re working on what we hope can be a deal that will suit everybody and get our program going in the right direction — the direction it’s going right now for us — in the long term. There are a lot of great things I think we can get done here at Mississippi State that I want to accomplish here at Mississippi State. I plan on being the head coach here for a long time."

"The BYU-Utah rivalry is probably the biggest I’ve ever been involved with," Mullen said. "There’s so much state pride that lasts a long time in that one game. I think that’s what makes it huge.

With 235-pound running back Anthony Dixon being the most proven commodity for the Bulldogs on offense and a lack of experience at the receiver position, Mullen concedes that Mississippi State's offense this season might look a lot more like Utah's in 2004 than Florida's in either of the last two seasons.

I still think that, of the three new coaches in the league, Dan Mullen of Mississippi State was the most impressive. That doesn’t mean Mullen will be more successful than Kiffin or Gene Chizik at Auburn. Those two are at established, well-resourced programs and Mullen has a tougher gig.