It's rumored he wants the job back. He was 69-46 (33-39) there. I guess MSU will take that of success any day. Always risky trying to come back and recreate the magic though.
OT: Mullen is the fan favorite at MSU
- Thread starter 18IsTheMan
- Start date
It'll be interesting to see if Chadwell gets interest. So far, he wasn't considered, at least seriously, for any of the many SEC jobs that have opened up in recent years.
Mullen had about as much success there as anyone is going to have. They are at best a middling SEC program with a few exceptions very few exceptions. It would be as stupid of them not to give Mullen another run as it was stupid for him to leave.
The only time I've been there was that gigantic game that Tanneyhill had. Don't remember much about the town. I recall that we parked on the side of the highway and moseyed on in.
You could pay me to live there - probably a lot less than they are going to pay their next coach.
I would sooner live in Starkville on their next coach's salary than I would live in the vast majority of NFL cities on their head coaches' salaries.
Has there been a coach that has gone back to a school to relive the "glory days" and done well? (I can't think of any off the top of my head, but there could be instances.)
I think this would be a disaster for one major reason: his heart won't be in it the same way. The first go-around he had to win. His livelihood depended on it. His career aspirations depended on it. He had to out-hustle everyone to make MSU into a viable team. This time around he's made his money. He's living the good life as an announcer. And the things he put up with as a coach before will only lead to the question: "why am I doing this again?" And you aren't going to make a school like MSU (or USC for that matter) viable without going full bore, 24/7.
I think this would be a disaster for one major reason: his heart won't be in it the same way. The first go-around he had to win. His livelihood depended on it. His career aspirations depended on it. He had to out-hustle everyone to make MSU into a viable team. This time around he's made his money. He's living the good life as an announcer. And the things he put up with as a coach before will only lead to the question: "why am I doing this again?" And you aren't going to make a school like MSU (or USC for that matter) viable without going full bore, 24/7.
It's a good question. Mullen had MSU achieving at pretty much their ceiling when he was there. Even so, 4 of his 9 seasons were .500 or worse. He had 2 seasons of 7-6 with losing conference records. His overall conference record was 33-39. Even at their ceiling, a few games go the other way and his tenure isn't looking all that good. All that to say, it's a very thin margin for error there. The difference between a very good season and a bad season isn't that much. What are the odds that he'd able to win at that level again?
I would say he's not quite as good this time around. He had UNC trending WAY up, with 2 top 10 finishes to end his tenure before he bolted for Texas. They've been decent since he's been back, but not nearly as good as they were at the end of his first tenure.
haha, just saying. They've been good, but not nearly top 10 good.Man, what do you want?
But that can’t be….he is a can’t miss hire. Just ask some on our board.
I'm not saying he'll never be a successful P5 head coach, but a number of SEC jobs have opened up in recent years and he was never linked or even seriously linked to any of them. I just assume there was a reason why. Now that he's having success at Liberty, maybe that'll change.
We agree….I found it strikingly strange no other SEC teams or P5 school’s seriously considered him (or maybe they did but not publicly).
Bill Snyder at Kansas State was successful the second time around.
Greg Schiano at Rutgers appears to be on his way to doing it as well.
I think it's hard to recreate the same level of success the second time around though.
Snyder was successful the second time around, but not nearly as successful. In his first tenure, K-State posted six 11 win seasons in 7 season and 5 top 10 finishes. They were a solid mostly 8 or 9 win time his second time around. But the fact that he was able to come back at age 70 and do that good of a job is impressive in itself.
Spurrier would have gone back to Florida if their AD hadn't been a D. I think he would have been successful there again.
Quite possible. He was only 2 years removed, so the game had not evolved that much, and it would have been quite the spectacle for such a legendary coach to come back.
There really aren't that many examples of a coach coming back to a former school that I can think of. Snyder and Schiano were the only 2 that immediately came to mind, with the obvious one in Mack Brown completely slipping from me.
Any others?
I'm sure the move to Liberty made sense to Chadwell, but it actually makes it harder to get a read on him as a coach. He moved to a much less competitive conference than the Sun Belt (most have Conference USA as the weakest conference in the FBS) - and then you add that in this weaker conference he coaches for a team that has Power 5 resources (doubling or tripling the money of the next closest football program). Liberty should absolutely be undefeated right now (as USC should be if they played in the MAC this year).
Maybe they have plans to move to a real conference soon? Because beating up on patsies with an SEC budget doesn't really show anything.
Ummm, Johnny Majors, had a bad second tenure at Pitt.
Petrino. He did alright in his return, nothing like his brief first tenure, but led them to 9, 8, 9 and 8 wins before being fired after a 2-8 season.
I think Bill Walsh went back to Stanford for a brief second tenure but retired. Not sure how he did, but don't think it was as good as first one.
It was an odd move. Lateral at best. I guess the Liberty gig is more visible so that's why he took it.
Just for SEC jobs, he wasn't seriously considered, or considered at all, for our job, UT, UF, Vandy, Auburn or LSU. For being the can't-miss guy some portray him be, when nearly half the schools in a conference that's in your geographical footprint don't consider you, it seems to say something.
Walsh didn't do well the second time around, but he was barely at Stanford before the Niners anyway.
Though looking at all these retreads at the same school - it appears that no one has matched their success the second time around. Some, like Snyder and Petrino got close. But there is always some fall off - and that's something MSU can't afford from Mullen's first time. A little worse would have him fired in two years, three tops.
Yeah, that's what I noted above. The difference between a really good season and a bad season is only couple or 3 wins.
Liberty can pay him $4M+ a year to beat up on the Sam Houstons of the world. It could be the best job in the country for quality of life - but not great if you want to achieve anything in the profession. But hey, now that I'm typing this, maybe Chadwell is a genius. Make Power 5 money for the easiest job in FBS.
Forgot about Petrino. He did have Lamar Jackson the second time around, but you're right he never got double digit wins.
Unless there were internal things going on, I'm not sure why they fired him after one bad season the second time.
Maybe he had to sign a contract to never repeat the first time.
I'm not too sure they didn't suck worse when he got the job this time than when he got it the first time.