UNLV Rebels head football coach Dan Mullen said working as a college football analyst was beneficial as he was able to watch any game and any player he wanted.
Mullen, who was an analyst at ESPN, appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” to talk about some of the transfer players he got since taking the Rebels job late last year.
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Dan Mullen (Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports/File)
“Well, you look at the guys, we actually have two [quarterbacks]. Anthony Colandrea from [the University of Virginia] who I’ve seen make a ton of plays, and Alex Orji; and the best thing about being at ESPN, I’ve gotten to watch everybody play,” Mullen said. “You sit in that room all day and I watch every game in college football. I’ve seen them all.”
Mullen also talked about what Orji can bring to the table for the Rebels.
Orji was listed as a quarterback while with the Michigan Wolverines, but he had more rushing attempts (78) than passing attempts (48) in his three seasons.
“Alex Orji, I mean he’s undefeated against Ohio State. I mean he’s got wins and … I look at what he does and you look at the strengths of the players and he was a guy who was a man , that scratched my head last year, sometimes,” Mullen said. “I’m watching him and I don’t know, I’m not in the gameplan meetings, I don’t know what’s going on [at] Michigan, but I don’t know that they highlight his strengths.
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Michigan quarterback Alex Orji runs the ball against Ohio State on November 30, 2024. (Junfu Han/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
“In football, the coach’s job is to enable a guy to do what he does well. That’s what coaching is all about, and if you don’t do that — you know you’re like, ‘Hey, we got a system, you must run a system.’ Our system is: What do our guys do well, let’s adjust that as coaches to put them in a position to be successful.”
“I watched some of the games and I’m like, ‘Hey, when they put that guy in a position to do what he does well, Ohio State didn’t tackle him and they’re playing for a national championship. ‘ But to sit there and putting him in a position to do things where you’re not highlighting his strengths all the time is confusing to me.”
Dan Mullen (Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports/File)
Mullen last coached at Florida from 2018 to 2021. He was 34-15. Before that, he was at Mississippi State from 2009 to 2017 and was 69-46.
