Erick Harper Gets His Man: Former Florida Football Coach Dan Mullen Introduced As UNLV’s New Coach Friday
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — During his three years of talking college football at ESPN, former Florida coach Dan Mullen had more than 10 coaching job offers.
But Las Vegas Bowl Executive Director John Saccenti, who knows both Mullen and UNLV Athletics Director Erick Harper, thought it might be a nice fit for UNLV football if Mullen took over for former Rebels head oach Barry Odom who just took the Purdue head coaching job.
Saccenti asked Mullen if he could talk 30 minutes with Harper. Mullen and Harper ended up talking two hours and UNLV eventually signed up a new football coach less than a week after Odom’s final game in Boise, Idaho last Friday night.
Mullen was introduced to the UNLV Rebels faithful a little before 12 noon at the university’s football practice fields Friday. Mullen came out about 15 minutes after the 11:30 AM scheduled presser time after talking with the football team.
Mullen said he never felt more alive in the last three years than the time he just took to talk with the Rebels players at the Fertitta football building.
Mullen, who knows Odom and spoke to Odom about Las Vegas, said the Rebels will be po
Here’s Saccenti explaining how he helped bring Mullen and Harper together.
Harper said he signed Mullen for five years and that the salary would be released shortly.
Here’s our interview with Harper:
There was a lot of talk at the presser about UNLV’s football team arriving on the national landscape as a relevant team and as Top 25 program after year and years of losses and mediocrity.
In a market known for hosting tourist-oriented events like a Formula 1 race and Raiders games, UNLV’s football program will be a show for fans to attend, Mullen said.
Indeed, Dan Dolby, who handles UNLV sports marketing efforts as Learfield’s top man here in Las Vegas, said about 50 fans renewed UNLV season ticket deals after news spread that Mullen was the new football coach.
Some of UNLV’s biggest boosters also attended the presser, which was open to the public.
Mullen also coached at Mississippi State before he took the head coaching job at Florida. Mullen spent the past three years with ESPN.
Now, his new job means he will be guiding UNLV’s football team and walking the sidelines at Allegiant Stadium.
