Former Resident Having Career Year as NCAA Coach

Barbara Mullen sees a lot of herself in her son Dan.

To an outsider, the two appear to occupy distant universes. Barbara is a renowned dance instructor at Londonderry Dance Academy while Dan is getting a bit of national attention these days as he heads up the no. 15 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs football program.

But despite different careers, the two have a knack for helping others succeed, and for communicating with those they mentor by talking, not yelling.

"I definitely see that parallel, so much so in the early days (of his career)," she said.

The two would compare everything from problems with parents to injuries, either on the field or on the dance floor.

When she calls her son, she asks him how rehearsals are going, and Dan will quickly remind her that she means to ask how "practices" are going.

She said that they are both "workaholics."

Barbara referenced a speech that Dan was giving about the necessity of hard work to get ahead in life. While she was in the audience, he gave her a quick wink as if to tell her that the message he was sending was one she has been giving him his whole life.

Although MSU has rattled off an impressive 7-1 record, only losing to top-ranked Alabama last weekend, Barbara takes greater stock in her son's influence on the guys he coaches, not the win-loss column.

"I find for me, I think one of the greatest joys I have is what he brings to all of those men," she said. "He rarely loses his temper with the boys. He talks to them. He talks to them. He doesn't yell at them."

While Dan's success in Mississippi comes off as an accelerated rise to the national stage (he is in his fourth year as head coach), Barbara asserted that just because her son is only 40, doesn't mean that it hasn't been a long journey to his current perch.

"There was a very long period of time when he road a bicycle and didn't make very much money," she said.

She went on to chronicle his life and career, which has taken him from winning a state championship as a player at Trinity High School to playing tight end at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. Before that, Dan grew up in Londonderry from ages 4 to 15 until the family moved to Manchester.

He has since coached at Wagner, Columbia, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Bowling Green, Utah, Florida and finally at his current home of MSU. 

In his final two positions before joining the Bulldogs, Dan developed NFL quarterbacks Alex Smith and Tim Tebow into stars.

Barbara referred to Smith's family as "fabulous," adding that her son has pictures of both Smith and Tebow in a big display cabinet with several rings.

Two of those rings came while he was offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in Gainsville, when the Gators won back-to-back national championships behind Tebow and Head Coach Urban Meyer.

Barbara said that she was able to attend those bowl games as well as several others throughout her son's career. She's even been jokingly bugging him this year.

"I call him and say, 'which bowl are we going to?,'" Mullen said.

She also flew down for the home game vs. Middle Tennessee State this year, when her son's squad slugged its way to a 45-3 laugher. 

While at the stadium, Barbara went on the field, attended the tailgating festivities and even participated in pregame traditions like the "dog walk".

Barbara said that almost a dozen of Dan's old Trinity friends also make it down for a game each year, and he gets them on the regional radio show and lets them go inside the dressing rooms.

She said that it doesn't bother her that she can't see Dan too often because of the distance, since her other children also live far away and she lives 3,000 miles away from her original home in England.

When Barbara thinks of Dan taking the MSU job, she said that she smiles, mainly because there had been talk of many other job options but MSU actually offered him a position as head coach, the first time he has held that title in his decorated career.

Even from an early age, Barbara said that Dan had 'football coach' on the noggin, even coaching the Derry Demons youth program while he was just a teenager.

Now she and the rest of her family get to watch Dan roam the NCAA sidelines every fall weekend, and for Barbara, she couldn't be more proud as a mother.

"How many other people turn the TV on every Saturday and there is your son on TV?"

Dan Mullen is 28-18 in 3-plus years as head coach of the Mississippi State Bulldogs of the SEC conference. The team will take on no. 16 Texas A&M this Saturday at 12 p.m on ESPN.