not sure about either of these conclusions. Petrino is a stretch right now, but in a year or two when the heat dies down, he will be marketable. Why wouldn't mullen leave lowly miss state with a small fan base, mediocre facilities and a low salary for big money at UT with a huge stadium, better school and big fanbase?
That's a good question my friend so here's what Mullen may be thinking...
He's already making noise and has MSU ranked up pretty high, so far.
He may get a good offer this year or next year to make lots more $$$ and NOT have to play in the SEC against so many top teams.
Most coaches do NOT want to play in the SEC because it's much easier when they only have to play 1 or 2 good teams a year and that gets them ranked easier and having lots of wins every season gets them bigger pay easier too so they can have a easier and better paying career for the long term out of the brutal SEC.
Some coaches come to the SEC to make bigger money and some coaches come to the SEC because their ego demands that they try it and see if they really can build a good program and compete against the best in college football on a consistent basis.
Saban, Spurrier and others took the bigger $$$ and let their ego drive them into the NFL to see if they could compete on that level and soon learned that the NFL is alot harder than they thought so they came back to the college level to start all over again.
Saban walked into alaBubba with a roster already stacked with really good players so it was alot easier for him to start winning faster and the same is true for muschUmp at floriDUHHH with top recruiting classes for so many years.
Spurrier didn't have a stacked roster so he's had to work and recruit harder for alot more years to start getting USCe building up to where he wants to get them and he's still trying to get USCe up to a consistent level of winning alot every year.
Mullen may just be waiting for a good job offer out of the SEC for a much easier opportunity foir the rest of his coaching career.
VFL...GBO!!!