I know I’ve been a big proponent for Dan Mullen on this site. All of us have had our concerns about him, and in particular none of us have liked or wanted Todd Grantham. Offensively, Dan Mullen has me smitten. Defensively, I’m ripping my hair out. Every single thing wrong with this team rests on his shoulders, and his shoulders alone.
Our defense cannot cover, cannot tackle, and cannot penetrate or generate push up front. Our defensive personnel has been loaded with players designed for a scheme that works in the ACC, Big 12, and the AAC. It’s a defense that clearly only cares about generating sacks, and yesterday they couldn’t even do that.
Mullen and the good guys had the ball with 3:40 left to go and MULLEN decided to tote the rock to Malik Davis, over our best Running Back this season who’s proven he can hold on to the ball, and fight for tough yards. Why as a head coach would you not keep your best players in the game during crunch time situations? If they’re tired or gassed that’s one thing; but he was trying to be cute and keep the reps even between the RBs and it was undeniably stupid.
Mullen lost this game. He lost it with the decision to employ Granthams defense and not wholesale make changes after the first two games. Make no mistake, our defense was disgusting the first two games, too. No one hit the panic button because we won. And he lost this game by choosing not to hand the ball to the best running back on the field and utilizing your best players under crunch time situations.
I’m not calling for him to be fired yet bc have been very pleased with the offensive production, but he is now starting to trend negatively with me with his decision making. I am calling for Grantham to be fired. However, if Mullen doesn’t sack up and start cutting ties; and rides this disaster wave out with Grantham then I do not see how or why we’d want to keep him?