He runs a spread offense. What makes you think his offense wii produced dramatically different results than Mullen's? Out of 9 seasons as a head coach, Fedora has had 2 good seasons. Other than that, he's been a meh coach right around the 7-6 W/L record. He's "accomplished" this at Southern Miss & UNC, two schools that play against fairly weak competition. The guy is nothing special.
Both schools were on probation, I think, when he got there. I'm sure UNC was.
Patriots run a spread. Mumme runs a spread. Tressel ran the spread. Mack Brown at Texas ran a spread. Holgerson runs a spread. Oregon run the spread. Dick Rodriguez runs a spread. Saying spread means damn near nothing now.
He doesn't run Bob Davie's ND's option offense out of spread formations. Fedora isn't a run 80% guy and QB up the middle 30 times a game. If you want to be fourth in the division, Mullet is your guy.
I don't think Fedora is a great coach, but he has potential, in the right situation. He is a gunslinger. He runs a lot of levels, verticals, and other concepts that stress the defense over the top. He will at least try to win, instead of running out the clock and hoping for a ST play/turnover.
I would take him in a second over Butters and I would take Mullet under no circumstance.