Mullen didn’t decide to become anything. He’s just being Dan Mullen. Flying off the handle emotionally last night wasn’t any more part of a plan to become a villain than it was when he did it two years ago in the Vandy game. https://twitter.com/slmandel/status/1322973531840212992

Mullen is a different kind of cat. A little weird, little awkward, irascible, cantankerous. Ability to read the room is low even by CFB head coach standards. There’s a reason he didn’t leave Starkville for nine years and it’s not because he loved the ice cream that much.

He’s not a Spurrier or Kiffin who makes rivals mad because he can read them like a book and hit them with humor. He’ll never be a Bobby Bowden, who became a beloved grandpa to all CFB fans other than direct rivals.

He’s a ball coach above all else. He’s no one’s politician. If he’s only now become a heel it’s because no one but SEC West fans paid attention to him at Mississippi State. This is who he is, and he couldn’t care less what any of us think.