The most hated man in Oxford: Dan Mullen has walked in Lane Kiffin's shoes

On Saturday night, there's a football game set to be played between the No. 7 LSU Tigers and the No. 8 Ole Miss Rebels.

Fans are much more interested in one main storyline — and it's not the Xs and Os of the contest set to take place between the white lines.

Instead, all eyes will be on Lane Kiffin, the controversially outspoken and polarizing head coach making his return to Oxford for the first time since his soap opera-worthy exit from Ole Miss eight months ago. The energy, the noise and, most notably, the pure hatred will be palpable not just in the stadium but around the city as a whole.

College basketball coaches Rick Pitino and John Calipari both drew the ire of Kentucky fans when they both returned with Louisville and Arkansas, respectively. Tommy Tuberville did not leave Ole Miss 'in a pine box' like he once promised, and returned to Oxford with his new Auburn team in 2000.

Speaking of Mississippi, when it comes to college football, things just hit differently here. There is no NFL team in the state. Baton Rouge is a mere 40 minutes from the border. Tuscaloosa is just 45.

Ask former Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen, who spent nine seasons as the head coach of the Bulldogs from 2009-2017, and he'll paint a picture of what things are like when you're on the wrong side of the football-crazy Rebel fan base.

What does Dan Mullen think Lane Kiffin should expect in Oxford?

Mullen, who left the Bulldogs for Florida in Nov. 2017, is now the head coach at UNLV. He went 5-4 in Egg Bowl games against Ole Miss, including winning four out of his first five games in the rivalry series from 2009-2013.

"When I went there [with] Florida, it was COVID. I think I was okay," he adds with a laugh. "I went to a high school game recruiting in Oxford once, and I had eight sheriffs with me around me to protect me right there."

Sure, Mullen is probably joking with that last bit, but it would be hard to blame him even if he wasn't.

Kiffin and LSU are expected to have enhanced security both when entering Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and throughout the game. The Oxford Police Department is even adding 19 officers on horseback for the occasion.

"Well, I think it is unusual like you said," Kiffin said at this week's presser leading up to the game. "One team we built and now a new team that you're building so probably a really unusual situation that way, I know obviously a lot's going to be made about me. But this is about the players being prepared really well and playing really well. Pete [Golding]'s not going to tackle anybody, I’m not gonna throw any touchdowns."

Dan Mullen recalls returning to Mississippi State after bolting for Florida

Mullen won two national championships on Urban Meyer's Gators staff in 2006 and 2008, and is credited with helping the spread offense permeate the SEC.

Conveniently enough, Florida already had a game scheduled in 2018 against Mullen's former Bulldogs for late September in Starkville. Mullen remembers the return to face his former team being emotional for a number of reasons.

"It was tough, you know, because we love Starkville," Mullen says. "Love Mississippi State, love everything about it. Both my kids were born in Starkville, we have so many great friends that are there. So it was a really unique situation, and the one thing talking about the team is I said the whole week, 'don't lose sight of the game.' A lot of attention is going to be brought on me about this game."

Both teams entered the game 3-1, and the Bulldogs were ranked 23rd in the country. Mullen told the broadcast before the game that after he left MSU for Florida, he became "the most hated man" in Mississippi.

"Well, because when I was at Mississippi State, half of them hated me," Mullen explains. "And then when I came back for that [game] the rest did too."

Mullen contends that the pre-game experience as a visitor at MSU didn't feel all too different. That's due to the Bulldogs building a new locker room after he left, so he was actually with the Gators in his old home locker room. He emerged from the tunnel greeted by a steady stream of boos and cowbells. Some MSU fans were also wearing "Dan Who?" t-shirts. 

Mullen knows the fact that his departure for Florida taking place before the transfer portal era began made things a bit cleaner. He acknowledges that a lot of the MSU players he saw on the opposing sideline that day may have come with him to Gainesville had he made the move in the current era.

Among those former players he recruited to Starkville were future NFL first-rounders in Jeffrey Simmons, Montez Sweat and Jonathan Abram, all of whom could have been by his side in Gainesville if the timing were different.

"I recruited them and coached them and spent four years helping them grow and develop," Mullen says. "[They went] from being a squirrely freshman into being a man. I think that's where the emotion all comes out from — the pride that you take in seeing those guys continue to grow and develop."

The game itself was a defensive slugfest. The UNLV coach also points out how MSU chose Mullen's first game back to Starkville to honor Jackie Sherril—whom Mullen reminds me he was just six wins away from passing to become the school's winningest coach—at halftime. 

Florida's defense held the Bulldogs to just two field goals, allowing MSU quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to throw for just 98 yards in the air. Florida's defense sealed a victory with a fourth-round sack on the Bulldogs quarterback. 

"The Florida players came up to me after the game and were like 'coach, we had your back'" Mullen adds. "We were not going to let you lose that game." 

After the game, Mullen was able to see and embrace several of his former players, many of whom he was seeing for the first time since he left in December. 

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At the postgame presser, he described how hard it was to see some of those guys: 

Dan Mullen, on beating a “team he loves” and how hard it was to tell them goodbye last November. #Gators pic.twitter.com/ygNu2ODTGi

Dan Mullen discusses how job changes get messy

When Mullen left Mississippi State for Florida in 2017, it was leaked to the public before he could meet with his players.

"I've been here nine years, I was ready for the next opportunity," Mullen recalls of the meeting informing the team he was taking the Florida job. "Just like a lot of guys are going to leave early and go to the NFL. You're ready for the next opportunity. I said, 'I think it's time for my opportunity to go.'"

"I can say everybody was really disappointed and devastated, and it was really hard on everybody to leave. I think Lane's was a lot more dramatic and played out a lot longer."

Of course, Mullen's experience won't be as heated as what Kiffin and LSU are walking into in Oxford. Kiffin will have several former Ole Miss players with him in Baton Rouge. Among the biggest names that followed him there include EDGE rusher Princewell Umanmielen, linebacker TJ Dottery, receiver Winston Watkins Jr. Several of his former assistants, like offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and Joe Cox, followed him, as well.

"I think the fans grasp to the coach even more now," Mullen adds of fans' reactions to coaches leaving. "Because the players are coming and going year by year."

But after Pete Golding and Ole Miss made a deep CFP run, several Rebel players decided to remain in Oxford. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who Weis recruited to Ole Miss from DII Ferris State, is still there. So is running back Kewan Lacy, who told reporters this week he "doesn't really have" a relationship with Kiffin, and wide receiver Deuce Alexander.