STARKVILLE — The race isn’t over yet, but a leading pack is taking shape.
Mississippi State Director of Athletics John Cohen was active Monday in his search to find a successor to former MSU football coach Dan Mullen. A source told The Dispatch Cohen traveled by plane to meet with candidates, while Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt emerged as a prominent candidate for the position.
Pruitt has spent the last five seasons as a defensive coordinator: one at Florida State, two at Georgia and two at Alabama.
He started his coaching career at Hoover High School as its defensive backs coach and defensive coordinator. That position helped him set the stage to earn a job at Alabama, where he worked as a defensive backs coach. Pruitt left Alabama after the 2012 season to become Florida State’s defensive coordinator.
Pruitt has rarely has been part of a conventional developmental philosophy. Dating back to his days at Hoover High and every stop since, Pruitt has worked with elite talent relative to his competition.
Mullen increased the level of talent MSU had in its program in his nine-year career. From 2005 through 2009, the group Mullen signed after a couple of months on the job, MSU had a recruiting class ranked in the top 30 nationally by 247 Sports only twice. The highest-ranked class was the 2009 class Mullen influenced. Since 2010, the Bulldogs have been in the top 30 five times, which doesn’t include the pending 2018 class that is ranked 15th. MSU has signed 3.4 four-star recruits per year since 2010, not including the two five-star recruits in that span, compared to the two four-star recruits per recruiting class from 2005 through 2008.
Mullen and his staff developed that talent and sent 18 players to the NFL more than any other MSU coach.
“The reality is Mississippi is a state with a population of 3 million, give or take a few,” former MSU quarterback Matt Wyatt said, who is a radio host and the football color commentator on the MSU Radio Network. “This isn’t Texas. This isn’t Florida. This isn’t Georgia. I think one thing Dan Mullen did and his staff did really well was they went into every high school in Mississippi, doesn’t matter what size, finding the talent and making the strength and conditioning program the most important part of the program to develop those guys.”
Other candidates
Pruitt isn’t the only coach who has attracted Cohen’s attention. The Dispatch learned the short list Cohen worked from to begin his process included Troy coach Neal Brown and Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables. FootballScoop reported MSU is pursuing the latter for an interview.
Venables has been Clemson’s defensive coordinator for five years after an eight-year stint in the same position at Oklahoma. Venables might be more suited to follow Mullen’s developmental style, as he played for coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State and then worked for him as an assistant coach.
Neither Pruitt nor Venables has been a head coach.
While Cohen’s search remains active, the duties for a new coach are growing. The Dispatch confirmed earlier Monday MSU’s co-offensive coordinators John Hevesy (offensive line) and Billy Gonzales (wide receivers) will follow Mullen to Florida. In his introductory news conference Monday, Mullen didn’t mention those two, but he said he hopes to have his staff finalized in the coming weeks.
Hevesy was with Mullen for all of his time at MSU. He also coached with him at almost every stop along the way, when Mullen was an assistant coach under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida.
Sources close to the program told The Dispatch that Mullen also likely will pursue MSU defensive coordinator Todd Grantham for his Florida staff. But Grantham said in February at his introductory news conference at MSU he wanted his son, Corbin, to graduate from Starkville High School. Corbin has since become a starting safety on the Yellow Jacket football team that will play for the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 6A State championship Friday night. Corbin told The Dispatch earlier this month that his father’s commitment to Starkville helped him go all-in on chasing the starting spot he now owns.
There also might be something bigger for Grantham in Starkville. A source told The Dispatch that Grantham hasn’t been overlooked in MSU’s coaching search and might get an honest evaluation from Cohen.
Sources told The Dispatch that Cohen remains on pace for at least a hire by the end of the week.
UPDATE. 2:17 p.m. Tuesday — Florida has officially announced the hiring of Hevesy and Gonzales. Meanwhile, Lee Begley will follow Mullen to be Florida’s director of recruiting operations, giving Mullen’s successor another void to fill.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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