Dan Mullen weighs in on South Carolina’s search for new offensive coordinator

South Carolina is still in the market for an offensive coordinator. Just don’t expect it to be Dan Mullen.

Speaking with Chris Childers on Sirius XM, the former Florida and Mississippi State head coach was asked about the rumors connecting him to USC’s current coaching vacancy.

“I am great friends with Shane Beamer,” Mullen said. “What an unbelievable job he’s done. I actually went up to their practices preseason and thought ‘Wow, he’s got everything going in the right direction.’

“They do have an offensive coordinator job open and they’re going to hire a great one, because I know there’s a lot of people that want to go there and be a part of that program. It’s just not going to be me.”

Mullen has long been lauded as one of the premier play-callers in college football and has a relationship with South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer from their summers spent on Lake Oconee in Georgia.

The Pennsylvania native previously served as the offensive coordinator at Florida under Urban Meyer during Tim Tebow’s run in Gainesville. Mullen later orchestrated a wildly successful nine-year run as the head coach at Mississippi State, recruiting Dak Prescott and helping the Bulldogs to the No. 1 slot in the first ever College Football Playoff Ranking.

Mullen was fired last year following a 5-5 regular season in his fourth year as the head coach at Florida. He finished his time leading the Gators with a pair of 10-win seasons and a 34-15 record, including wins in the Peach and Orange Bowls.

Rumors have swirled that Mullen might be looking to get back into coaching after spending the 2022 season working as an analyst for ESPN, though nothing concrete has come about.

Beamer told reporters last week he didn’t have an exact timeline for his hiring process in replacing Marcus Satterfield, who has since joined Matt Rhule’s Nebraska staff as the Cornhuskers’ offensive coordinator.

No. 19 South Carolina is slated to finish its 2022 campaign against No. 21 Notre Dame in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 30 in Jacksonville.