After only four years at Mississippi State, Dan Mullen is now the 3rd longest tenured coach in the SEC West behind Les Miles and Nick Saban. His counterparts in the SEC coaching class of 2009, Lane Kiffin and Gene Chizik are now gone. Kevin Sumlin and Hugh Freeze are only one year in, and now Arkansas and Auburn will start fresh again with new coaches.
Arkansas hires Bret Bielema from Wisconsin. In his seven years there, he was 68-24, making a bowl game every year including three consecutive Rose Bowls. He had four double digit win seasons in the Big Ten. Bielema continued the Wisconsin tradition of running a tough, physical, hard-nosed style of football. That is a direct contradiction to the finesse style of play Arkansas has been accustomed to.
What does it say about the SEC's domination of the Big Ten when the 7th, 8th best job in the SEC can lure away the head coach of the 3-time defending Big Ten champions?
Auburn hires Gus Malzahn. We are all familiar with his career - high school coach until Houston Nutt hired him along with the recruitment of Mitch Mustain in 2006. He left for Tulsa the next two years and ran the nation's top offense, went to Auburn and won a national championship with Cam Newton, got paid $1.3 million for 2011, then took the Arkansas State job in 2012 for $800K. He was 9-3 taking over for Hugh Freeze at ASU, and won the Sun Belt.
As a Mississippi State fan, how do you feel about these hires within the SEC West? They will have a direct effect on MSU as we'll be playing them every year.