Who is Jeff Mullen?

So, Coach Stewart today named his offensive coordinator. If you read this blog then you know I was calling for an exciting, big name hire to fill out Stew’s staff. As it turns out, Jeff Mullen, quarterbacks coach of Wake Forest was today named to the position. My first though is, what, we couldn’t get the offensive coordinator from Wake? Sure, they aren’t a whipping boy in the ACC any more and even went to a BCS bowl a couple years ago. And they run some version of the spread offense. But, here’s a guy with no West Virginia ties (I’m not saying he HAS to have them, but since you’re going with that theme you should either get that or a more recognizable name) that has been tethered to Jim Grobe first at Ohio then Wake.

According to Stewart, Mullen will introduce motion and movement into the pre-existing form of the spread that we have. Will we continue to no-huddle? Guess that remains to be seen. Zone blocking? More svelte, athletic offensive linemen? We’ll find out eventually. Mullen’s top accomplishments were coaching up quarterbacks Ben Mauk (who really didn’t do a whole lot at Wake), Cory Randolph (have you heard of him before?) and Riley Skinner (a serviceable college QB). But now he is responsible for making Pat White and Jarrett Brown top players in college football? I think that’s a lot of responsibility. I hope there was something that Coach Stew saw in this guy, because to me this hire makes almost no sense and we’re running out of room on our staff for that final great coup.

Tags: Bill Stewart, Jeff Mullen, offensive coordinator, spread offense, Wake Forest