Mississippi St. Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen has said he’s “absolutely committed” to MSU in the wake of Urban Meyer’s resignation as Florida Gators coach. While college football coaches have been known to waver, let's think ahead in case he's actually staying at MSU. Next on the list, according to the Sporting News, is the guy who was their No. 2 option behind Meyer in 2004: Bobby Petrino.
The last time Meyer stepped down, Petrino was the guy AD Jeremy Foley wanted. So the Gators have had their eyes on Petrino for a long time, even if he doesn’t like seeing Florida blue and orange in his press conferences.
Georgia Bulldogs fans, you may also be Atlanta Falcons fans. How would you feel about having a chance to beat Petrino every year? He’s one of college football’s premier offensive minds. He can recruit despite his mobility, already hauling in the Hogs class of the decade in 2009 and working on an even better one for 2011. The Florida job would be an upgrade and a raise and a chance to compete for more titles in the future than he could at Arkansas.
Plus there’s really nowhere else he could go, as far as his ambition goes — the knock against Petrino is his tendency to switch jobs more often than other coaches, but a coach can’t go much higher than Florida, which spends as much on athletics and enjoys as fertile a recruiting territory as just about anybody.