This is just before-the-fact grief bargaining, but if Dan can scale the SEC pinnacle next year, he would have a lot of bargaining power and could probably land his dream job. At this point though, there is no reason his dream job couldn't be becoming our version of Bobby Bowden or at least Frank Beamer.

In any case, Mullen isn't leaving this year.

He will get a nice raise and can play the field next year if he wants. And if he does head out after a dream season, he will have built a sustainable high level program in Starkville and we should be much more grateful for that than resentful of his departure.

(For a loss - Saturday night was a helluva lot of fun.)