Mullen grilled on Mississippi State admitting Simmons

Dan Mullen has certainly seen the ups and downs of being head coach at Mississippi State. But last March, Simmons was caught on camera assaulting a woman.

“I’m very strongly against any violence toward women, toward anybody to be honest with you”, Mullen said. “You are responsible, in a very high-profile position, you want to make sure everybody in the University is involved, that it’s not a football decision”, Mullen said. His answer to why Simmons is in the school’s media guide as wearing Nick Bell’s No. 36 was hard to believe – if you’re assigning practice numbers based off locker locations that’s fine, but why put it in the media guide?

It was curious, though, that Mullen on Tuesday at first tried to distance himself from the process that allowed Simmons to remain with the program under certain conditions, including a one-game suspension that seems like a half-hearted attempt to assign a football punishment to a decision that looms much larger over the program.

Mississippi State players and coaches know it won’t be easy playing in the big bad western division of the SEC. It apparently had a ready-made anecdote about Simmons changing a flat tire for some young females, though it ultimately decided (correctly) it would not go over well with the whole group and just leaked it to a national reporter. “Our mission through our Tackling Character program is to make the world a better place as we look to deliver spirit and soul to children”, Linda Bell. Mississippi State clearly decided Simmons is every bit of a five star prospect and therefore worth it, and is willing to just go ahead and wear it. And for Mississippi State, which nearly certainly would have discarded Simmons without a second thought had he been a three-star talent instead of an elite defensive end, this is the ultimate pass-fail test.

It is a time of change, and not just Prescott. Mississippi State is on its third defensive coordinator in as many years. The ones that complain the most about it have the ideal opportunity to ask.

“That’s not finalized yet”, Mullen said.

There’s reason to doubt the Bulldogs, and they very well could be picked last in the SEC West when the preseason poll is announced later this week.

When the program handed out its discipline for Jeffery Simmons, did you leave that meeting assuming this was going to be satisfactory for everybody outside of the program, or did you anticipate some of the public backlash that you did get? I can’t be with them all the time.

More deflection from Mullen who missed an opportunity to put everything out on the table for the media in attendance and the fans watching on the SEC Network. Especially if you’re a young 18 year old. “For us, that’s a family member making a mistake and you’re trying to get them through a tough time, educate them and help them not make mistakes in the future”.

That’s a good line.