1. Always beating the teams you’re supposed to.
That was voided right off the bat with the loss to South Alabama. In his previous seven season, Mullen had beaten every non-power five non-conference game he’d coached except for Houston in 2009. But that game had a few exceptions such as it being Mullen’s first year, Houston was coached by Kevin Sumlin and finished the year 10-4 and MSU was an underdog in the game.
Every other time – even though there were close games against UAB, Louisiana Tech, Troy and Bowling Green – Mullen has always beat lesser teams.