Report: Mississippi State preparing to do everything to keep Dan Mullen as its coach

The ninth-year coach of the Bulldogs has 69 career wins

Mississippi State fell 31-28 to Ole Miss Saturday night in Starkville, signaling the end of the regular season and the official start of the Dan Mullen sweepstakes.

Even though the Egg Bowl didn't go his favor, the ninth-year coach of the Bulldogs is expected to be one of the hottest names of the coaching silly season.

Mississippi State isn't going to lose its star without a fight, according to Sports Illustrated's Bruce Feldman.

Have been told this AM #MissState is set to step up and go all in to keep Dan Mullen at MSU, making an even bigger commitment to him and to his staff.

— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 24, 2017

Feldman reports that the school is considering increasing Mullen's salary from $4.5 million some the $6 million range, as well as dedicate more money to salaries for assistant coaches. 

Mullen has been linked as a candidate at Tennessee, which let go of former coach Butch Jones earlier this month. His name has also been floated at Florida, which let go of coach Jim McElwain in October following an embarrassing loss to Georgia and also has his former boss Scott Stricklin as its athletic director. He could be included in a search at Texas A&M as well, should the Aggies let go of coach Kevin Sumlin following the LSU game -- as has been reported this week.

As for Mullen, he deflected the question surrounding his status as the coach of the Bulldogs as best he could in the postgame press conference, according to 247Sports.

"I'm very, very happy here. I'm happy with what we've built," Mullen said "I have a great president and a great administration. You look at our fan base we have here, look at the program we've built. I think it's pretty special. I'm fortunate to be the head coach. John (Cohen) and Dr. (Mark) Keenum have both told me they want me to continue to be the head coach here. We'll see after the game. Before the game they did. We'll see right now."

Mullen has 69 wins in nine seasons in Starkville, led the program to the No. 1 ranking in the initial College Football Playoff rankings in 2014, to the Orange Bowl following the 2014 season, seven bowl games (with an eighth coming this year) and has elevated the floor of the program to a point where bowl berths are the expectation for a program that had been to just 13 in its existence prior to his arrival.

The Bulldogs finished 8-4 (4-4 SEC) in 2017.