Syracuse Football: Head-coach candidate list is coming more into focus

According to various media reports, SU Athletics leaders appear to be narrowing their search focus on a handful of potential candidates to replace former Syracuse football head coach Dino Babers, who was fired last Sunday.

There is a ton of social media buzz surrounding Dan Mullen, the former head coach at both Florida and Mississippi State out of the Southeastern Conference. Mullen, a college football analyst with ESPN, reportedly met with SU athletic director John Wildhack in recent days, according to a report from Tommy Sladek of CNY Central.

In 13 combined seasons as the head coach of first Mississippi State and then Florida, Mullen compiled an overall record of 103–61 in the ultra-competitive SEC, and he led the Gators to a pair of top-10 finishes in the major polls.

For what it’s worth, I’m seeing some odds-makers list Mullen with the “best” odds to be the next head coach of the ‘Cuse. By the way, in 1998, Mullen served as a graduate assistant with the Orange.

As Syracuse football was set to host Wake Forest on Saturday afternoon, with the Orange eyeing a sixth win to clinch bowl eligibility for the second year in a row, a couple of other names are popping up as well in the head-coaching search by SU Athletics officials.

Could Syracuse football have its next head coach sooner rather than later?

A recent piece by John Brice of FootballScoop.com says that a name coming up a lot as it relates to the Orange’s head-coaching search is Bob Chesney, who has been the boss of Holy Cross out of the Patriot League since the 2018 season.

Besides Chesney, SU Athletics officials have also vetted several other candidates, Brice reported. They include Toledo head coach Jason Candle, Marshall head coach Charles Huff and Al Golden, who is currently the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame and previously served as the head coach of both Temple and Miami.

"Brice wrote: “One source told FootballScoop Syracuse AD John Wildhack has been pleasantly surprised by the depth of candidates that have shown interest in the job adding, ‘A lot of very experienced coaches are interested and other conversations are ongoing; but at this time it looks like Chesney or Mullen.'”"

For what it’s worth, on social media in recent days, I’ve seen a lot of fairly positive commentary by ‘Cuse fans regarding these potential candidates to eventually replace Babers, who went 41–55 overall in just under eight full seasons at the helm of Syracuse football.

Right after SU Athletics announced the dismissal of Babers, Chris Vannini of The Athletic and Pete Thamel of ESPN floated some possible candidates for the Orange head-coaching gig, which you can check out here.

This is a fluid situation, obviously, but I do get the sense that perhaps the next Syracuse football head coach could end up being Chesney or Mullen, although nothing is for certain until an announcement is made.