Mullen all smiles as UNLV football opens spring practice

Dan Mullen, the first-year UNLV football coach, talks with media after the program's first spring practice March 27, 2025. Photo by: Courtesy UNLV

UNLV football opened spring practice on Thursday, and no one was happier about getting started than head coach Dan Mullen.

After four years away from the coaching profession, UNLV’s new steward made sure to get the most out of every minute of the two-hour session. The 52-year-old, who was hired in December, expended a lot of energy and covered a lot of ground in putting the 2025 Scarlet and Gray through their first official on-field workout.

When practice wrapped, Mullen seemed like he was raring to get right back out there and make it a two-a-day.

“I’m having fun,” Mullen said. “I love it. There’s a lot of things you miss, and this is it. Being around the guys, coaching ball, being on the field watching guys grow, watching guys develop. You knew you missed it, but when you get back in it, you realize how much you love it.”

Unfortunately for Mullen, he’ll have to wait until Saturday for UNLV’s next spring workout. The good news is, it looks like he’s got a winner on his hands.

UNLV is losing a lot of talent from the 2024 squad that went 11-3, made it to the Mountain West championship game and won the LA Bowl, but Mullen has restocked the roster with veteran transfers and even some incoming freshmen who are participating in spring practice.

Mullen reported that he was most impressed by the way the players approached the first day.

“There’s great culture, great attitude, great energy with the players,” Mullen said.“You come out in practice one, we’ve had some walk-throughs but never with the team as a whole, you kind of split it up and there’s groups going at a time. To have everybody out here and see everybody flying around and having some fun, it’s a good time.”

Thursday was a day for the basics. The quarterbacks worked on handoff exchanges, receivers hit the blocking sled, defensive backs refined their backpedal technique. But when the team gathered for live 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 drills, the talent flashed.

Junior running back Jai’Den Thomas showed off his speed, catching a short pass and blazing past defenders for a long gain, while sophomore cornerback Andrew Powdrell made the play of the day by elevating above a receiver deep downfield to intercept a 50-50 ball.

All the while, Mullen ping-ponged between the two practice fields at the Fertitta Football Complex, checking in on different position groups, rarely interjecting but keeping a watchful eye.

Mullen joked that he’s just trying to introduce himself to a team composed of many new players who may know their position coaches better than they know the head guy.

“The hardest thing about being the head coach is you don’t have your one position group with just your guys that you’re around all the time,” he said with a laugh. “So I’ve got to kind to nudge myself in, try to be accepted by different groups. You walk into the different rooms and they’re like this tight group; I’m like, ‘I’m part of the team, too.’”

UNLV will have 14 more spring practice sessions over the next month, culminating with an intrasquad scrimmage on April 26. The goal, Mullen said, isn’t to be game-ready, but to implement the playbook and get the players up to speed as they head into the offseason and, eventually, training camp.

“It’s all development,” Mullen said. “At the end of the spring we don’t play anybody. We’re 0-0 and it’s a long time until we play a game, so were not worried about, ‘Are we ready to play?’ We’re worried about, ‘Are we getting better?’”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.