Nicholas Clayton Mullens (born March 21, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, where he surpassed Brett Favre’s single-season school records for passing yardage (4,476) and touchdown passes . He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent out of college, and has also played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns.
Mullens:Facts
- Born: March 21, 1995 (age 28), Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
- Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
- Weight: 210 lb (95 kg)
- High School: Spain Park (Hoover, Alabama)
- College: Southern Miss (2013–2016)
- San Francisco 49ers (2017–2020)
- Philadelphia Eagles (2021)
- Cleveland Browns (2021)
- Las Vegas Raiders (2022)
- Minnesota Vikings (2022–present)
- C-USA Offensive Player of the Year (2015)
- Second-team All-C-USA (2015)
Mullens was born to Suzanne and Mark Mullens on March 21, 1995, in Little Rock, Arkansas and grew up in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. He is the grandson of Ernie Taborwho pitched in the Philadelphia Phillies minor league system in the 1950s.His uncle, Scott Tabor, pitched for the Arkansas Razorbacks baseball team,and holds the school record for most career wins;he also pitched professionally in the minor leagues. Mullens graduated from Spain Park High School in Hoover.
Mullens played football for Spain Park, emerging as the team’s starting quarterbackDuring his senior season, 2012, Mullens threw for 3,649 yards and 40 touchdowns, against only seven interceptions, en route to winning the 2012 Gatorade Player of the Year award for the state of Alabama. He had totaled 8,605 career passing yards, finishing his high school career with the 7th most passing yards in AHSAA history.
After starting the 2013 season with a 0–6 record, in an 18-game losing streak, Southern Miss head coach Todd Monken inserted true freshman Mullens as a starter for game seven, a home game against the North Texas Mean Green. The young team was overmatched by North Texas, however, suffering a 55–14 loss in which Mullens went 12-for-31 passing for 210 yards and one touchdown, while suffering three interceptions and a lost fumble.
College career
In his second collegiate game, a loss to Marshall, Mullens became the first true freshman starting quarterback in Southern Miss history to pass for more than 300 yards in a single game, a feat never accomplished during his freshman year by the school’s most famous football alumnus, Brett Favre.
On November 30, 2013, Mullens played a key role in helping Southern Miss end its losing streak at 23 games with a five-touchdown performance against the University of Alabama-Birmingham, which also happened to be the college that he originally committed to.
Mullens passed for 1,776 yards as a freshman in 2013. As a sophomore in 2014, he started 10 games and completed 218 of 365 attempts for 2,470 passing yards and 12 touchdowns.
In the 2015 regular season, Mullens completed 331 of 521 passes (63.5%) for 4,476 yards and 38 touchdowns – school records for passing yardage and touchdown passes.He ranked sixth among NCAA Division I FBS quarterbacks in passing yardage. Mullens’ efforts were instrumental in a reversal of fortunes of the Southern Miss football program, with the team posting a 9–5 record for the year just two seasons after snapping its abysmal 23-game losing streak. He started all 14 games as the Golden Eagles finished with more than 7,000 yards of offense for the first time in school history.[citation needed
In 2016, Mullens made 11 starts and completed 243 of 384 attempts for 3,272 yards and 24 touchdowns, averaging 297.5 passing yards per game.[18] On October 1, 2016, against the Rice Owls, he threw for a collegiate career-high 591 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception in the 44–28 victory.
In four seasons at Southern Miss (2013–2016), Mullens played in 44 games (41 starts) and completed 928 of 1,546 attempts for 11,994 yards and 87 touchdowns. He finished his collegiate career as the career passing leader in every statistical category. His 11,994 yards passing and 87 touchdown passes dwarfed the 7,695 yards and 52 touchdowns registered by former NFL great Brett Favre during his four years with the Golden Eagles.