EAST LANSING -- Tiawan Mullen came to Indiana for games and moments like what he played in and experienced Saturday at Michigan State.
After picking up two sacks earlier this season, Mullen added to his impressive season with his first career interceptions in a 24-0 victory over Michigan State. The interceptions against the Spartans should come as a surprise to nobody, as Mullen has played a vital role in India’s defense, which has been lights out this season.
After all, Mullen showed his playmaking abilities against the Spartans a season ago breaking up four passes. However, Saturday there was no denying him.
The first interception came on Michigan State’s second possession of the game, as Mullen stepped in the path of a Rocky Lombardi pass and plucked it out of the sky.
He was just getting started, as Mullen came up with another interception in the second quarter. Mullen’s two interceptions were part of four total takeaways for the Hoosiers, who allowed 131 yards passing and held Michigan State to under 200 total yards of offense. In addition, Mullen finished with three tackles.
“I just seen the ball and attacked it, really,” Mullen said.
Following the game, Tom Allen was asked about Mullen’s play and joked that his star defender had learned to catch.
“Last year, he had all those pass breakups and never any picks. How about that? Nah, I’m just teasing. He’s a great player. He was due. He’s always got his hands around the ball,” Allen said.
Perhaps, he did learn how to catch, but Mullen told the media his performance at Spartan Stadium had more to do with listening to his coaches and executing than anything else.
“I got one of the best cornerback coaches in the game with coach Brandon Shelby. Once you listen to a coach, he’s going to put you in the right position and then you have to go out and execute and that’s what I did today. When they let you play with vision, you just got to go out there and improvise and make plays. That’s what I did,” Mullen said.
Honestly, it is what Mullen has been doing since he arrived in Bloomington and asked for a piece of paper in Allen’s office, writing down 26, 10 and 50 – the numbers Allen has talked about tackling in terms of Indiana’s vision of a winning season, bowl win and Big Ten championship.
“He’s one of those ones that chose to come here from far away because he believed in the vision of what we were going to do even thought we hadn’t done it yet. Tiawan is a special guy. Not the biggest guy on the field, but his heart is huge,” Allen said.
Mullen and this team is special, and Mullen admits he knew all along just how good this team could be.
“I expected this,” Mullen said. “I’m not surprised at what’s happening at Indiana University.”
----
• Talk about it inside The Hoops Forum or The Football Forum
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Follow us on Twitter: @IndianaRivals
• Like us on Facebook.
