Indiana freshman cornerback Tiawan Mullen has shown signs of potential despite his size and inexperience at the collegiate level. After naming him special teams player of the week Monday, IU head coach Tom Allen called Mullen a "complete player."
When Indiana cornerbacks coach Brandon Shelby – currently entering his ninth season at Indiana – reflects on his eight years in Bloomington he remembers the days when IU went into Big Ten games having only two corners who were developed enough to play against the standard conference wideout.
Cornerbacks like Rashard Fant, Tim Bennett and Brian Williams carried heavy loads in the early years of Shelby’s tenure, but that’s not the case in 2019. It hasn’t been for the last couple of years either. But this season in particular has flashed promise behind fifth-year senior Andre Brown and junior Raheem Layne.
With sophomore Reese Taylor leapfrogging former starter and senior A’Shon Riggins on the depth chart and sophomore Jaylin Williams getting plenty of reps behind Brown, there has been minimal room for freshman Tiawan Mullen to flash his potential, but in those moments, he’s left a mark.
“Tiawan Mullen has got a lot of confidence. He doesn't back down to anybody. Just a very confident individual,” IU head coach Tom Allen said during his press conference Monday. “From where he's from and the ball that he's played and who he goes against, and even in the seven-on-seven teams that he was a part of, he goes against the best in the country. He'll step up and line up against a receiver and stare them down and take them man on man, without any thought.”
Understanding Mullen’s confidence and talent begins when considering his pedigree, as his brother, Trayvon, won a national championship with Clemson and now plays for the Oakland Raiders, and his cousin is Baltimore Ravens star quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson.
While, like most athletes with familial ties of the sort, Mullen wants to build his own reputation, the genetics cannot be overlooked, and that’s the first aspect of his freshman cornerback that Shelby notes when describing the type of player Mullen is.
“He has great competitive DNA. He comes from a football family,” Shelby said. “He’s a guy who can take coaching and take things from the meeting room and transfer it to the field. And he’s a competitor. He’s progressed in a way where he has an opportunity to be a really great player if he continues to do the little things.”
So far, Mullen has done those little things. That begins on special teams, where most freshman typically earn their first bits of playing time. He only has three tackles, but his contributions from the gunner position flash in ways that don’t show on a box score. Allen called him a “controller” on kickoffs and punts and then said he is a “complete player" while naming him special teams player of the week.
That translated to his time on defense against Connecticut, when he made a pass deflection that forced a turnover on downs. Outside of that play, Allen said he was “tight” in man coverage and approved of his effort and technique.
“He has a quickness and speed like a Rashard Fant, and he has a toughness of a Raheem Layne and a Tim Bennett, where he’s a little guy but he doesn’t mind throwing his body in there,” Shelby said. “But it started when he was in little league. He was always kind of the small one out of his brothers. He has that small-man, 'I ain’t backing down' type of attitude.”
When asked what a small-man attitude is, Mullen said he’s “a dog.”
He needed to be while growing up playing football in Florida, particularly in Coconut Creek, nestled on the eastern coast of Florida just north of Fort Lauderdale and just west of Deerfield Beach. For an undersized – 5-foot-10, 175 pounds – cornerback, playing football against the likes of Ohio State wide receiver Binjimen Victor in high school, that constant negation of the size disadvantage left those positive traces of competition in Mullen.
“Back at home in Florida, it’s like the real football. Every game, you had to come ready to compete,” Mullen said. “It doesn’t matter who steps in front of me, I’m going to compete and win my matchups – the majority of my matchups. If I lose, I’m coming back to the next play and make sure I win that one.”
Even with that boosted competition in high school, Mullen said his biggest adjustment was mental. Some days, he doesn’t feel like practicing, but those are the days he’s learned to push through when it’s hard.
Going into Michigan State, that’s the message Shelby is urging all of his cornerbacks to understand. The closest game they’ve needed to stay locked into during the fourth quarter this season was against Ball State, when Jaylin Williams came away with a game-sealing interception.
But Shelby is anticipating a four-quarter game against Michigan State in week five.
“Some of those guys played AAU,” Shelby said. “Fourth quarter, you’ve got to go to the line and shoot free throws when you’re tired. Teams who can do that are going to win, and if you look at Michigan State, over the years when Coach Dantonio has been there, they’ve been able to win in the fourth quarter. They go to the line and shoot free throws. That’s what we’ve got to do to beat these guys because it’s going to be a four quarter game.”
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