For Tiawan Mullen, the expectation for greatness has always been there.
Coming out of high school, Mullen would look up YouTube videos of Indiana head football coach Tom Allen talking about his expectations for the Hoosiers and shattering perceptions by talking about how long it had been since Indiana had success and saying success was on the horizon.
The message resonated so much so with Mullen, he asked for a piece of paper and wrote down what he had been hearing from Allen – 10, 26 and 50 – which were his talking points of how long it had been since the Hoosiers had a winning season, won a bowl game and finished the season as Big Ten champions.
And since arriving on campus three years ago, Mullen has been doing everything he can to turn the tide and help propel the Hoosiers to all those goals.
He has played a vital role in Indiana posting back-to-back winning seasons and advancing to back-to-back January bowl games, and achieved a huge individual award last year as a sophomore -- All-American status.
Last December, Mullen became the first cornerback in program history to be named a First Team All-American by the Football Writers Association of America.
"Being an All-American was never something I was looking deeply into. When they told me I got it, I was like wow and I was amazed by it. I am the first one and deeply grateful for it," Mullen said.
As a freshman, Mullen earned honorable-mention All-Big Team honors, first-team Freshman All American honors, second-team PPF All-Freshman Team, and Indiana’s Defensive Newcomer of the Year. Not bad for a player who started eight times in 13 games. However, Mullen, who entered this season on the watch list for the Chuck Bednarik Award, finished second among freshman in America and tied for 11th in the country with 13 pass breakups, four of which came against Michigan State. He also forced two fumbles and had two fumble recoveries, which was good enough to tie for first on the team, and had 29 tackles, 25 of which were solo stops.
In 2020, Mullen opened the season with eight tackles and a tackle for a loss in the upset over Penn State and followed that up with another seven tackles, two-and-a-half sacks and two-and-a-half tackles for a loss at Rutgers. Following the win over Michigan, Mullen had a career day at Michigan State, recording three tackles and two interceptions and then added seven tackles at Ohio State a week later. Against Maryland, he notched four tackles and an interception, before closing out the regular season with four tackles, a sack, a tackle for a loss, a forced fumble and two pass breakups at Wisconsin.
On the season, Mullen notched 38 total tackles, 27 of which were solo stops, to go along with three-and-a-half sacks, four-and-a-half tackles for a loss, three interceptions, one forced fumble, four pass breakups and a hurry. He led the Big Ten defensive backs in sacks and tackles for loss and was sixth in the Big Ten for interceptions. In addition, Mullen finished tied for first on the roster in forced fumbles, second in sacks, third in solo tackles, tackles for loss and interceptions.
For his efforts he was named a First Team All-Big Ten Team member by the media and a Second Team All-Big Ten Team member by the coaches.
While some may be surprised with the accolades and stats Mullen has put up, his position coach, Brandon Shelby, and Allen are not.
Shelby told the media in December that in order to become an All-American, a player has to do a lot of things in a great way, and that attitude and desire from Mullen has carried over to spring practice this season as he looks to earn the Thorpe Award, which is given to the top defensive back in America.
"He has a lot of goals and things he wants to accomplish. You think about the great ones, you don’t have to push those guys. He is self motivated. His goal is to win awards, help team get better and have an opportunity to play at the next level. And, in order to do that, you have to hone your skills, watch more film and study the opponent. His athletic ability is God-given and he has taken his ability and he has crafted it and he works hard. I think some people don't realize how hard he truly works," Shelby said.
As far as Allen is concerned, what he sees out of Mullen every day is what he has expected since he recruited him.
“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. He wanted to be a part of that breakthrough at Indiana, and, now he's being rewarded for it. He came here and he believed,” Allen said
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