Defensive lineman Derrius Mullins’ commitment to IU came at the end of July, and although his main recruiter, Kevin Johns, was released by IU Coach Tom Allen, his pledge to the Hoosiers has remained firm.
The native of Columbus, Ohio, took time to answer a few questions about what led him to choose to continue his football career in Bloomington.
Indiana Daily Student: Talk about when IU first expressed interest in you as a recruit and how you felt about that initial interest.
Mullins: “I think they started recruiting me like my freshman year, and they’ve pretty much been there since the beginning. They were pretty much the only school there from the beginning, and they stuck around all the way to the end. It felt good.”
IDS: What other schools were interested in you, and what led you to choose IU instead of those schools?
Mullins: “The top schools that were interested in me were Indiana, Pittsburgh, Purdue and West Virginia, and the reason why Indiana — it’s not too far from home, and I always said I wanted to play either in the SEC or the Big Ten.”
IDS: What coaches played the most significant roles in your recruitment, and how did they build their relationships with you?
Mullins: “Coach Johns was my main recruiter, and he’d pretty much contact me every week and help me get to know the rest of the coaches and pretty much say what I was going to do my next four years.”
IDS: Have any schools in the past month tried to take advantage of the coaching uncertainty surrounding the program and flip your commitment?
Mullins: “I know when Coach Wilson got fired a lot of people from Pitt started talking to me, because Pitt was number two to Indiana when I committed, and last week a coach from Iowa kept contacting me.”
Jordan Guskey
