Boston College coaching candidates: Dan Mullen, Jeff Monken among options to replace Jeff Hafley

Former Boston College coach Jeff Hafley is off to the NFL as to serve as defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. Now, the Eagles have to replace a four-year head coach fresh off arguably the best season of his tenure after Hafley led Boston College to seven wins and a Fenway Bowl victory over a top-25 SMU team. 

It’s rare that a head coach leaves his active post for a coordinator job, though Hafley spent a large portion of his coaching career in the NFL prior to accepting the Boston College job. Whomever steps in for Hafley is taking over a stable situation — Hafley won at least six games in three out of four years — but also one that comes with its share of challenges. 

The ever-competitive ACC is set to expand in 2024 with the additions of Cal, Stanford and SMU. It’s an added layer of difficulty for a Boston College program that hasn’t won a division title since 2009. The Eagles probably won’t attract any big names, but it has been fairly good at identifying coaches outside the margins. 

Hafley was a 40-year-old career assistant with his most prolific job being co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State before he was hired at Boston College. His predecessor, Steve Addazio, coached at Temple for two years — with just four wins in his second season — prior to his hiring, and lasted seven seasons leading the program. 

Here’s a list of names that Boston College could target as it now joins what’s been a chaotic coaching carousel in the 2023-24 cycle. 

Dan Mullen: Let’s start with a real long shot, but it’s a call that should be made. Mullen gets listed for practically every head coaching vacancy, but there’s a reason for that. He’s a proven program builder and has a knack for winning with teams that have historically had trouble breaking through in their own conference — like Boston College. Take his work at Mississippi State, for example. Mullen inherited a team that had one winning season in the almost decade-long period leading up to his hire. He had them at nine wins with a top-20 ranking in the AP poll by Year 2. In 2014, Mullen and the Bulldogs were knocking on the door of the College Football Playoff before a late-season loss to Alabama precipitated a bit of a spiral. Still, MSU finished with 10 wins for the first time since 1999 and its highest finish in the AP poll (11th) since 1940. 

Mullen went to Florida in 2018 and won 21 games in his first two…