STARKVILLE, Miss. — Dan Mullen can’t make it to his 5-year-old son’s soccer game. It’s a busy time at work.

This is what Mullen’s wife Megan tells their son Canon on Tuesday, and he is bummed. Megan assures him that she, Canon’s 2-year-old sister Breelyn, and grandparents Boppy and Glammy would be there though.

Later, as Canon warms up with his team, Megan gets a call from Dan. The Mississippi State head coach informs her he can break away from the office. And Canon is in for a surprise.

Right before the whistle blows, Dan walks over a small bridge, through some trees separating the parking lot from the soccer complex, and up to the sideline. Canon sprints off the field and jumps into his dad’s arms. As Canon runs back on the field for the start of the game, Breelyn steals her daddy’s eye. He throws his little girl over his shoulder and kisses Megan.

With countless hours spent on football every week — No. 1 college football team in the nation or not — family time can get cut short. But its importance is never diminished. Megan and Dan work together to make sure of it, whether it’s taking the kids to practice several days a week, or the two of them watching House of Cards on Netflix late at night. For The Win exclusively spent two days with the Mullen family to see how they put the “fun in dysfunction,” as Megan says.

In the first half, Canon scores a hat trick and Dan is there to see it. When he leaves at halftime, Breelyn and Canon follow him with their eyes. Canon has to stay on the sideline, but Breelyn chases him to the parking lot.

It’s all part of the balance of being one of college football’s hottest coaches and a loving father and husband.

From the moment the Mullens arrived in Starkville before the 2009 season, Megan immersed herself in the town and her husband’s job. She says she felt overcome by the hospitality and kindness from the people of Mississippi and made a commitment to be involved.

The Mullen’s door is open to Mississippi State football players “365 days a year, the rest of our lives,” she says. When quarterback Dak Prescott lost his mother to cancer a year ago, Megan and Dan accompanied him to her funeral. When running back Josh Robinson needed advice on what kinds of gifts to buy his two sisters and girlfriend, he came to Megan. The players call her “Mama Mullen”.

“You can either be part of it, or not be part of it,” Megan says. “But the main thing is, this team is as much my team as it is Dan’s team. It is our team, and that’s right down to the babies. You just do everything together. And then you never feel left out.”

Megan packs up her Toyota Sequoia and takes Canon, Breelyn and their soft-coated wheaten terrier named Heisman to Mississippi State football practice several times a week so they can see their dad and she can chat with players. On Wednesday after practice, she gives hugs to every player she sees, simply asking how their day was, how practice was, and just making them smile with her smile.

“She’s awesome,” Prescott said. “She’s a great lady and talks to me anytime she’s out here and makes sure I’m good. They’ve been like a second mom and dad.”

Megan says she is genuinely happy here and that it’s the first place their family has lived where she’s had friends – people to spend Halloween, Christmas Eve and Easter with, who have kids around the same age, and can go out to dinner together. Her parents even retired to Starkville from Pittsburgh.

“It’s really hard to make friends where you are, because your schedules are so crazy,” she says. “And maybe that’s because I’ve always had a job everywhere we’ve been until we got here, but we’re kinda funny because our life is so wacky.

“We had Thanksgiving two weeks ago (during the bye week), and we’re having Halloween a night early just so Dan can see his kids dress up for an hour-and-a-half, but I think people realize we’re real here. We go to the grocery store, we’re just normal. I don’t think they care who we are.”

Every year, Megan makes her family’s Halloween costumes, and they always dress in theme. This year’s theme is The Wizard of Oz. Megan is the Tin Man, Canon is the Scarecrow, Breelyn is Dorothy and Dan is the Cowardly Lion. (Canon is dressing up as Dak Prescott as a second costume.)

“He is Clark Griswold,” Megan says of her husband. “He has to be Super Dad.”

Every day he’s out the door by 7 a.m. and doesn’t come home until 11 p.m. or later. After Saturday’s game against Kentucky, Dan stayed up until 4:20 in the morning watching SportsCenter, plus a full replay of his game.

He left for work the next day before 8 a.m.

Through the chaos, he makes time for the ones he loves. Seven minutes before the Bulldogs run out of the tunnel every game, Dan sends Megan a text.

“He’s done it every single game we’ve had here and it’s just always a message,” Megan said. “Sometimes it’s about the game, or sometimes it’s, ‘I want to make you proud tonight,’ or, ‘I love you so much. You’re the most important thing in the world.’

“I think it’s to remind me that we’re in this together. Half the time he makes me cry.”

Next summer, Megan and Dan will celebrate their 10-year wedding anniversary by renewing their vows. Megan knows they’re traveling to a romantic destination, but doesn’t know where because Dan is planning a surprise.

“He’s the greatest husband in the world,” she said. “He has the most stressful job in the country as a SEC head coach and can still come home and smile and make you think you’re the only person that matters. And that’s not a joke.”

On Thursday, the Mullens had a Halloween party for some friends, costumes required. The menu included homemade pumpkin-shaped Rice Krispie treats made with orange marshmallows, cookies that looked like witch hats, pizza that Megan hoped to make look like spider webs, chili for the adults, and carved pumpkins with guacamole coming out of their mouths.

Prescott and Robinson had asked Megan if the team could turn their home into a Haunted House, but because Halloween this year is the night before a game, it didn’t work out.

“If we could turn their house into a haunted mansion with a bunch of big football guys, that would be pretty awesome,” Prescott says.

The Mullen family’s costume choices are somewhat fitting because of the role rainbows have been playing for Mississippi State this season. As the team deplaned in Baton Rouge before its Week 4 win at LSU, Megan says, a full rainbow appeared in the sky.

A rainbow has appeared every week since — before the Texas A&M, Auburn and Kentucky games.

“I’m 37, I’ve never been into rainbows in my life,” she says. “And I think there’s something special about this team and it doesn’t have to do with rainbows.”

This week, as the family drives to Canon’s soccer game, a rainbow appears above Starkville.

When his dad gets home, Canon wants to show him a new offensive play he drew up for the Bulldogs.

After looking it over, Dan approves, gives his son a pat on the shoulder, and walks into the kitchen for dinner.

Megan has made chicken marengo. As she puts on the finishing touches, they chat about the initial College Football Playoff rankings that were revealed 45 minutes earlier. Mississippi State opens at No. 1.

“We’re the answer to a Jeopardy question now,” Dan says.

And that’s pretty much the extent of poll talk because, it’s Tuesday and that’s the one night a week Dan gets to have dinner with his family during the season.

After dinner Dan and Canon play catch in the living room as the Mississippi State-Kentucky game from the previous week plays in the background.

“Give me a hard one, dad,” Canon says. Dan throws the little football over the ceiling fan and almost into the potted plant in the corner, but Canon catches it.

“Out of bounds,” Dan says, smiling.

“What! No I wasn’t!” Canon says.

“Overruled,” Dan says.

As the game rolls on, Dan catches glimpses. Late in the second quarter, De’Runnya Wilson drops a would-be touchdown in the red zone.

“I mean, that exact play he’s caught for four touchdowns,” Dan says.

A CBS camera pans to Dan, and Breelyn chirps, “It’s you daddy, it’s you.” Megan smiles.

Around 8:30 p.m., the kids need to get ready for bed and Dan needs to do more work.

“Bed! Jams! Practice film!” Dan says. “Who’s ready for night-night?”

There’s one more thing to do before bedtime, though. Canon and Dan ask the iPhone virtual assistant Siri who’s the best team in college football.

The answer every time? Mississippi State.