Hopefully this will be a motivational tool for the 2016 team.
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Hopefully this will be a motivational tool for the 2016 team.
we lost the egg bowl in bad fashion...i expected it.....we lose in february with simmons, aj, kobe, and lashley.....ill be ready to turn tickets over to the visitors......lost the battle, can't lose the war.....they are all must haves and in our back yard.....mullen on the cooker with these kids...
Getting our asses thoroughly skull drug in our 2 biggest games LAST season should've been motivation enough. I don't know what has changed, but Mullen isn't getting the guys ready to play anymore. Even if we had shitty game plans in the big games, we at least came out and played with some intensity and emotion in the big games. Now we have shitty game plans and zero intensity & emotion for big games. Mullen better figure out how to motivate these guys.
I think with a new QB the team will regain that fire. I love Dak but I think all of the attention focused on him could have caused a little rift in the locker room.
No inside info at all, just a gut feeling.
You are a flaming idiot if you think Dak was a problem in the locker room. What in the literal 17. Dak is the best player in Mississippi State football history and one of the best leaders we'ver ever had; the team rallied around Dak. Geez, it's getting harder and harder to read shit on this message board these days.
If our locker room had a problem with dak then they don't need to be on this team
I don't think it was a conscious rift, but many times when you have a great player, others sit around and wait for him to make a play instead of making one themselves. Next year, numerous guys may say, "I have to step it up to fill Dak's void." and in return you have a better team. Tennessee winning the NC the year after Manning with Tee Martin, is a great example of this
I agree SD, it's not about Dak being a problem but guys relying on him too much. And our OL did help Dak up a lot, he was on his ass quite a bit and I saw it many times.
Dan better be doing work to get ready for that bowl game.
You have NO idea how furious I am that we lost out on the Sugar Bowl. I live in NOLA now and now thanks to Dan and his shit show I have to look forward to Ole Miss taking over on NYD. THANKS DAN! And on top of that, it looks like Ole Miss's bowl bitches- the Oklahoma State Cowboys will be coming too. Can't wait!**** Or maybe you do based on my post the other day.
The fact the WE were so close only adds salt to the wound. It was just absolutely unacceptable to me how this year went given the talent that we had and unacceptable how we managed to put together an o-line like that in year seven AND how as others said we came out absolutely flat and unemotional in each game. I do think SOME of that is team dynamic- but I DO NOT think it was because of Dak. I think it goes back to Dan. He doe not like emotional players on the field. It's not that he totally avoids it or won't necessarily even play someone that is emotional- but it definitely seems like it's discouraged. And I do think that Dan wants to the players to be fired up and show emotion on game day- it's not that. I think it's an unintended consequence from the coaches- because players see how he treated Josh Robinson against Kentucky where all he needed was one carry against them to get 200 and Dan pretty much showed him up on TV. Would that one more carry have really hurt anything? I think the players would have thought t was awesome. And if you're worried about showing up the other coach, just tell Josh to get the yard or whatever he needed and then go down. Just a theory that I'm sure some on here won't like.
And the other reason I think the emotion goes back to Dan is the overly conservative game plans that we continue to see every time we play a big opponent. I actually think that this was a little bit better against Alabama and Ole Miss- but at the same time the conservativeness would rear it's ugly head and we would see Dak up the middle for three on third and seven.
But as far as the Dak causing a rift on the team theory- I don't think that was the case at all. In fact, I think it was probably the polar OPPOSITE. I think they wanted to see Dak do so well, I think it caused the team to play really tight at times. And when you play tight in football, that usually leads to sloppiness and maybe even lack of emotion. When the team is loose, they play fine. I don't think our coaches really handled Dak well in that regard- in terms of getting the team loose and ready to play and embrace the moment rather that look at the entire situation and embrace it.
Also, I think being physical kind of goes back to this as well because I think that sort of manifests itself in the trenches on both sides. And the o-line was very weak and not very nasty and physical. And I think that permeates throughout the team- look at the impact Dillon Day had on last years team in that regard.
I definitely saw a team last year that had too many guys waiting on someone else to make a play. But again- personnel. If the guys on the field are waiting on someone else to do something, I would think as a coach it would maybe make you want to try someone else to see if they can make a play. Doing that- you might actually FIND someone that can make plays. And that may very well be someone that is a freshman like Malik Dear or someone.
But it seems like Dan is too scared to give our younger players a chance. Yes, keeping them on the bench prevents them from failing, but it also prevents them from showing what they can do as well.
Sucks, but I just won't go to the Quarter for about a week.
We'll make it one day- that's one reason why I want an 8 team playoff. I think that and even the four game playoff as you have seen- means that it's more likely that we will go the Sugar Bowl. Probably have to go around 9-3 to do it, which is doable for us in good seasons. In fact if the current postseason rules had been in effect in 1998 or 1999, one of those MSU teams possibly would have gone.