Oh I agree thats why I said right or wrong. But you have to think about what a difference some of those players would have made for us.
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Not much we can do in our current state to produce a program any better than that.
Like I've said many times, we need serious population growth in MS. We need more fans. We need more money. We need whatever the secret sauce is that makes your program most attractive to good football players. We've done it in baseball. The only thing I can think of is that it takes a much bigger commitment to succeed in football.
I bet if you asked MSU fans in 2003 if they thought that MSU could ever become a consistent 8 win team a lot of State fans at that time would have said no and would have been happy to be a 6-7 win team consistently. But here we are pretty much an 8 win program. So, it seems to me I do think it's possible and I think the next logical thing for us to do is become a consistent 8-10 win team. That's the next step for us. Whether we get there or not- I don't know but I think we definitely should try to do everything we can do to get there.
So, how do we do that? I think we have to make recruiting a high priority and make sure that every position is covered. I'll be honest here's what frustrates me right now with Dan- AND NO I DO NOT THINK DAN SHOULD BE FIRED SO NO ONE GO THERE- right now we're basically to me about 2-3 WR's away from maybe being a 5-1 or even 6-0 team. And yes- certainly we could be 4-2 anyway. But there is no question in my mind that if we had filled that one position group we would have at the very least not have been blown out in those two losses. That tells me that we're pretty close from a personnel standpoint. And that's also very encouraging to me. And yes- absolutely if our o-line recruiting was better we would do better in big games as well.
I look at us sort of like the Oakland A's in Moneyball. We can compete and I think we can get to that 10 win level- but we have to do it differently. We have to be on point in recruiting and can't have obvious blunders like no receivers taller than 5'10" for two or three cycles or signing one high school o-lineman in a class. We also have to be on point or ahead of the curve in strength and conditioning as well because it's going to be more difficult for us to build the depth that the bluebloods can. I think we can get a starting group that can compete with them though. I think Dan and Chris Boniol give us an advantage because Dan is an elite QB coach and Boniol is a NFL caliber kicking coach. Those help us level the playing field. We have to also continue to schedule wisely like we are for the most part.
I think being content is kind of a dangerous thing. I think Polk became content- and then things fell apart gradually. That's what usually happens when you become content. I think you should always look for room to improve in whatever you do in life. If we ever win a championship in football, the next thing to do is win another one the next year. It never ends and that's kind of the fun part and challenge for me is that building process or to take on whatever the next challenge is.
I get the impression from reading his stuff on Twitter that he's kind of like- if you don't appreciate what's going on now your never going to be happy. But I think he's also assuming that he's right that it's never going to get any better than 8 wins so why try? I think that's a pretty bad attitude to have.
I don't think it's wrong to want to do better or strive to do better. I don't think it's wrong to be critical of things- that doesn't mean you are unhappy with MSU football or hate Dan or anything like that. It may mean you just want Dan to recruit bigger WR's. That seems pretty realistic, reasonable, and correctable to me. A lot of times being critical just means you are looking to make yourself even better so that you can eventually reach whatever your ceiling is.
I also get the impression that he's making it into if you aren't happy now, then you must want Dan fired. Just because one guy on Twitter thinks Dan should be gone it's not reflective of the entire fan base. Someone did a poll on Twitter about whether they think that Dan should be fired and 96% of the people that responded said no. Our fans can want things to get better and at the same time support Dan and not want to blow the entire thing up.
That's idiotic. We can win 9-10 a year. It's not likely, but definitely doable. We'd be there already if we had been spending $25k a year more on illegal benefits.
If he's saying that we should be appreciative of being an 8 win a year program, he's right.
True- but to Dan's credit he has changed a LOT of things too.
Better DC.
Better Special teams coach.
Has been better about not blindly playing upperclassmen over more talented underclassmen.
Has improved recruiting by hiring analysts and dumping Sallach his ex-college roommate and may or may not have even had a come to Jesus meeting with Hevesy about recruiting.
Hasn't been openly looking for a job at the end of the year since 2015.
And the few things that aren't fixed right now appear to have solutions on the way by the 2018 season if not sooner- it looks like Couch is going to be playing more the second half of the year.
I disagree. I think we would be there if we had recruited a couple of taller WR's and developed them with what we already have on the team.
Cheating is out of the question because it's too risky for us.
We're pretty close- this group absolutely kicked a good LSU team's ass. The raw potential is there.
Doesn't sound like a solution to me. Sounds like mere survival. I mean yeah, we can't create gaping holes like we have done lately. Depth is key for a developmental program. Duh.
I'm looking for places for us to gain an advantage. JUCOs. A very deep OL corp to compliment a run-based spread offense. A guy hired simply to analyze the clock. A strategic plan for recruiting, maybe based on geography. Branding. Etc.
Todd I do like the emphasis on S&C. Just not sure we can pull it off any better than anyone else.
I look at us right now and I see a probably 8 win team- losses to A&M and Bama probably with what we are currently. We're talking about going from 8 to 9-10 so my hope is that by patching that group up and doing what we are at the other position groups it will help put us over the top and allow us to be more balanced. Improving the WR will allow us to be able to throw the ball more and cause defenses to back out guys in the box which will allow us to run the ball more easily. A better offense will allow the defense to be better and also more aggressive- which helps them too. I guess that's why I don't understand the can't get to 9-10 win people- we're practically at 8 wins now with a glaring deficiency at WR. If we just fix that we should be able to make a jump.
Any advantage we can get is great- but the main thing is we have to patch up the holes in our current recruiting first which I think will take care of most everything else. JUCO's are getting harder to recruit- it keeps getting more and more difficult to get them eligible and Dan wants them in by January.
I think Dan has the right idea of focusing on Mississippi high school talent and building around that. Especially with 10 four star guys in 2019. That and Ole Miss being on probation will help us out a lot. And my hope is that Ole Miss's probation affects them for at least five years. That will allow Dan time to get that much better in recruiting and a good head start on them and hopefully will allow us to clean up the state. Dan's reputation as a QB guru is a place that gives us an advantage- we have two four star QB's recruited for the next two classes. And Boniol is a kicking guru- and it's helped us land an UA AA kicker and an Army AA punter. I'd go into Louisiana to fill out the rest of the gaps. Lots of population and only one SEC school. We can beat out any of the directional Louisiana schools for talent there and we aren't too terribly far from home. Dak also being from Louisiana helps as well.
I agree. ...within the current landscape of college football.
I don't have to be content. The goal each year should a SEC championship. However every State fan should be happy with the job Mullen has done.
If you aren't happy being where we are today, then look back at where we have come from. Much less, the last 5 years of us having to recruit against liars, bribery, $$$$$$/money bags, prostutes, cars, boosters, etc. Psst. Those recruits are still receiving their benefits monthly.
Be happy with what we have for in December it all changes with the 2018 class. Recruited legally and built with MSU PRIDE!!!! The right way... One player at a time. #HAILSTATE.