Mullen:

[Taog Redloh]

If not this year, then when?

Dak, two draft picks at Wr, at least two draft picks on the DL, two LBs that will at least get a cup of coffee in the NFL, and a corner that will get drafted.

Going at best 5-3 in a year where you get to play the two worst teams from the East, and have Dak as your QB is depressing. It's basically telling me that this is our ceiling, a top 15-20 team.

Also, next year will be a rebuilding year.

Truth hurts.

[Dawg61]

I have, over about 40 years. It's the same old same old. Why not try something different? What we have always done has never worked.

Did you watch our offensive line? What about our RBs? Bama sacked us NINE TIMES. We ran Brandon Holloway up the middle for nothing fifteen times. It's year 7 dude. Those are some glaring weaknesses. If Dan was a golfer his offensive line play would be equivalent to him duck hooking every tee shot out of bounds. Do that on the PGA Tour and you're gone real quick. Get sacked nine times and don't fix it and you're gone as a SEC coach. It's that simple. Fix the OL. Fix the RBs. Or be gone.

[Todd4State]

Actually old MSU is getting pissed and start bashing the coach and therefore making his job impossible. Then we fire him. THAT my friend has been MSU in my lifetime. We have never had a coach leave for a better job. We are our own worst enemy. This board is LOADED with old MSU every time we lose. Not so much when we win. I've heard you in every regime we have had since I have been alive. It's time for a change.

So, it's our fault that Croom and Felker couldn't get a better job? Jackie and Emory were near the end anyway.

[Todd4State]

Did you watch our offensive line? What about our RBs? Bama sacked us NINE TIMES. We ran Brandon Holloway up the middle for nothing fifteen times. It's year 7 dude. Those are some glaring weaknesses. If Dan was a golfer his offensive line play would be equivalent to him duck hooking every tee shot out of bounds. Do that on the PGA Tour and you're gone real quick. Get sacked nine times and don't fix it and you're gone as a SEC coach. It's that simple. Fix the OL. Fix the RBs. Or be gone.

Or at the very least the o-line coach.

[Todd4State]

I have, over about 40 years. It's the same old same old. Why not try something different? What we have always done has never worked.

We also weren't paying our coaches 4 million 40 years ago. Expectations increase because of that alone.

[Todd4State]

This is with his first recruiting classes....2017 will be the team that gets us to the sec lchampionship or Dan will have run his course

These players were recruited after our Gator Bowl season.

[Boya]

These players were recruited after our Gator Bowl season.

That was the spring board that got us to last years team And last years team is the spring board that will logically get us to the next level. As much as we like to ignore our past as a program....There are no quick fixes...only the long game and 2017 will be the culmination of what Mullen can do as coach and leader of the football program

[djaymsu5]

When we get in the red zone you can't immediately start getting dumbass penalties. Seems we did that every time tonight and in the game last season.

I agree on the penalties but the first time we got down there and went for it on 4th down. If Dak hands that ball off to the receiver in motion he walks in for 6. Everybody in their mother knew Dak was running it. That's two years in a row that we have done that against them.

[ShotgunDawg]

It's basically telling me that this is our ceiling, a top 15-20 team.

Last year we finished 11th & the year of the first Gator Bowl, we finished 12th. So that's are ceiling right now.

That is our ceiling for now, but it depends on how you look at it. If we were in the Big 12 or ACC, our ceiling would be higher.

Mullen has gotten us consistent enough to where being a top 15-20 should absolutely be the expectation, but the only way we will have a chance of raising our ceiling will be to recruit better. Alabama has 18 5 star players on the roster. That's more than A&M & Georgia combined.

So, how do we recruit better?

1. We could cheat like Ole Miss

2. We can continue to win & gradually rise up the recruiting rankings. This will take time, but this is what we are doing right now. At some point, we MUST expand our recruiting base into other parts of the country. Our 5 hour radius simply will never produce enough talent to compete with Bama. We can beat everyone else, but Bama is a different animal & you must have elite players to beat them.

We must improve our recruiting if we are to raise our ceiling. How do we do that? It's not about sweet talking. Can Howland provide Mullen some insight? Can we identify 2 elite players a year to target?

[sleepy dawg]

The only problem is we haven't really made a step forward. Agree 9-3 isn't bad.

9-3 isn't bad? We play in the toughest division in football. 9-3 is damn good. If we went 11-1, would we at least make it to "pretty good"?

[Todd4State]

9-3 isn't bad? We play in the toughest division in football. 9-3 is damn good. If we went 11-1, would we at least make it to "pretty good"?

11-1 would be a step forward for our program- one we failed to make this year.

It's not just about wins- it's also about who you beat as well and how you go about doing it. The real "old MSU"- not the one in Liverpool's dreams- would also schedule West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, etc. We basically have five wins plugged in with the way we have scheduled + Kentucky since Greg Byrne arrived minus the Scott Stricklin Oklahoma State fiasco. Our schedule is teed up for Dan to have success relative to our history.

That said, we lost to LSU because Dan mismanaged the game at the end. We lost Texas A&M and Alabama because we were not physical enough and were outmanned on the o-line yet we are SEC caliber at pretty much every other position group exept maybe safety- and even there we have some outstanding young talent. The good news is those are things that are correctable for us.

So yes, we could go 9-3 and have it argued that we underachieved.

[sleepy dawg]

11-1 would be a step forward for our program- one we failed to make this year.

It's not just about wins- it's also about who you beat as well and how you go about doing it. The real "old MSU"- not the one in Liverpool's dreams- would also schedule West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, etc. We basically have five wins plugged in with the way we have scheduled + Kentucky since Greg Byrne arrived minus the Scott Stricklin Oklahoma State fiasco. Our schedule is teed up for Dan to have success relative to our history.

That said, we lost to LSU because Dan mismanaged the game at the end. We lost Texas A&M and Alabama because we were not physical enough and were outmanned on the o-line yet we are SEC caliber at pretty much every other position group exept maybe safety- and even there we have some outstanding young talent. The good news is those are things that are correctable for us.

So yes, we could go 9-3 and have it argued that we underachieved.

I pretty much agree to most of that, but you could also argue that 9-3 in the SEC West is a really good season, and better than almost all other 9-3 seasons out there.

Alabama fans probably think that anything less than a NC is an underachievement, but that doesn't mean that season can't still be a good one and one to be happy about.

[QuadrupleOption]

11-1 would be a step forward for our program- one we failed to make this year.

It's not just about wins- it's also about who you beat as well and how you go about doing it. The real "old MSU"- not the one in Liverpool's dreams- would also schedule West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, etc. We basically have five wins plugged in with the way we have scheduled + Kentucky since Greg Byrne arrived minus the Scott Stricklin Oklahoma State fiasco. Our schedule is teed up for Dan to have success relative to our history.

That said, we lost to LSU because Dan mismanaged the game at the end. We lost Texas A&M and Alabama because we were not physical enough and were outmanned on the o-line yet we are SEC caliber at pretty much every other position group exept maybe safety- and even there we have some outstanding young talent. The good news is those are things that are correctable for us.

So yes, we could go 9-3 and have it argued that we underachieved.

Todd, if we go 9-3 how in the Hell have we underachieved anything this year? Did you honestly expect us to go undefeated and win the national championship?

[Todd4State]

Todd, if we go 9-3 how in the Hell have we underachieved anything this year? Did you honestly expect us to go undefeated and win the national championship?

My expectations were/are 10 wins with this team. Read my above post again on how we can underachieve with 9 wins. We have a Heisman contender caliber QB and we actually outgained Alabama on offense- and have 6 points to show for it.

[Todd4State]

I pretty much agree to most of that, but you could also argue that 9-3 in the SEC West is a really good season, and better than almost all other 9-3 seasons out there.

Alabama fans probably think that anything less than a NC is an underachievement, but that doesn't mean that season can't still be a good one and one to be happy about.

I think it's possible to underachieve and have a "good" season. This team should they go 9-3 really won't have a "special" win for the year aside from the Egg Bowl assuming they do indeed win that. We had a chance to be "special" and we blew it against LSU and today against Bama.

[Blackout]

11-1 would be a step forward for our program- one we failed to make this year.

It's not just about wins- it's also about who you beat as well and how you go about doing it. The real "old MSU"- not the one in Liverpool's dreams- would also schedule West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, etc. We basically have five wins plugged in with the way we have scheduled + Kentucky since Greg Byrne arrived minus the Scott Stricklin Oklahoma State fiasco. Our schedule is teed up for Dan to have success relative to our history.

That said, we lost to LSU because Dan mismanaged the game at the end. We lost Texas A&M and Alabama because we were not physical enough and were outmanned on the o-line yet we are SEC caliber at pretty much every other position group exept maybe safety- and even there we have some outstanding young talent. The good news is those are things that are correctable for us.

So yes, we could go 9-3 and have it argued that we underachieved.

This is so spot on. There is one team that we physically can't compete against. Look at the other losses and the blame gets shifted directly to Dan. It's not about records, it's not about history, it's about did you maximize this teams potential and I say hell no.

11-1 with the one being Alabama gets us in the playoffs. Our best win is Southern Miss. This is 2012.

[Barking 13]

11-1 would be a step forward for our program- one we failed to make this year.

It's not just about wins- it's also about who you beat as well and how you go about doing it. The real "old MSU"- not the one in Liverpool's dreams- would also schedule West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Houston, etc. We basically have five wins plugged in with the way we have scheduled + Kentucky since Greg Byrne arrived minus the Scott Stricklin Oklahoma State fiasco. Our schedule is teed up for Dan to have success relative to our history.

That said, we lost to LSU because Dan mismanaged the game at the end. We lost Texas A&M and Alabama because we were not physical enough and were outmanned on the o-line yet we are SEC caliber at pretty much every other position group exept maybe safety- and even there we have some outstanding young talent. The good news is those are things that are correctable for us.

So yes, we could go 9-3 and have it argued that we underachieved.

This is by far the most rational thing you have posted all year... 4 missed tackles... look at it again.. 4 missed tackles = 28 points! Our 2nd or 3rd rate OL was going up against a DL that has 14 NFL players in the rotation. Their secondary played lights out and PI'ed like crazy and got away with it. Yes, we are a good team, but we are limited and the elite teams exploit your weaknesses. Now we have to win the next three.