Is Mullen/MSU football taking another step?

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

Really liked us stepping up and hiring a known commodity at D.C.

I am more exciting about this than anything. ^^^

[Ari Gold]

There is no question the CDM has put more emphasis on recruiting. The off the field coaches / recruiters hired, the defensive hires .
Still have the CC boys as some call them that can be a hamstring ( one in particular) but CDM has made moves to improve areas. It will pay off..

[ShotgunDawg]

My biggest concern about what Mullen has built is whether or not it's all tied to Mullen or if it an sustain Mullen leaving?

If & when Mullen leaves, if the program can sustain & continue to build under the next coach, I'll feel much better.

[fader2103]

If you look at former OLine players... They are always posting pictures of them and Hev. together...Never really see them post pics of them and Dan. Not a shot at Dan by any means...I just believe Hev and Dan are just alike. They might come across as a$$holes when you first meet them, but they want nothing but the best for their players. Tebow said he almost never went to Florida because of Dan, but now he considers him one of his best friends.

[MetEdDawg]

I don't think we can determine that yet. I need to see 2 things:

1) How this season plays out
2) How this recruiting class plays out

We need an 8-4 season for me to say we've taken a next step. Additionally, we probably need a Top 20 recruiting class on top of that to push us over that next hump. 7-5 and a class in the Top 30 would not be a step forward. We have to win 8 and we have to be able to keep our big commits and get some more in order to parlay that into a step forward in my view.

But I think we are in the spot to be able to take that next step. I think most of us for a while have looked to the 2018 year as THE year. Senior QB, experienced OL, lot of juniors and seniors on defense, good stable of RBs. So if we can make it 8 wins this year, we could really turn that into success for 2018.

[Jack Lambert]

I think winning National Championships and Bowl Games are great for players but let's be honest most of them have the ultimate goal of reaching the NFL and Mullen has gotten the representation of being able to get kids in specifically QB's. I also think Saban is getting a bad rep for burning out players. He gets them to the NFL but considering the number he gets there they don't do much. They are burned out. Out of the last four running backs he has put in the NFL how many 1000 yard season has there been. I am not sure but maybe Ingram has one. I could be very wrong about that. I think parents are starting to recognize it and other coaches are going to use it against him.

But the biggest recruiting tool we have now is DAk. Everyone one knows who Dak is and where he came from and who coach him and I mean everyone.

[RiverCityDawg]

we have never been able to run the ball against an upper tier SEC defense...

No one does. That's what makes them upper tier.

[TrapGame]

We are on the verge of becoming the LSU of Mississippi. It's coming.

The Golden Age of Mississippi State football has yet to happen.

[Cooterpoot]

It's a great pickup. But we still only have 2 4star commits (247 composite) and the class is #24 right now. Still got a lot of work to do.

[ShotgunDawg]

It's a great pickup. But we still only have 2 4star commits (247 composite) and the class is #24 right now. Still got a lot of work to do.

Your going to be disappointed this year. We don't have enough scholarships to rank high.

Until we start losing tons of JRs to the draft like Bama and LSU and thus have the scholarships to sign full classes every year, we are simply never going to have high ranking recruiting classes.

This class will rank in the late 20s or 30s but be stock full of great players.

[Cooterpoot]

Your going to be disappointed this year. We don't have enough scholarships to rank high.

Until we start losing tons of JRs to the draft like Bama and LSU and thus have the scholarships to sign full classes every year, we are simply never going to have high ranking recruiting classes.

This class will rank in the late 20s or 30s but be stock full of great players.

Which is another recruiting issue that Mullen is going to have to fix. We rarely sign the limit and are always short scholarship players, yet we have no scholarships to give...............

[Jack Lambert]

It's a great pickup. But we still only have 2 4star commits (247 composite) and the class is #24 right now. Still got a lot of work to do.

Alabama only has two and Georgia has zero.

[War Machine Dawg]

Guys this Mayden pick up is big time. Dan Mullen, whose biggest criticism is recruitung, just snagged the top QB in Texas after getting the Louisiana player of the year QB last year. We also have Malik Heath on board and a good shot with Guidry and others.

If the recruiting continues to progress as it has lately, we could be witnessing a Frank Beamer Virginia Tech type step like we've hoped for, where starting in 2018-2020 we may be a perennial 9+ win team and potentially jump a few teams in the SEC. By holding on to Dan, we now have a top coach in this league, and the timing is good with the troubles in Oxford, to get the best in the State the next several years.

I'm not going to get too excited yet, but I really like the trend, and feel like we could be witnessing the beginning of another step up the ladder for our football program.

Your thoughts?

I can't in good conscience say yes until we start improving our recruiting on the OL. Unless we're getting some SEC caliber big uglies to protect all these badass QBs, we're going to be replaying the Kevin Fant years where the QB is running for his life all the time. If we start pulling some legit 3 star OL, then I think we can entertain the question of whether or not we're taking another step. Skill players are flashy and sexy, but this is a LOS league. And our LOS on offense is bottom half at best.

[Dawg61]

And our LOS on offense is bottom half at best.

You say this despite literally every single offensive category disagreeing with your assessment. Y'all that want us to recruit better at OL just keep brushing off the fact that there is no difference between 3* and 4* offensive lineman in terms of becoming NFL talents. You have to sign elite 5* top ten in the country OL types if you want the closest thing to a guaranteed NFL OL and we are never ever ever going to sign those players. Some of y'all keep chasing stars for OL and it's pointless. You are attracted to recruiting stars period. It gives us no more advantage to sign a 4* OL with offers from Auburn, Florida and Georgia than it does signing a 3* OL with offers from TCU, NCState and Colorado. Yet after reading this you will once again completely ignore it and call for Hevesy to be fired another 2,000 times.

[TrapGame]

You say this despite literally every single offensive category disagreeing with your assessment. Y'all that want us to recruit better at OL just keep brushing off the fact that there is no difference between 3* and 4* offensive lineman in terms of becoming NFL talents. You have to sign elite 5* top ten in the country OL types if you want the closest thing to a guaranteed NFL OL and we are never ever ever going to sign those players. Some of y'all keep chasing stars for OL and it's pointless. You are attracted to recruiting stars period. It gives us no more advantage to sign a 4* OL with offers from Auburn, Florida and Georgia than it does signing a 3* OL with offers from TCU, NCState and Colorado. Yet after reading this you will once again completely ignore it and call for Hevesy to be fired another 2,000 times.

The Hev Haters be like:

[Ifyouonlyknew]

If we start pulling some legit 3 star OL, then I think we can entertain the question of whether or not we're taking another step.

I totally agree but Hev has started doing that more in the last few classes but he has to continue to improve & do it with a whole class.

2015 - M. Rankin 5 SEC Offers 10 Power 5 Offers
D. Williams 3 SEC Offers 5 Power 5 Offers
H. Moon 1 SEC Offer 2 Power 5 Offers
M. Story 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2016 - S. Reese 9 SEC Offers 25 Power 5 Offers
G. Eiland 4 SEC Offers 4 Power 5 Offers
D. Parker 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2017 - T. Champion 3 SEC Offers 5 Power 5 Offers
T. Phillips 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer
C. Suggs 3 SEC Offers 16 Power 5 Offers
J. Cooper 1 SEC Offer 2 Power 5 Offers
M. Richardson 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2018 - K. Johnson 2 SEC Offers 2 Power 5 Offers

So we've slowly improved but we need a class of Reese, Suggs, Johnson, & Williams all together & people would start to not hate Hev as much.

[War Machine Dawg]

You say this despite literally every single offensive category disagreeing with your assessment. Y'all that want us to recruit better at OL just keep brushing off the fact that there is no difference between 3* and 4* offensive lineman in terms of becoming NFL talents. You have to sign elite 5* top ten in the country OL types if you want the closest thing to a guaranteed NFL OL and we are never ever ever going to sign those players. Some of y'all keep chasing stars for OL and it's pointless. You are attracted to recruiting stars period. It gives us no more advantage to sign a 4* OL with offers from Auburn, Florida and Georgia than it does signing a 3* OL with offers from TCU, NCState and Colorado. Yet after reading this you will once again completely ignore it and call for Hevesy to be fired another 2,000 times.

And you're totally ignoring the fact we've been signing a bunch of 1 and 2 star OL. I don't give a damn if Paul is getting their ratings bumped at 247 because he's got one of the biggest sites. It doesn't change that we've been recruiting OL who are not SEC caliber. There's a reason we aren't even competitive against the top 2-3 teams in the SEC and it's always the OL. As for our offensive categories, get back to me when we get into the Top 25 nationally. We've been a very average offense in the age of offensive explosion. Good enough to win 8 or so games but not good enough to make any real noise or win a championship. We only average about 24.5 PPG in SEC play in the Mullen era. That's decent but nothing special.

I totally agree but Hev has started doing that more in the last few classes but he has to continue to improve & do it with a whole class.

2015 - M. Rankin 5 SEC Offers 10 Power 5 Offers
D. Williams 3 SEC Offers 5 Power 5 Offers
H. Moon 1 SEC Offer 2 Power 5 Offers
M. Story 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2016 - S. Reese 9 SEC Offers 25 Power 5 Offers
G. Eiland 4 SEC Offers 4 Power 5 Offers
D. Parker 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2017 - T. Champion 3 SEC Offers 5 Power 5 Offers
T. Phillips 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer
C. Suggs 3 SEC Offers 16 Power 5 Offers
J. Cooper 1 SEC Offer 2 Power 5 Offers
M. Richardson 1 SEC Offer 1 Power 5 Offer

2018 - K. Johnson 2 SEC Offers 2 Power 5 Offers

So we've slowly improved but we need a class of Reese, Suggs, Johnson, & Williams all together & people would start to not hate Hev as much.

And this is an example of a useful and encouraging post. Hopefully we'll see the trend continue. But it's also a major concern we only sign 2-3 OL in a class. We should be signing a minimum of 5 every single year. If you only sign 2-3 every one of them have to pan out. If they don't, you wind up with serious depth issues. That's where we are now. But this thread has gotten way off track. My point was simple: We aren't taking a step forward as a program until we start getting better OL players. That isn't just on Hev, it's on the whole staff.

[Dawg61]

Good enough to win 8 or so games but not good enough to make any real noise or win a championship.

We didn't suddenly become Alabama or Ohio State because we were ranked #1 for 6 weeks. We are still Mississippi State University but your expectations changed and got way out if front of the steady progress that Dan has been making. It's like you went on a date with Kate Upton and now you expect her to be married to you and have 4 of your kids already.

Btw "good enough to win 8 or so games" on average is something C34 said was IMPOSSIBLE for any coach to ever accomplish at MSU yet the one literally doing the impossible is the one you're bitching about non-stop.

[BrunswickDawg]

It's like you went on a date with Kate Upton and now you expect her to be married to you and have 4 of your kids already.

The last thing I would be thinking of after a date with Kate Upton would be kids and marriage -

[War Machine Dawg]

We didn't suddenly become Alabama or Ohio State because we were ranked #1 for 6 weeks. We are still Mississippi State University but your expectations changed and got way out if front of the steady progress that Dan has been making. It's like you went on a date with Kate Upton and now you expect her to be married to you and have 4 of your kids already.

Btw "good enough to win 8 or so games" on average is something C34 said was IMPOSSIBLE for any coach to ever accomplish at MSU yet the one literally doing the impossible is the one you're bitching about non-stop.

Don't put words in my mouth. Winning 8 games a year is a huge improvement. No one is talking about consistently competing for a national championship at State in football. But I don't think it's wrong to want to at least have a legitimate shot of making it to Atlanta once every 5-8 years, either. I'm not bitching about Mullen, I'm bitching about the lazy recruiting practices across the entire staff. Mullen seems to be taking a few steps to rectify that, but the biggest culprits are on his side of the football and we haven't seen any serious staff changes over there. We're still bringing a popgun to a full on firefight.