Quote Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg View Post
There is one other way that we can continue to build toward a more regular occurrence of us being a 9-11 win team (yes I'm going up a notch) - a continued, and long running ineptitude by the 2 other D1 programs in Mississippi. Southern Miss is a complete afterthought now because of CUSA and their facilities. They have dropped from a respectable program to a stepping stone in a very short timeframe. That has helped our in-state recruiting depth. If Ole Miss gets hit hard, makes a Croomtastic hire, and wanders in the woods for the next 5-10 years, it could set us up to close the recruiting gap some. If the Network is neutered and is no longer buying out top talent, those 3-4 players a year could make a huge difference. We may already be seeing that in our next 2 recruiting classes. This year we are dominating the top in-state talent, next year looks good. String together 5-6 straight years of that and it could change the face of our program.
Great point about Ole Miss and USM. USM's glory days were in the early 1980's when they were an independent along with people like Florida State, Notre Dame, Penn State and etc. Playing them and beating a couple of pretty good USM teams was smart on our part- we demonstrated to recruits the difference between the two of us.

We have a chance to take a huge step forward with Ole Miss likely going on probation no matter how well they handle it. Between Dak and hopefully stringing together 5-6 really good seasons it could change the perception of MSU football for awhile.