Serious Question: Is MSU Committed Enough to Win a Natty in Football?

[ShotgunDawg]

Just thinking this morning about Mullen and our potential to keep him for the long term and I?m wondering if collectively MSU and the fan base is committed enough to win a national championship and I?m not talking about willingness to pay a big salary. That?s not the commitment I?m talking about.

The BYU crowd and students abandoning DWS was an eye opener for me and possibly insinuates that while MSU fans and students like football, I’m not sure they live and breath it?

How important is football to our fans?

More important than hunting?

More important than the beach?

Important enough to not schedule weddings or baseball scrimmages on Gameday?

This is the ground zero question that determines if this program has the potential to take the next step from competitive to a contender.

[Quaoarsking]

We could've done it on 2014 if Dak threw 2 interceptions in the red zone against Alabama instead of 3

[Dawgfan77]

Since 2012 we have invested over 100 million just in football. We now pay assistant coaches. So I would say yeah we are committed.
In 18 we will have the most experienced along with the most talent maybe in the history of msu football.

[ShotgunDawg]

Since 2012 we have invested over 100 million just in football. We now pay assistant coaches. So I would say yeah we are committed.
In 18 we will have the most experienced along with the most talent maybe in the history of msu football.

Not talking about money.

Talking about emotional commitment.

Does our fan base care enough?

[IMissJack]

MSU is at a disadvantage in my opinion because a lot of alumni money is needed just to run the school, due to the State of MS underfunding. Therefore, money that would be available for athletics is needed elsewhere. That being said, I'm not one of those that believe we have to be a top 15 revenue school to win. Does anyone believe the University of TX gets a ROI in football like we do per win? With a program as historically bad as ours has been, it takes decades to get to the top consistently. In my opinion one of the major hurdles for us is the lack of local/regional media coverage. We need better PR nationally to help our coaches get those missing pieces they can't always find in MS.

ETA- Regarding emotionally invested- I think this is a slow process that our fans, as a whole, are starting to buy. The older mentality of "it is as good as we can expect", "we can't", etc. are starting to be forgotten. Keep in mind Jackie was hired 27 years ago, which for most of our fans that are living, was the best of times up until now. So, the longer we can sustain a consistent winning team, those expectations will be built in to the fan base.

[Bully13]

Shitty thread. Real shitty.

[Liverpooldawg]

Just thinking this morning about Mullen and our potential to keep him for the long term and I?m wondering if collectively MSU and the fan base is committed enough to win a national championship and I?m not talking about willingness to pay a big salary. That?s not the commitment I?m talking about.

The BYU crowd and students abandoning DWS was an eye opener for me and possibly insinuates that while MSU fans and students like football, I’m not sure they live and breath it?

How important is football to our fans?

More important than hunting?

More important than the beach?

Important enough to not schedule weddings or baseball scrimmages on Gameday?

This is the ground zero question that determines if this program has the potential to take the next step from competitive to a contender.

Simple answer. Yes. We were dang close in 2014. We were also pretty close in 99. Everybody has problems with students leaving crap games. They stay for the big ones.

[Dawgtini]

+1 Shotgun needs a side hustle #toomuchtimeonhishands

[IMissJack]

Simple answer. Yes. We were dang close in 2014. We were also pretty close in 99. Everybody has problems with students leaving crap games. They stay for the big ones.

This is true. Almost every "non elite" matchup has empty seats. The networks tend to not show overhead shots of the stadiums, so people don't see how many seats are empty. Granted the aTm game was technically a sellout, there were probably 15K not there. Now that still leaves almost 90K there, but the tops of the endzone were about half full, and many of the luxury boxes were basically empty.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Is MSU committed? You would really have to ask the administration, staff, and players? Now it seems you are really asking if we, the fans, are committed. I'm a grown-ass man with a family and responsibilities. I love the bulldogs, but I don't let our pursuit of a national championship affect me. Is bulldog football more important than hunting, beaches, weddings, etc. as you mentioned? I guess it depends on who I'm doing it with and how it affects me. 22 kids playing ball is not what defines me as a man, so I guess the answer is that I'm not committed enough.

[BrunswickDawg]

I don't think I would take BYU - or UMASS this weekend - as an indicator. Students leave those type games all over the county, all the time. Even at Bama. Hell, UGA reduced the size of the student section by 5,000 tickets a few years ago.

I look more at the game time attendance. I'd be more concerned at the empty seats at the beginning of the game. I don't think we do a good enough job selling returned visitor allotments and wait until game week most times to start pumping cheap tickets for those games - and we probably contract too many tickets for long distance teams (like BYU and UMASS) or teams that do not travel well (Kentucky).

I think it there is still a slight hangover effect in our fanbase for OOC games because for so many years they were a shitty game that we stood just as good of a chance as losing as winning, and who wants to be in stands when we lose to Maine. I can remember many a game against Memphis or Troy in the 90s when the stands were only 3/4 full. Winning has taken care of a lot of that, but we still aren't quite there yet.

Hunting has always been a piss poor excuse - especially now that so many games are at night.

Weddings you will never control as long as women (in particular the Mother of the Bride) are the main planners. And if college football is not an important thing in the bride's family you are screwed.

[DawgPoundtheRock]

Shitty thread. Real shitty.

^^This^^

[Activated Alpha]

Question is......are you committed?

[Todd4State]

I think the fanbase has the potential to be a National Championship program one day but we have too many people that have the attitude or we can't or won't because of our history and it takes winning at a high level consistently to change that.

[Leroy Jenkins]

“The question is not how far. The question is do you posess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?” -Il Duce

[mstatefan91]

I feel like this thread gets made every single year around this time... must be cause Bama is coming up on the schedule.

[Bully13]

Old man Can't is dead. We've buried him.

[WinningIsRelentless]

I don't think I would take BYU - or UMASS this weekend - as an indicator. Students leave those type games all over the county, all the time. Even at Bama. Hell, UGA reduced the size of the student section by 5,000 tickets a few years ago.

I look more at the game time attendance. I'd be more concerned at the empty seats at the beginning of the game. I don't think we do a good enough job selling returned visitor allotments and wait until game week most times to start pumping cheap tickets for those games - and we probably contract too many tickets for long distance teams (like BYU and UMASS) or teams that do not travel well (Kentucky).

I think it there is still a slight hangover effect in our fanbase for OOC games because for so many years they were a shitty game that we stood just as good of a chance as losing as winning, and who wants to be in stands when we lose to Maine. I can remember many a game against Memphis or Troy in the 90s when the stands were only 3/4 full. Winning has taken care of a lot of that, but we still aren't quite there yet.

Hunting has always been a piss poor excuse - especially now that so many games are at night.

Weddings you will never control as long as women (in particular the Mother of the Bride) are the main planners. And if college football is not an important thing in the bride's family you are screwed.

The biggest issue we face here is the cost of attending games now for younger families. For a family of 4 its no less than $500 to attend any game on a Saturday.

[Duckdog]

So if you don't live and breathe MSU you aren't a fan? Come on dude

[Liverpooldawg]

The biggest issue we face here is the cost of attending games now for younger families. For a family of 4 its no less than $500 to attend any game on a Saturday.

This weekend a family of 4 could go for less than a hundred bucks depending on how much gas they have to buy.