Quote Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg View Post
'98 we were 8-3 regular season - hammered early by OSU in Stillwater, hammered by LSU in Red Stick, then a WTF loss at Kentucky with us coming off a bye after LSU. Actually, all 3 were WTF losses - OSU ended 5-6, LSU 4-7, and KY 7-5. At least last year our 3 losses were to very good teams (I refuse to count the Egg in this discussion). If we come into T-Town 9-0 next year we will have run a gaunlet - @KY, UF, AU, @LSU, A&M, then rested up with LA Tech. Bama will be coming off a Saturday Night in Baton Rouge. All the pieces are there, and it could be a #1 v #2 match up - again. I think we take 'em.
Kentucky was pretty good that year and that was a road game for us. I'm pretty sure they went to a bowl. LSU we didn't look ready at all. OSU was the game where Wyatt played really poorly and was essentially benched for Madkin permanently other than relief roles.

1998 was a loaded team- I wasn't too surprised that we won the West that year other I was surprised at HOW we did it. As much as I like Jackie, his biggest problem is he didn't have us prepared for every game- which was very frustrating.

I didn't see 1999 coming honestly. I thought we would take a step back because we lost JJ, Dennis McKinley, Prentiss, Cooper, most of our o-line including Randy Thomas and Eric Allen, and the JUCO guys on defense were basically unknowns going into the year that exceeded every reasonable expectation. 1998 the offense was better than 1999 if we're being honest- but the 1999 defense was much better than the 1998 defense which was pretty good in it's own right.

We'll see what 2018 brings but I will say I can't remember a MSU team bringing this much back while obviously addressing major question marks- Getsy is a HUGE upgrade at WR coach over Gonzalez in not just recruiting. He's pretty much a WR guru and even if Whop and Heath aren't ready I have no doubts based on what I have read about him that he will get Todd and Couch up to speed and very much improved over what we have seen from them so far. I think the biggest problem holding us back was Dan- Joe is going to be an upgrade and be much more aggressive as a play caller. It could make the difference in a couple of games.

I have definitely seen some parallels potentially between 1998-1999 and 2018-2019. We'll see if they hold true or not- the 1998-1999 teams were the best I have ever seen at MSU in back to back years.