Evidence that Dan was shopping himself before the Egg Bowl

[Todd4State]

Mullenites, lol. MSUites is more like it. Mullen is gone. I have no need to defend him now. Have at him. JoMo is the coach now.

Groupthink is not the best thing for MSU in any sport. See MSU baseball circa 1992-2008.

Not to mention how silly you look now. Ranging from "Who could we possibly get that's as good as Dan Mullen?" Answer- one of the top OC and offensive minds in all of college football with a guy that Tennessee hired and is one of the best recruiters in the country who knows the Nick Saban system basically begging for our job who WE turned down. That's right- TENNESSEE had to hire a guy we didn't want. To "Dan Mullen to Maryland isn't true".

It's good to support the program- but high standards must be maintained. And if a coach isn't maintaining those standards whether it be wins/losses, recruiting, looking for jobs indiscriminately or whatever the case may be- that coach should be called out on it rather than blindly defended. There's a big difference in support and sticking your head in the sand.

[Liverpooldawg]

Groupthink is not the best thing for MSU in any sport. See MSU baseball circa 1992-2008.

Not to mention how silly you look now. Ranging from "Who could we possibly get that's as good as Dan Mullen?" Answer- one of the top OC and offensive minds in all of college football with a guy that Tennessee hired and is one of the best recruiters in the country who knows the Nick Saban system basically begging for our job who WE turned down. That's right- TENNESSEE had to hire a guy we didn't want. To "Dan Mullen to Maryland isn't true".

It's good to support the program- but high standards must be maintained. And if a coach isn't maintaining those standards whether it be wins/losses, recruiting, looking for jobs indiscriminately or whatever the case may be- that coach should be called out on it rather than blindly defended. There's a big difference in support and sticking your head in the sand.

If I think the negative outweighs the positive I'll go after a coach. Mullen did a LOT for MSU, and anyone who says otherwise is just either stupid, bitter, or had a personal grudge. Now that he is gone I see no need to defend him. I thought he had faults too, you would be surprised. I just didn't voice them when he was our coach. If he had started losing I would have. He never really did so I defended him. The only group think I see is in this thread.

[Todd4State]

If I think the negative outweighs the positive I'll go after a coach. Mullen did a LOT for MSU, and anyone who says otherwise is just either stupid, bitter, or had a personal grudge. Now that he is gone I see no need to defend him. I thought he had faults too, you would be surprised. I just didn't voice them when he was our coach. If he had started losing I would have. He never really did so I defended him. The only group think I see is in this thread.

My "personal grudge" with Dan has to do with him screwing up Dak's senior night and the Egg Bowl last year while he was looking for jobs to stroke his ego. At the end of the day Dan was average as a coach. And Florida is about to find that out too.

At the end of the day I felt like he had way too much power and was given too much leeway especially under Stricklin. Great in games where we had the talent edge- but he made highly questionable decisions that were Les Miles-esque in close games and big games. In fact in one of his biggest wins in 2014 he almost gave the game away because with about 8 minutes of game time left he felt like it was important to play our back-ups and got us in a situation where a Hail Mary would have beaten us when we dominated the game all night long. His recruiting was average at best- thanks to defensive staff it would have been bad. And he didn't always play the best players- anyone remember Holloway up the middle against Alabama in 2015 on the goal line? LOL. And then he decided to insult our intelligence by saying Holloway played more because of his blocking- only to see the offense instantly improve once Aeris took over because of an injury to Holloway. Thank God Aeris finally learned the playbook and how to block that week.**

[Liverpooldawg]

My "personal grudge" with Dan has to do with him screwing up Dak's senior night and the Egg Bowl last year while he was looking for jobs to stroke his ego. At the end of the day Dan was average as a coach. And Florida is about to find that out too.

At the end of the day I felt like he had way too much power and was given too much leeway especially under Stricklin. Great in games where we had the talent edge- but he made highly questionable decisions that were Les Miles-esque in close games and big games. In fact in one of his biggest wins in 2014 he almost gave the game away because with about 8 minutes of game time left he felt like it was important to play our back-ups and got us in a situation where a Hail Mary would have beaten us when we dominated the game all night long. His recruiting was average at best- thanks to defensive staff it would have been bad. And he didn't always play the best players- anyone remember Holloway up the middle against Alabama in 2015 on the goal line? LOL. And then he decided to insult our intelligence by saying Holloway played more because of his blocking- only to see the offense instantly improve once Aeris took over because of an injury to Holloway. Thank God Aeris finally learned the playbook and how to block that week.**

I actually agree with most of that........I told you would be surprised. I'd add he never could establish a stable staff on the defensive side of the ball. THAT hurt us more than anything you mentioned. The positives still outweighed the negatives. I'm 53, I had pretty much given up on sustained success on the level Mullen brought. I'd never seen it. I also never saw a MSU football coach leave without basically being fired. It was a welcome change. I guess that's why I'm not bitter. I take the long view.

[Todd4State]

I actually agree with most of that........I told you would be surprised. I'd add he never could establish a stable staff on the defensive side of the ball. THAT hurt us more than anything you mentioned. The positives still outweighed the negatives. I'm 53, I had pretty much given up on sustained success on the level Mullen brought. I'd never seen it. I also never saw a MSU football coach leave without basically being fired. It was a welcome change. I guess that's why I'm not bitter. I take the long view.

I think at least some of Dan's perceived success has to do with the rise of the power 5 conferences. See USM- in 1980 they beat one of our best teams ever 42-14. As recent as 1990 we beat them 13-10 on a last second field goal. Fast forward to 2014- we beat them down 49-0 and it should have been 63-0. Then the next year we beat them in Hattiesburg something like 34-17 with Dak not being able to run and I believe USM won their division that year. Then you have the fact that you have the 12th game which is essentially a gimmie against a FCS team and it's easier to make a bowl than ever- a 5-7 team making a bowl was unheard of in years past.

Then the reality is Dan only had one winning SEC season and it clearly shows that he raised the floor but not the ceiling. And I think a lot of average coaches could have done what Dan did at MSU in the same era.

[Liverpooldawg]

I think at least some of Dan's perceived success has to do with the rise of the power 5 conferences. See USM- in 1980 they beat one of our best teams ever 42-14. As recent as 1990 we beat them 13-10 on a last second field goal. Fast forward to 2014- we beat them down 49-0 and it should have been 63-0. Then the next year we beat them in Hattiesburg something like 34-17 with Dak not being able to run and I believe USM won their division that year. Then you have the fact that you have the 12th game which is essentially a gimmie against a FCS team and it's easier to make a bowl than ever- a 5-7 team making a bowl was unheard of in years past.

Then the reality is Dan only had one winning SEC season and it clearly shows that he raised the floor but not the ceiling. And I think a lot of average coaches could have done what Dan did at MSU in the same era.

The reality is we haven't had that many winning seasons in that short a span since the 40s. It doesn't fit your narrative but it's the truth. I'm greatful to Mullen for several things I thought I'd never see. That being said he is gone. He has moved on. I've moved on. It's time we all did.


Another thing: If JoMo is successful the rumors will start almost immediately. I hope they do!

[Todd4State]

The reality is we haven't had that many winning seasons in that short a span since the 40s. It doesn't fit your narrative but it's the truth. I'm greatful to Mullen for several things I thought I'd never see. That being said he is gone. He has moved on. I've moved on. It's time we all did.


Another thing: If JoMo is successful the rumors will start almost immediately. I hope they do!

There is no narrative. You're clueless about the state of college football now compared to decades past.

In 1989- 1990 we had two 5-6 seasons under Felker. In today's game with the added FCS team and added bowls both of those teams are bowl teams- much like Dan's 2011 and 2013 teams.

Between 1991-2000 Jackie would have gone:

1991- 8-5
1992- 8-5
1993- Who knows? Would have been 6-6 at best but with no OT we had two ties. I'm going to split hairs and guess that we beat Arkansas State in OT and lose to Arkansas on the road in Little Rock in OT to go 5-7. This would have been our first non-bowl season in four years by today's standards.
1994- 9-4
1995- 4-8
1996- 6-6
1997- 8-4 This team didn't go bowling despite 7 wins.
1998- 9-5 SEC West Champs
1999- 11-2
2000- 9-4

So, between 1996-2000 Jackie would have gone to four bowls in a row by today's standards. And would have definitively gone to 8 in 10 years while the program would have definitively gone to 10 in 12 years overall. And if things go our way in OT in 1993 it's 9 in 10 years and 11 in 12 years.

The 2000's sucked for us not because of our history but because we were being investigated, on probation, and made a bad hire that still managed to make a bowl in 2007. After 2009 we went right back on our trajectory in the 1990's- except with fewer big time wins than the 1990's.

2009- 5-7
2010- 9-4
2011- 7-6
2012- 8-5
2013- 7-6
2014- 10-3
2015- 9-4
2016- 6-7
2017- 9-4

[BuckyIsAB****]

If I think the negative outweighs the positive I'll go after a coach. Mullen did a LOT for MSU, and anyone who says otherwise is just either stupid, bitter, or had a personal grudge. Now that he is gone I see no need to defend him. I thought he had faults too, you would be surprised. I just didn't voice them when he was our coach. If he had started losing I would have. He never really did so I defended him. The only group think I see is in this thread.

We paid him basically 5 mil to lose to South Alabama and BYU. He was in hot water in 2013 and 16