Devil's Advocate regarding football hype...

[Jack Lambert]

I don't think Passing was a concern for Mullen. He was the about the Run in RPO first

[Todd4State]

Oh yeah, and how many freshmen RBs have we watching carve up defenses while kept a talented back on the bench for 2+ seasons cause he "couldn't learn pass blocking schemes"?

If Dan is our coach we would be redshirting Guidry and Whop most likely while starting Jesse Jackson and Deddrick Thomas at outside WR.

[Really Clark?]

Had he won the Egg Bowl the feeling might be different. But he was totally disengaged and it cost us a rivalry game at home where we were heavily favored.

Everything was building to a big year for us in 2018, and he just bailed for a rebuilding job at another school before he got to coach what would?ve been his greatest team. And he left with barely a good bye.

Also, he?s a smug jerk. That has always been the case, we just don?t like it now that he?s not our jerk anymore.

Sorry, disengaged or not, Fitz doesn?t get hurt and we win the EB. KT fumbling wasn?t caused by Mullen. And we still nearly came back and won

[Really Clark?]

Oh yeah, and how many freshmen RBs have we watching carve up defenses while kept a talented back on the bench for 2+ seasons cause he "couldn't learn pass blocking schemes"?

Perkins ran the ball over 100 times as a true freshman, JRob was second leading rusher as freshman, Hill last year with a good back in Williams rushed the ball a lot as a freshman. The 2015 season was the biggest issue with Shumpert not building on a descent 2014 end of the year and Holloway. Should have pushed Williams up faster, did by the end of the year

[Schultzy]

Our safeties were undisciplined last year is why we got beat deep. They wanted to support the run when we already had a good front seven.

Plus our coaches barely played our best corner, Dantzler, in favor of upperclassmen. I have hope the days of watching some of our best players sit a lot is over...and I think it is so that’s encouraging.

[sleepy dawg]

I don't think Passing was a concern for Mullen. He was the about the Run in RPO first

Can you reword that? I don't understand what you're saying. Dan didn't really run an RPO offense. It was definitely a run first offense in a spread formation, but I would say it was much closer to a read option offense than RPO.

[dawgs]

I am still very concerned about our passing game as I did not see enough of an improvement as I thought we should have.

When have you seen what fitz can do throwing the ball in Moorhead's offense?

[Todd4State]

Perkins ran the ball over 100 times as a true freshman, JRob was second leading rusher as freshman, Hill last year with a good back in Williams rushed the ball a lot as a freshman. The 2015 season was the biggest issue with Shumpert not building on a descent 2014 end of the year and Holloway. Should have pushed Williams up faster, did by the end of the year

Aeris only got pushed up because Holloway got hurt.

[Todd4State]

Sorry, disengaged or not, Fitz doesn?t get hurt and we win the EB. KT fumbling wasn?t caused by Mullen. And we still nearly came back and won

Agree. 2015 was worse for me. I think what happened more last year is Fitz got hurt and Dan went overly conservative until he had no choice but to open it up.

[Really Clark?]

Aeris only got pushed up because Holloway got hurt.

I think that was Shump that got hurt, Holloway had touches in every game in 2015. Holloway missed games in 2014. And then Aeris I think wasn’t 100% during or after Bama game or he probably would have ended the year with more touches than Shump

[biggun]

No hate, just a realistic look at his limitations. I think since bama 2014, it's been readily apparent that Mullen didn't have the balls to consistently win big games and the lack of a recruiting bump post-dak was indicative of his limitations as a recruiter. Funny thing with the crootin aspect is that Florida fans told us in 2009 how Dan nearly screwed up the Tebow recruiting and Meyer had to make a last minute save to keep him from going to bama. The fact that we didn't capitalize after 2014 is entirely on Dan. Dan can find undervalued talent and develop guys, but to win big, you at least need to have a top 10 class every once in awhile and consistently hang around in the top 15-20 other years.

As an in game coach, Dan is overly conservative and runs one of the most boring spread option systems out there. If it was 3rd and 5 or less, I bet we ran dak or fitz between the tackles 90% of the time since 2013. That works against la tech and vandy, but it doesn't work against bama or consistently against LSU and auburn, which is why we almost always won the games we should and lost the games we should. And how often would we sit on the ball at the end of the half when we were within striking distance of FG range and a couple time outs in our pocket?

And since bama 2014, he has flirted with any and all P5 openings that would listen, even inferior programs like Minnesota and Maryland. Seemed like every good season went out with a whimper because he'd be checked out working the coaching carousel instead of beating the shit out of OM and winning a bowl game.

Clearly his positives outweighed his negatives and he is an overall good coach, and I'm forever thankful for turning us around post-croom, but he had a couple of obvious, yet fixable flaws, but he refused to addressed those flaws, which imo likely meant we were perpetually stuck in a cycle of essentially 7-9 win seasons. There's obviously worse scenarios out there (croom), but when you can see the couple of fixable flaws that could take us from a 7-9 W program to a 8-11 W program and Dan continuously refused to work on those flaws, then it gets frustrating. Throw in the constant flirting with any and every HC opening, and I think most MSU fans are thankful for what Dan did for the program but ok with him moving on.

Nice post, you nailed it. I was playing devil?s advocate mainly to see if our fans really think we can really do better than the Tax Slayer and Music City Bowl or should we think like Dan and accept our limitations and just be happy to be able to go to a bowl.

And I 110% agree that his flirting with other jobs, especially after Dak?s Last season really ****ed our recruiting. Furthermore, his either laziness or sincerely thinking MSU could not recruit on the national level, or both, put us behind the 8 ball in recruiting every damn year by never even trying to go after top out of state talent. Freeze exposed Dan but Joe is downright humiliating him!!!

Finally, his play calling during the final half of the 4th qtr vs Bama was the most conservative and pathetic that these eyes have ever seen!!!! Played to lose and lost. Still makes me sick to think we had Bama?s D on the ropes but instead of going for the jugular, Dan decided to basically to stop ourselves with his obsession of calling the QB dive regardless of down or distance. Ass awful!

[biggun]

Our safeties were undisciplined last year is why we got beat deep. They wanted to support the run when we already had a good front seven.

Plus our coaches barely played our best corner, Dantzler, in favor of upperclassmen. I have hope the days of watching some of our best players sit a lot is over...and I think it is so that’s encouraging.

100% Agree. Watching T Cleveland and C Rayford get torched week in and week out while Danztler and Peters sat just about did me in!!! With that being said, not 100% sure Peters is the answer, he also got beat far too many times and seemingly was in the trail position on just about every deep throw

[Ezsoil]

Aeris only got pushed up because Holloway got hurt.

Aeris had been building momentum but after the critical fumble at A&M, Dan went back to Shumpert even after Shumpert dropped a key 4th down pass.

[Ari Gold]

100% Agree. Watching T Cleveland and C Rayford get torched week in and week out while Danztler and Peters sat just about did me in!!! With that being said, not 100% sure Peters is the answer, he also got beat far too many times and seemingly was in the trail position on just about every deep throw

Believe it or not was told last year by coaches that Rayford would be graded out one of the best after every game. I’m not sure what they based this on.
Take that for what it’s worth .

So this tells me CR is better than the normal fan thinks he is... We just need him to be a average SEC CB this year

[thf24]

Believe it or not was told last year by coaches that Rayford would be graded out one of the best after every game. I’m not sure what they based this on.
Take that for what it’s worth .

So this tells me CR is better than the normal fan thinks he is... We just need him to be a average SEC CB this year

That's hard to believe as Rayford has appeared to get simply out-athleted on a seemingly regular basis thus far in his career. It seemed to me that he'd be playing the right technique and reading correctly much of the time, but he'd just get effortlessly run past despite it. As you imply though, we don't get paid to coach college football and probably don't have the full picture.

[biggun]

That's hard to believe as Rayford has appeared to get simply out-athleted on a seemingly regular basis thus far in his career. It seemed to me that he'd be playing the right technique and reading correctly much of the time, but he'd just get effortlessly run past despite it. As you imply though, we don't get paid to coach college football and probably don't have the full picture.

We def don’t know 1/100 of what the coaches know but just watching from the stands and watching both Cleveland and Rayford consistently getting torched while rarely, if ever, breaking up (INT - dream on) a pass is extremely hard to watch especially with superior athletes like Dantzler and Peters watching from the pines.

[Dawg61]

From watching a video or two on Jomo ?s passing philosophy, it seems like it will be more successful than Mullen?s. A lot of Mullen?s seemed to me it was ?beat your guy with your route and get open?. That works OK if you?re loaded with 5* studs at receiver. We didn?t and therefore never got separation. Jomo?s seems to create separation by design. Attack an area an make defenders make choices. Take the open choice. If they choose foolishly, burn them for a td. Assuming Fitz can read the open choices, I think his completion percentage will go up significantly.

Fix your phone please

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Turn Off Smart Punctuations in Settings/General/KeyBoard


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[Dawg61]

Brian Cole says ?not so fast my Friend?....

There is still some serious ?Dan Hate? around here and I somewhat get it. But honestly I really don?t.
Mullen took a floundering program that had been severely ?Croomed? and a disillusioned fan base due to having to endure 8 straight years of football futility (Liberty Bowl year was still brutal due to an awful and boring O) and quickly turned around the attitude of the team and fan base. Record sell out streak, winning record vs Ole Miss, 8 straight bowls, 9 wins in just his 2nd year including whipping national power Michigan and a year end Top 15 national ranking. I could go on and on about 5 weeks at #1, an Orange Bowl invite, hosting Gameday, Dak, etc but I don?t think some will care due to their blinding hate of Mullen.

Mullen expanded the stadium by consistently putting a quality product on the field every year sans 2016 which was a post Dak rebuild. So Why the bitter hate????

Had he won the Egg Bowl the feeling might be different. But he was totally disengaged and it cost us a rivalry game at home where we were heavily favored.

Everything was building to a big year for us in 2018, and he just bailed for a rebuilding job at another school before he got to coach what would?ve been his greatest team. And he left with barely a good bye.

Also, he?s a smug jerk. That has always been the case, we just don?t like it now that he?s not our jerk anymore.

Fix your phone please

It's apple's fault.. they broke it with IOS 11...
Turn Off Smart Punctuations in Settings/General/KeyBoard


To turn smart punctuation off, all you have to do is go to Settings > General > Keyboard, and then turn off the ?Smart Punctuation? toggle.

[Todd4State]

Believe it or not was told last year by coaches that Rayford would be graded out one of the best after every game. I’m not sure what they based this on.
Take that for what it’s worth .

So this tells me CR is better than the normal fan thinks he is... We just need him to be a average SEC CB this year

I wonder how much his special teams play factors into that grade? He is a good special teams player I'll give him that.

[Ari Gold]

I wonder how much his special teams play factors into that grade? He is a good special teams player I'll give him that.

None..