After perusing the Board, one thing is for Sure,

[Coach34]

He did it last year and was a Vick Ballard fumble from doing it in 2010. With Relf as our QB. I don't know if that fits the Blue Moon analogy.

We were 8-4 in 2010

[BayouDawg]

for those who are "disgruntled" with Dan, is it more of "how" the team has performed, the talent level, or "how" the games have been coached, or the overall record? or a combination of the above???

at the beginning of the season, what were your W/L expectations? and after seeing how good/bad other teams are, what are "expectations" now...?

I know that when I set my expectations, I focus as much or more on schedule and/or the progression/digression of the teams on said slate...

For example: Preseason, I was sweating @AU (they suck bad), @UGA (doesn't match up well with Bama) the most... and that's obviously not the case now... nor did I expect 873 turnovers at home to OM.... now, what I thought was an impossible schedule is only a couple of breaks away from 12-0...

any of that make any sense?

At the beginning of the season I said I would be disappointed with less than 8 reg season wins. I predicted 9-3. So technically that is still mathematically possible. So it's not the record that I'm so irritated at its how piss poor offensive game planning has been. We could still get to 8 or 9 wins or hell even 10 wins if your Tide have another 873 turnovers in em. So I guess I'm more irritated at the excecution/coaching of the offense or lack thereof.

[cubswillwinitonedaydawg]

We were 8-4 in 2010

Point taken but we won 9 with the bowl. And Bayou Dawg just said win 10. Either way, 1 in 7 is likely better than any other coach we have ever had. And I like Fitz and Staley and all our young talent - may not have to wait another 7 years to do it again.

[BayouDawg]

Point taken but we won 9 with the bowl. And Bayou Dawg just said win 10. Either way, 1 in 7 is likely better than any other coach we have ever had. And I like Fitz and Staley and all our young talent - may not have to wait another 7 years to do it again.

I like them too. And I hope Dan does take us back to the promised land. I was just saying that my opinion is that we'll be in the 6-8 win reg season mostly but that doesn't make it gospel thats just my humble opinion.

[War Machine Dawg]

for those who are "disgruntled" with Dan, is it more of "how" the team has performed, the talent level, or "how" the games have been coached, or the overall record? or a combination of the above???

at the beginning of the season, what were your W/L expectations? and after seeing how good/bad other teams are, what are "expectations" now...?

I know that when I set my expectations, I focus as much or more on schedule and/or the progression/digression of the teams on said slate...

For example: Preseason, I was sweating @AU (they suck bad), @UGA (doesn't match up well with Bama) the most... and that's obviously not the case now... nor did I expect 873 turnovers at home to OM.... now, what I thought was an impossible schedule is only a couple of breaks away from 12-0...

any of that make any sense?

Know exactly what you mean. Really, in terms of W-L, I think we're about where most of us thought we'd be or maybe 1 game down before the season started. But with the way it's played out, we've played 2 of the 3 best SEC West teams already, imo. Every West team, except maybe LSU and aTm, have at least one major question mark. So I think most of us see how weak the division is, factor in that we were just a FG away from beating LSU, throw in having the SEC's best QB and we feel like we're underachieving.

I don't think anyone is too concerned with the talent level, with the possible exception of the OL. And even that unit has some damn good players like Jamaal Clayborne and Justin Senior. For most, I think the concern is with "how" the team has performed and "how" the team has been coached. We're seeing the same issues that have been prevalent throughout Mullen's tenure: ridiculous levels of loyalty to shitty upperclassmen, poor game plans for "big" games especially in the 1st half, etc.

For instance, you seem to post here enough to have a general idea of the debate about our RB situation. Mullen is giving the bulk of the carries to Shumpert, who is a JR that's only averaging about 3 YPC this season and only averages about 4 YPC for his career to date. The number is a little bit inflated by 3 good games at the end of last season. On the other hand, we have 2 RS freshmen Aeris Williams and Dontavian Lee. Williams was a highly recruited player a couple of years ago and was the MS HS PotY. I also think he was the MS Gatorade PotY. Some coaches were calling him the best RB prospect from MS in 25 years. Lee was a 3 star guy that was really underrated. Williams has been decent so far, but hasn't really shown he has "it" at the position. He's averaging just 4 YPC so far this year. Lee, on the other hand, has been the talk of everyone since hitting campus. He supposedly showed out last year in practice. Then when everyone finally gets to see him in the spring game, he has a big day and looks really good. Lee followed that up by having a good fall camp, but somehow still found himself 3rd on the depth chart. In spite of that, he has shown out every time he's been given a chance in games this year. He has looked really good, showing burst to and through the hole and being really physical. He's averaging 8 YPC this season, but I can only remember him getting one carry in a game before the 4th quarter.

Now, go back a couple of years to 2012 and 2013. We have a RS JR/SR in LaDarius Perkins starting at RB. He has been a good change of pace back in his career, but he bulked himself up to be an "every down" back after Vick Ballard graduated. The result was he lost the quickness and top end speed that made him so great and our team struggled to run the ball. On the other hand, we had this young kid you might have heard of named Josh Robinson. J-Rob didn't play much, but every time he got a chance, he showed out. By the midway point of the season, it was abundantly clear that J-Rob needed to be getting the bulk of the carries with Perkins being used as his change of pace complement. But Mullen stuck with Perkins as the primary back in spite of all evidence that J-Rob was ready to be the man. In 2012, we stumbled to an 8-4 regular season after starting 7-0, then get obliterated in our bowl game by Northwestern. 2013, we barely finish 6-6, but destroy Rice in the Liberty Bowl.

Basically, we feel like we're seeing the same misplaced loyalty from Mullen when it comes to who plays and who doesn't, evidence be damned. I think many of us feel that sometimes Mullen loses sight of the forest for the trees. We're a really good developmental program, so Mullen believes that if a guy comes in, follows the plan, and works hard then he'll succeed. Because that has generally been the formula for most of our guys. But every so often, an upperclassman struggles when it's his turn to have an expanded role. At the same time, a young guy comes along and does nothing but show he's ready to be an impact player that deserves a bigger role. Instead of that change happening, however, Mullen sticks with the older guy in the belief that he'll figure it out with more experience. Meanwhile, the team suffers because he won't replace a guy who is struggling.

Then you have to throw in things like Mullen's shitty clock management, blatant choosing of favorites, our inconsistent and bland play calling, etc. One of the best MSU tweets I've seen lately was this: "Hi, I'm aggressive play call Dan Mullen and I have DirecTV. And I'm overthink every play call Dan Mullen, and I have cable."

Hope some of that makes sense.

[Dawg61]

There are some really ****ing stupid posts in this thread and why Todd are you even in this thread? Your man crush for Cohen and limited football knowledge excludes you from being here. Sorry bud but don't you have some fall baseball stats to be staring at right now?

This thread is what happens when you never pull upsets. Mullen has got to improve his record when he isn't favored. It's that simple. We will go 9-3 this year. Book it. 9-3 is a .750 winning %. Do you know how many coaches that aren't as old as Babe Ruth have a .750 or better winning % in the history of the SEC? FOUR. Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Les Miles and Bear Bryant. Not even Steve ****ing Spurrier has a .750 winning %. As far as I'm concerned Mullen is 14-5 right now because it was always going to take a couple years after Shitcroom. If Mullen finishes this year with a bowl win, an Egg Bowl win and a 9-3 regular season we will be 20-6 in the last two years. Get the **** out of here with this "I hope he takes another job" shit!! I hope yall find another team to root for if you wanna run off 20-6 football coaches. We just gonna magically turn into Saban Bama once we reached #1 now? Remember we lost to MAINE and Auburn 3-2.

I do believe Mullen is stubborn and makes lots of mistakes BUT I also believe Mullen is highly critical of himself and eager to improve. Did yall not even notice he made changes vs Troy that we all asked for one week ago? He showed that he listens. He threw the ball deep A LOT. He gave us looks at ALL the RBs, he kicked the ball out of the endzone, he took the ball first, he scored right away, he played Shump minimally and he gave us all a very long look at Fitz. These are all things he did differently from any other game this year and they are all things we've been screaming to see (except the kicking through the endzone, I'm not in favor of this). Do you guys listen to his pregame/halftime/post game interviews? He tells us that he's adjusting. That's what we want guys. We want Mullen to always be growing. HE IS!!!!! Start WATCHING AND LISTENING better!!!

[NCDawg]

So because some of us think he has hit his ceiling it's running him off? That's dumb. I want him to take another job.

The HC job at Maryland is now open, although it would be a significant decrease in pay for Mullen if he was hired there. Edsall, the former coach, was paid 10M for 6 years. As I understand it, Mullen is paid 4M per year at State. Thus, after 6 years, Mullen would be paid 14M less if he took the Maryland job provided Maryland paid Mullen the same as the former coach.

[Really Clark?]

WMD, to save space I'm not going to replay to your post. The only thing I want to point out is in 2012 you had a 1,000 runner in Perk and Griffin avg more per carry than JRob. People complained about the play calling of running Perk in situations but people were not nearly as vocal about changing backs until 2013. Especially with JRob. He really didn't do much until the bowl game against Northwestern. That's what started it for the 2013 season. But during the regular season he did not have all these explosive runs on limited carries. He had a few and also had 3 carries for 3 yards against Middle Tenn. You are letting the 2013 season calls for more JRob bled into 2012 and that didn't happen. Perk with 1,000 and little over 5 ypc, people were not calling to bench him

[AROB44]

Unfortunately, Dan is in year 7 what I consider the average life of a coach at a particular school. Seems like 10 years is about it. Don't really care how he is doing in the W -L column. Fans start picking apart every little aspect of his tenure and get the idea that fresh blood is the answer. So....I figure Dan has 2 more years after this tops. Then good ole MSU can start all over again.....a movie I have seen far too many times. I know the argument that with SEC money, etc, we will be able to get someone really good, etc. Sorry....I just don't buy it as much as many on hear do. However, I am consoled by the fact that the unhappy folks that post on here make up a very very small portion of the fanbase and probably a smaller portion of meaningful contributors to the Bulldog Club.

[Drugdog]

Wow. Got a lot of discussion. No I don't Mullen fired but changes need to be made somewhere.

[War Machine Dawg]

WMD, to save space I'm not going to replay to your post. The only thing I want to point out is in 2012 you had a 1,000 runner in Perk and Griffin avg more per carry than JRob. People complained about the play calling of running Perk in situations but people were not nearly as vocal about changing backs until 2013. Especially with JRob. He really didn't do much until the bowl game against Northwestern. That's what started it for the 2013 season. But during the regular season he did not have all these explosive runs on limited carries. He had a few and also had 3 carries for 3 yards against Middle Tenn. You are letting the 2013 season calls for more JRob bled into 2012 and that didn't happen. Perk with 1,000 and little over 5 ypc, people were not calling to bench him

Except many of us thought Griffin was the best back we had in 2012, if I'm remembering it correctly. Basically, we wanted to see Perk used as a "super athlete" like we're using Dear now.

[msstate7]

Except many of us thought Griffin was the best back we had in 2012, if I'm remembering it correctly. Basically, we wanted to see Perk used as a "super athlete" like we're using Dear now.

And now we want dear as a rb. So the cycle of us state fans goes...

[War Machine Dawg]

And now we want dear as a rb. So the cycle of us state fans goes...

Haha, indeed. But worth noting, Perk had to bulk up to be the every down RB. Dear is trying to keep wait off to be the super athlete. Two different body types, basically.

[Really Clark?]

Except many of us thought Griffin was the best back we had in 2012, if I'm remembering it correctly. Basically, we wanted to see Perk used as a "super athlete" like we're using Dear now.

First off, you didn't even mentioned Griffin in responding to Tusk. You said basically it was obvious by mid season of 2012 that JRob was our best back. There was nothing in the games in 2012 that made either one of those RB obviously better than Perk. You want to say some didn't like Perk running up the middle at times. That's fine but nobody was calling for someone else to be our feature back and neither really did much to change anybody's minds. In fact many were worried about is getting blown out by LSU BECAUSE Perk was out. JRob didn't do much that game. Griffin looked a little better. But if you remember correctly Milton actually got more carries early in the year over JRob and Griffin. But Perk was the feature back and nobody was wanting that changed. 2013 yes, 2012 no.

[FISHDAWG]

I'm saying we should live in reality and understand that ten wins will never be our floor. Nor anyone else's.

totally agree ... since when did we become Bama or LSU ? ..... MULLEN is responsible for these lofty expectations and now his success is the reason folks have unrealistic expectations - it's a damn paradox - too many here are sounding like some other fan bases that we constantly talk about