Since we are just sitting around waiting on football, rank your top 5 MSU football...

[maroonmania]

seasons in modern times (post-1970) in descending order. Use your own personal criteria for the ranking.

Mine would be:

1. 1999 (10-2, 6-2 SEC, best MSU defense in modern times with most memorable Egg Bowl win)
2. 1998 (8-5, 6-2 SEC, West Division title, 7 minutes from an SEC title and best clutch win I can ever remember over Ark)
3. 1980 (9-3, 5-1 SEC, Win over #1 AL, only year ever to beat Aub-AL-LSU-OM in the same year)
4. 2010 (9-4, 4-4 SEC, all losses to Top 15 teams, Mullen's best team to date)
5. 1994 (8-4, 5-3 SEC, only losses to AL, LSU and Aub and a late Peach Bowl loss to NC State, final ranking of #24)

Honorable Mention:
1974 (9-3, 3-3 SEC, almost went with this one at #5, both teams had the same regular season record but '94 with more SEC wins)
1981 (8-4, 4-2 SEC, possibly MSU's most talented team ever but finished 7-4 reg. season with heartbreakers to USM, OM and AL)

[War Machine Dawg]

I'm a relatively young Dawg, so bear with me:

1. 1998 - SECW Champs trumps anything else.
2. 1999 - Helluva fun season, last time we beat LSU, CJ Sirmones WIDE OPEN, The Kick The Pick The Kick, and the epic Peach Bowl with Clemson
3. 2000 - Start off hot, beatdown Florida and Auburn in back-to-back weeks, struggle down the stretch with some injuries, cap it off with the Snow Bowl
4. 2010 - 9 wins, emergence of the Ralffence, epic beatdown of Meechigan in the Gator Bowl
5. 2007 - Yes, it was Crxxms. Yes, it was smoke-and-mirrors and we all knew it. But damn if it wasn't fun to go bowling. And the AJ pick six of JPW might be the loudest I've ever heard DWS. Certainly in my top 5 favorite single DWS moments.

[maroonmania]

Yep, 2000 definitely had its moments, and like '81 was one of those "what could have been" seasons because we were loaded with talent but yet just couldn't find a way to win some of the close ones. 2007 to me was a breath of fresh air just because it was the first taste of ANY kind of success since the 2000 season.

[BulldogBear]

Here are mine but my criteria is going to be how excited I was, how big of a deal it was to my family, etc. mixed in with the obvious. It's sort of a personal interest scale.

(1) 1992 (7-5, 4-4 SEC) - Had just come off JWS first season, which had been the first time to a bowl since 1981 season (nine year drought). Going to a bowl is still a big deal but it was even more so the further you go back because...there weren't so many of them. There was a lot of excitement. Even when Sleepy went down we stayed up about the season. It was awesome to go to Austin and stomp Texas. My father explained that if you'd told him 10 years earlier that we would ever play and beat Texas and Arkansas in the same season that we would probably have been SEC champions and/or in a major bowl or something that year. Taking the 21-20 third quarter lead over #1 Bama was the high water mark of excitement. I remember feeling that season had a potential similar to the upcoming one and we were better than our record. Beat Auburn for 2nd straight year. Bad juju is that this is where the LSU nightmare began. LSU finished 2-9 but beat us 24-3 in Baton Rouge. We had to play on the road two years in a row because of scheduling as it was the first year the SEC went to 12. It was 3-3 going in and it fell apart. Anyway, I went to the Peach bowl vs. UNC that year. Should've won that one. We were so well thought of that even though we lost our bowl game, WE MOVED UP IN THE POLL.

(2) 1994 (8-4, 5-3 SEC) - The reason this one is so memorable to me is that I was living in New Mexico and had to follow it from afar. Long before the days of every game being on TV, I only got to watch 3-4, had no radio coverage, and sat glued to another game while we played Alabama so I could read the score updates in the corner. Alas a 29-25 heartbreaker. We could watch the JP game out there so I got to see us beat Arkansas 17-7 but it slips my mind whether the LSU game was on or not. I think I remember watching Auburn (sigh) as well. This was in the middle of a 4 year stretch where Auburn beat our brakes off each year.

(3) 1986 (6-5, 1-5 SEC) - I was in junior high and was Felker's first year. The only school that ruined our path to 7-0 was, who else, USM. They beat us many times in the 80s but we also blew it or it was flukish several of those times. My parents took me to see us play Tulane in the Superdome (W34-27), my first trip to the Crescent City. We also went to LSU in Jackson. I remember we clobbered their return man on the opening KO and atmosphere was electric. We proceeded to lose 47-0. This was the year we started 6-1 only to fall in the last 4 by a combined 144-12. This was back in the day when we ran the gauntlet each year, closing with Auburn, Alabama, LSU and Ole Miss in that order. Still, the ride to 6-1 was a blast as we had slowly worked our way back from the success of 80-81 and 1982 had that feeling of we were better than our 5-6 record. Seriously, we improved by one win a year from the low of 3-8 in 1983. Back to 1986, we had beaten Florida and beaten Tennessee in Knoxville. both turned out 6-5 that year but we had no way of knowing that and it just felt huge. Even after the 35-6 loss to Auburn there was still hope in my preteen heart. I just remember an exciting ride.

(4) 1991 (7-5, 4-3) - The excitement of the first season of JWS. He really meant little to me but my Dad explained his history. We went to our first bowl since 1981, beat Auburn for first time since 1981, beat Texas in a game I watched on TV with family after a dove hunt (The afternoon hunt got started late of course) beat LSU in BR for last time until.....let's move on. Won the first Egg Bowl 24-9 back on campus. We went in 6-4 with a Liberty Bowl invitation and Ole Miss came in 5-5 after a four game losing streak. They were pissed that Liberty Bowl hadn't waited to invite the Egg Bowl winner. Our nonconf loss? Memphis. State. Went to the Liberty bowl and we rode in looking to dominate. I was there to witness....we won't speak of this anymore.

(5) 2007 (8-5, 4-4 SEC) - For the same reasons (6 years slump of 2-3 win seasons) WMD dog listed. Man, it was great to not suck, or at least give the appearance of not sucking. I was home with my kids watching the Bama game. My daughter was in the back of the house doing whatever it is that women/girls who aren't sports interested do when their men are watching sports. Suddenly my son and I just erupted in blood curdling screams (the interception) and she came running in thinking something was horribly wrong (not sports related).

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[BulldogBear]

I should an honorable mention to:

1998 - obvious
1999 - obvious also
1980 - 9-3. Went to my first game that year. What's weird is I have no memory of the Bama win, not even a vague one. I was only seven. I was not very aware of college sports till that year and it has been forefront ever since. I remember wondering prior why we never played the Dallas cowboys.

[justwin]

1: Dan Mullen, year 2
2: Dan Mullen, year 4
3: Dan Mullen, year 1
4: Dan Mullen, year 3
5: Dan Mullen, year 5

[LC Dawg]

I did not grow up a State fan. I fell in love with MSU in 1990, my first year to attend and Rockey's last year to coach. These are my favorite teams based on this time frame.

(1) 1991 - Jackie's first year. The excitement on campus was incredible. My buddies and I had a great trip to the Liberty Bowl but some of those records are still sealed.
(2) 1998 - My brother and I got to go to the championship game. When Prentiss returned that punt I thought we had it won.
(3) 1999 - Our best team ever in my opinion. We had the talent to win all of them.
(4) 2010 - Dan's best team (until this year). We should have beaten Auburn and Arkansas.
(5) 1980 - Even though I wasn't a fan back then I do appreciate the talent of this team and the importance of 6-3.

[Pollodawg]

I did not grow up a State fan. I fell in love with MSU in 1990, my first year to attend and Rockey's last year to coach. These are my favorite teams based on this time frame.

(1) 1991 - Jackie's first year. The excitement on campus was incredible. My buddies and I had a great trip to the Liberty Bowl but some of those records are still sealed.
(2) 1998 - My brother and I got to go to the championship game. When Prentiss returned that punt I thought we had it won.
(3) 1999 - Our best team ever in my opinion. We had the talent to win all of them.
(4) 2010 - Dan's best team (until this year). We should have beaten Auburn and Arkansas.
(5) 1980 - Even though I wasn't a fan back then I do appreciate the talent of this team and the importance of 6-3.

It still blows my mind how close we were to 11 wins that season.