Tired of everybody knocking our OOC this year

[starkvegasdawg]

No, it is not the hardest in the land but there are others who play far worse teams. Aside from WVA, Alabama plays USM (sound familiar), FL, Atl, and W. Carolina. The delusionals up north play such power houses as ULL, Memphis, and Presbyterian. Now, I will say that Boise was good when they scheduled them but USM was not the dumpster fire it was when we scheduled them too. Those are a wash. Then they have a Sun Belt team, a Memphis team that has been horrid for years, and Presbyterian. I looked up some information on the fighting blue hose. They are a private university and have an undergraduate enrollment of just over 1,100 students.They won three games last year against such team as Point and VMI. I'll wait for a moment while you google just where the hell Point is. Their roster has a total of 4 people that are at least 300lbs. The biggest is 310 and the other three are 300 even. They have SEVERAL offensive and defensive lineman 235lbs and under. One defensive lineman is 208lbs. You read that correctly. A 208lbs defensive lineman. I honestly think South Panola could beat them. I know South Panola is bigger as a team. I know that Alcorn State and JSU could beat them handidly and yet they were teams we scheduled that were also soundly riduculed.

So the next time you have a bear laughing at our OOC just ask them about all these juggarnauts they are playing this season.

[Dawg61]

I love our OOC this year. Might as well get it while the gettin is good cause the SEC will all have to schedule a Big 5 conference team here starting very soon.

[C222]

No, it is not the hardest in the land but there are others who play far worse teams. Aside from WVA, Alabama plays USM (sound familiar), FL, Atl, and W. Carolina. The delusionals up north play such power houses as ULL, Memphis, and Presbyterian. Now, I will say that Boise was good when they scheduled them but USM was not the dumpster fire it was when we scheduled them too. Those are a wash. Then they have a Sun Belt team, a Memphis team that has been horrid for years, and Presbyterian. I looked up some information on the fighting blue hose. They are a private university and have an undergraduate enrollment of just over 1,100 students.They won three games last year against such team as Point and VMI. I'll wait for a moment while you google just where the hell Point is. Their roster has a total of 4 people that are at least 300lbs. The biggest is 310 and the other three are 300 even. They have SEVERAL offensive and defensive lineman 235lbs and under. One defensive lineman is 208lbs. You read that correctly. A 208lbs defensive lineman. I honestly think South Panola could beat them. I know South Panola is bigger as a team. I know that Alcorn State and JSU could beat them handidly and yet they were teams we scheduled that were also soundly riduculed.

So the next time you have a bear laughing at our OOC just ask them about all these juggarnauts they are playing this season.

Not sure why it bothers you. Our OOC schedule is awful. I love it though.

[Reason2succeed]

We ought to schedule cupcakes because being in the SEC West we play enough powerhouses that our strength of schedule is still better or on par with most other teams in the nation. As far as the opinions of others within the SEC, who cares? It will all be sorted out through SEC play. At the end of the day everyone will know who the legit SEC teams are and who were preseason frauds.

[Coach34]

I love OOC blowouts. You get to tailgate, watch the game, and see us score a lot. What's wrong with that? Plus we get to stay healthy and let the back-ups play.

[bluelightstar]

Our OOC is terrible this year, and I don't particularly want to watch most of the games THAT much. But, I'm happy with 4 free wins whenever I can get them.

[Political Hack]

schedule is great. we get to test our team against the best teams in the nation 2-3 times this year... and wax a preseason "top-25" farce. Sounds like adequate opportunities to me... and if you win those, you get the SEC east Champion. Plenty of chances to play the best and play for a title. And that's the point, right?

[SDDawg]

When are we going to schedule South Panola? ****

[DownwardDawg]

I love OOC blowouts. You get to tailgate, watch the game, and see us score a lot. What's wrong with that? Plus we get to stay healthy and let the back-ups play.

This!!
This is the type OOC schedule we should play every year!

[mic]

We already do play 2 very tough games
We scrimmage twice....

[starkvegasdawg]

I do love our schedule. I just get tired of it being called a cakewalk (which it is) by fans of other schools that are playing just as easy of a schedule. That's like a TSUN fan looking down on someone for being a stuck up pretentious holier than thou prick.

[Dawg61]

I do love our schedule. I just get tired of it being called a cakewalk (which it is) by fans of other schools that are playing just as easy of a schedule. That's like a TSUN fan looking down on someone for being a stuck up pretentious holier than thou prick.

Not sure who you're talking to but I would welcome that conversation. Ole Miss fans? 4 of 5. Conversation is kinda over at that point. MSU had the 2nd hardest schedule in the country last year. That means we were about the 2nd dumbest schedule makers in the country too. We don't need to prove shit with our OOC schedule. Our regular one is plenty hard enough. And again this is the last year we can do this so why would we be scheduling teams like Oklahoma (Tennessee). Speaking of Tennessee they have played Oregon, UCLA, Cal and now Oklahoma in the last 5 years and it doesn't seem to be helping them one bit. I think they've lost almost every single one of those games. 1-7 in the last 8 years vs the big name on their OOC schedule.

[starkvegasdawg]

Not talking to anyone here. Mainly talking to bear fans making fun of our schedule but to some national pubs that have given us grief about it too when every team in the conference plays a joke of ooc.

[FISHDAWG]

Not talking to anyone here. Mainly talking to bear fans making fun of our schedule but to some national pubs that have given us grief about it too when every team in the conference plays a joke of ooc.

yep ... I know we don't have to worry about it but I think a playoff committee would hold it against us ... not advocating for a stronger schedule here because winning = better recruiting ... once better recruiting has been established then we can cross that bridge, but I was kinda excited about the Okie State game.

[sleepy dawg]

There are very few things I have been jealous of OM about... Their strength of schedule a couple of the past few years has been one of those. I am very grateful we have a chance to play an "easier" schedule this year. Embrace it.

[Goat Holder]

We have to actually beat somebody if we want to keep getting away with playing easy SOS schedules. Take Texas A&M for example. Their OOC ever since they joined the SEC has been a joke, but nobody says anything, because there's no question that they were good. Take us on the other hand. Nobody said a word in 2010, but in 2011/2012 people started bitching about the schedule. Had we beaten Auburn in 2011, and Ole Miss in 2012, nobody would have cared.

So it's a double edged sword. Yes, it's 4 easy wins, but I think fans also want to see us take advantage and beat somebody worth a shit too. Unless you're in rebuilding mode. 6-6 vs. an easy schedule I think would have been OK in 2009.

[defiantdog]

Where has OOC strength ever factored into winning the SEC West or East? What's the point of scheduling tougher opponents outside of media and tv exposure? No SEC team should ever schedule a tough OOC schedule because it can only hurt you in the season. If you go undefeated in the SEC West, you still go to the SEC Championship.... not matter who you play outside of the conference.

[Dawg61]

yep ... I know we don't have to worry about it but I think a playoff committee would hold it against us ... not advocating for a stronger schedule here because winning = better recruiting ... once better recruiting has been established then we can cross that bridge, but I was kinda excited about the Okie State game.

Playoff committee can't hold it against us because our strength of schedule will still be plenty high enough for it to not hurt us. Teams in weaker conferences have to worry about scheduling up. Teams in the strongest conference get the luxury of being able to schedule down. For MSU to make the playoff our schedule would include Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Texas A&M, UMiss, Arkansas, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and the SECEast champ. When and if that day comes this year there won't be 5 teams with a more difficult schedule that are in the discussion for the playoff. Probably won't be more than two teams. Maybe none. Even with our weak OOC schedule.

[maroonmania]

Well, its ended up worse than planned. USM was a 10-2 CUSA champion type team when we scheduled them. Its not our fault their program has now fallen on hard times. USA on the road won't be a picnic but overall its not a very challenging OOC slate no doubt, but I'm much more worried this year how we perform in conference than out. Sort of glad we don't really have any big time OOC foes to distract our attention from the key SEC games. Last year the physical beating we took in the OSU game to start the year (lost Hughes, lost Malone, concussion to Russell, Love got hurt, etc.) became a significant factor in last year's entire season.

[Johnson85]

As long as we have a top 25 SOS, I don't care. And we by default have a top 25 SOS because we play in the SEC west. Playing 3 top 15ish teams each year is basically a hard schedule outside of the SEC. If we turn into a top 10 or top 15 program, then we can talk about whether we need to work to have a top 10 or top 15 SOS (when we already end up there by accident every other year or so).

[dawgs]

"Besides" wva? That's kinda missing the point. Also ole miss plays Boise and ull, 2 teams that would run all 4 of our OOC opponents off the field.

Personally, I don't like this kinda OOC schedule because I like compelling football games. There's nothing compelling about 4 crap opponents we should beat 60-10 each. I don't think we should be scheduling Oklahoma/Oregon/USC/Florida st/ohio st type programs regularly, but I am absolutely looking forward to at least 1 OOC game like the nc st/k st/Arizona games coming up.

[dawgs]

I love OOC blowouts. You get to tailgate, watch the game, and see us score a lot. What's wrong with that? Plus we get to stay healthy and let the back-ups play.

Stay healthy? Blown knees don't care if it happens against Bama or south Alabama. The only argument is that starters might play less snaps against south Alabama thus less opportunities to get hurt, but on a per play basis, not sure it matters who you're playing when it comes to injuries.

[dawgs]

I do love our schedule. I just get tired of it being called a cakewalk (which it is) by fans of other schools that are playing just as easy of a schedule. That's like a TSUN fan looking down on someone for being a stuck up pretentious holier than thou prick.

But they play 2 OOC opponents that are way better than anything we play. The difference in a tough and easy OOC schedule is usually the presence of 1 or 2 decent OOC opponents. So to say their's is just as easy EXCEPT ________ is not a good argument to make.

[Goat Holder]

"Besides" wva? That's kinda missing the point. Also ole miss plays Boise and ull, 2 teams that would run all 4 of our OOC opponents off the field.

Oh really? South Alabama beat ULL 30-8 last year, and we are playing them on the road. USM = Boise in the compelling factor, as you use below.


Personally, I don't like this kinda OOC schedule because I like compelling football games. There's nothing compelling about 4 crap opponents we should beat 60-10 each. I don't think we should be scheduling Oklahoma/Oregon/USC/Florida st/ohio st type programs regularly, but I am absolutely looking forward to at least 1 OOC game like the nc st/k st/Arizona games coming up.

You are going to get 8 compelling games per year, as we play in the SEC. A minimum of 4 at home. And we don't beat these 'crap' opponents 60-10. Houston, UAB, Louisiana Tech, Troy and Bowling Green have all come close to beating us, and they DID beat us before Mullen got here.

I'm guessing you're one of those old codgers who thinks it's all about you and your entertainment. Why would you want to handicap us any more than we already are? And that's not lil ole moo u mentality, it's REALITY. Like Kansas State and others, we have disadvantages working against us, namely resources, population, etc. And yes I know K-State is playing big OOC games now, but ask Bill Snyder what his preference is. It's documented many times over.

All of this is a moot point, anyway, starting in 2016.

[Goat Holder]

Stay healthy? Blown knees don't care if it happens against Bama or south Alabama. The only argument is that starters might play less snaps against south Alabama thus less opportunities to get hurt, but on a per play basis, not sure it matters who you're playing when it comes to injuries.

Are you f*cking serious? Do you know anything about football? Talent? Physics?

[Goat Holder]

But they play 2 OOC opponents that are way better than anything we play.

Stop saying this. It's not true.

Not to mention that Ole Miss draws Tennessee, likely the worst team in the SEC this year, and certainly the East.

[dawgs]

Oh really? South Alabama beat ULL 30-8 last year, and we are playing them on the road. USM = Boise in the compelling factor, as you use below.



You are going to get 8 compelling games per year, as we play in the SEC. A minimum of 4 at home. And we don't beat these 'crap' opponents 60-10. Houston, UAB, Louisiana Tech, Troy and Bowling Green have all come close to beating us, and they DID beat us before Mullen got here.

I'm guessing you're one of those old codgers who thinks it's all about you and your entertainment. Why would you want to handicap us any more than we already are? And that's not lil ole moo u mentality, it's REALITY. Like Kansas State and others, we have disadvantages working against us, namely resources, population, etc. And yes I know K-State is playing big OOC games now, but ask Bill Snyder what his preference is. It's documented many times over.

All of this is a moot point, anyway, starting in 2016.

Lulz at being an old codger.

Also, I said we should beat these teams 60-10. If we think we can compete with Bama and auburn and lsu in the west, that's what we should be doing to shit team like this. We shouldn't be scraping by against uab, Troy, and bowling green. Have you ever thought that maybe the players and coaches don't get amped up for these crap games? Sure maybe 1 or 2 of them, but by the time you're playing your 3rd and 4th no-name shit team, it's kinda hard to get amped.

2016 can't get here soon enough IMO. 2/3 of a season being worth watching isn't really a good argument for there being enough compelling games.

[dawgs]

Are you f*cking serious? Do you know anything about football? Talent? Physics?

Most of your serious knee and ankle injuries don't occur due to contact, they occur when a guy cuts or a guy rolls up on the back of the leg. When a knee decides it's gonna buckle, it doesn't matter if you're juking a Bama player or a ut-Martin player.

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

USM = Boise in the compelling factor, as you use below.



I have no problem with our schedule, and do not care what anyone says about it. However, this sort of statement is just dumb. Boise leads the FBS in wins, win% and ppg since 2000. OM does get lucky to catch them in a transition from Peterson, but Boise is still widely thought of as the premier non-power 5 team in the land, and they did go 8-5 or something in a down year last season. USM had 1 really good year, has not won a game since then, and has zero draw outside of Hattiesburg.

Back to the original points though, I couldn't care any less what anyone else says about our non-con. schedule this year. 4-0 without even considering our SEC slate sounds just fine to me.

[starkvegasdawg]

But they play 2 OOC opponents that are way better than anything we play. The difference in a tough and easy OOC schedule is usually the presence of 1 or 2 decent OOC opponents. So to say their's is just as easy EXCEPT ________ is not a good argument to make.

I made that argument because when we scheduled USM they were a good team. We had no way of knowing they would turn into a gigantic turd of a football team. At the time it looked like we had one decent OOC and three patsies...just like almost every other SEC team. Also, Boise is not that good this year either. What I did was give them credit for scheduling them back when they were a decent team. Plus, scheduling Presbyterian should disallow any of them from criticizing our schedule. Alcorn State would mop the floor with them.

So comparing our OOC to TSUN:
We each had one team that we scheduled that was pretty good at the time schedules were agreed to. Both have since dropped off talent wise. USM just happens to have dropped off worse.

We have two middling conference teams scheduled. None of which are very good but comparable to each other. We have USA and UAB. They have ULL and Memphis. Of those, UAB is horrible on our side and Memphis is horrible on their side. Both have had a history of sucking it up in recent history. The other comparison in this group is USA for us and ULL for the bears. USA went 6-6 last year including an ass whipping of ULL. They also played fellow SEC team Tennessee close. ULL played a very comparable schedule last year to USA and finished 8-4 in the regular season. Considering USA beat them easily I would call that a wash.

That brings us to the last OOC game. We have UT-Martin and they have Presbyterian. Like I said about Presbyterian in an earlier post. They have a 208lbs defensive lineman on the roster. UT-Martin won 7 games last year compared to 3 for Presbyterian with one of their three wins against some school named Point. Not much of an argument that UT-Martin is the tougher game...by far.

[dawgs]

Stop saying this. It's not true.

Not to mention that Ole Miss draws Tennessee, likely the worst team in the SEC this year, and certainly the East.

South Alabama upset ull last year. Sometimes upsets happen. Ull is the better team and program though and literally return as much or more than anyone else in the country. Wouldn't surprise me at all if ull makes a run at an undefeated season.

All I'm saying is that if you want to play 4 shit no-name non-conference games, don't get defensive when other fans call us out.

[Goat Holder]

Also, I said we should beat these teams 60-10. If we think we can compete with Bama and auburn and lsu in the west, that's what we should be doing to shit team like this. We shouldn't be scraping by against uab, Troy, and bowling green.

Yeah, I'm sure we "should" beat them 60-10 in your small world. Again, that reality thing gets in the way of your own self-interests.


Have you ever thought that maybe the players and coaches don't get amped up for these crap games? Sure maybe 1 or 2 of them, but by the time you're playing your 3rd and 4th no-name shit team, it's kinda hard to get amped.

You lack the fundamental understanding of how a football season works. The players are only physically able to get 'amped' for about 4-5 games per year. That's where our issues arise. Coaches have to figure out which games to lasso in the 'emotion'. Is it at Alabama? A game that we probably won't win no matter what? Or is it home vs. Auburn? This is why easy OOC games are paramount.....they don't require our 'A' game.....we can save those for the SEC teams. King Jackie said this best years ago.


2016 can't get here soon enough IMO. 2/3 of a season being worth watching isn't really a good argument for there being enough compelling games.

I'm just fine with watching us win games, whoever they are against. When you've seen the history I have, you understand this simple concept. But you are the type of guy who would rather watch "compelling" games in 2016, rather than watch probably our most successful run in history in 2014 and 2015.

You are absolutely the embodiment of the fan that I HATE. Remember, I said "HATE", which means I do care what you think, simply because you are a fellow State fan. Opposite of caring is indifference. Whatever though, different strokes for different folks. I'm just one guy, doesn't matter what I think, and I'm definitely not going to change your opinion.

[Goat Holder]

South Alabama upset ull last year. Sometimes upsets happen. Ull is the better team and program though and literally return as much or more than anyone else in the country. Wouldn't surprise me at all if ull makes a run at an undefeated season.

They blew them out. 30-8. Just quit. USA was 6-6 with like 4 one score losses.

Wouldn't surprise me if USA was much better than anyone expects either.

[Johnson85]

Lulz at being an old codger.

Also, I said we should beat these teams 60-10. If we think we can compete with Bama and auburn and lsu in the west, that's what we should be doing to shit team like this. We shouldn't be scraping by against uab, Troy, and bowling green. Have you ever thought that maybe the players and coaches don't get amped up for these crap games? Sure maybe 1 or 2 of them, but by the time you're playing your 3rd and 4th no-name shit team, it's kinda hard to get amped.

2016 can't get here soon enough IMO. 2/3 of a season being worth watching isn't really a good argument for there being enough compelling games.

You just have no clue about other teams schedules, as evidenced by your statement that ULL could run USA off the field. What you are really asking is for MSU to schedule much harder than everybody else in the country. We have a top 25 SOS every year and have had a couple of years since Mullen has been here where we've been in the top 5. On a rolling average, we are probably way up there as far as our SOS. Everybody plays cupcakes, both because they're cheaper buy games and because they need weeks where they can recover from injuries and reduce the beating their key players take.

Maybe it would be fun if teams from teh power 5 only played other teams from the Power 5, but you have to be a complete moron to actually want us to try to have a top 5 SOS every year, which is basically what people are asking for when they complain about how easy our schedule is.

[dawgs]

Yeah, I'm sure we "should" beat them 60-10 in your small world. Again, that reality thing gets in the way of your own self-interests.



You lack the fundamental understanding of how a football season works. The players are only physically able to get 'amped' for about 4-5 games per year. That's where our issues arise. Coaches have to figure out which games to lasso in the 'emotion'. Is it at Alabama? A game that we probably won't win no matter what? Or is it home vs. Auburn? This is why easy OOC games are paramount.....they don't require our 'A' game.....we can save those for the SEC teams. King Jackie said this best years ago.



I'm just fine with watching us win games, whoever they are against. When you've seen the history I have, you understand this simple concept. But you are the type of guy who would rather watch "compelling" games in 2016, rather than watch probably our most successful run in history in 2014 and 2015.

You are absolutely the embodiment of the fan that I HATE. Remember, I said "HATE", which means I do care what you think, simply because you are a fellow State fan. Opposite of caring is indifference. Whatever though, different strokes for different folks. I'm just one guy, doesn't matter what I think, and I'm definitely not going to change your opinion.

Yes we should beat then by at least 4 TDs. We may not, and if we don't, that will concern me.

And if you think a weak non-conference schedule will temper my excitement if we are in position to win the west, you are wrong. But go ahead and project assumptions on me like that I'd rather watch us play a decent non-conference game in 2016 than enjoy a (hopefully) successful 2014. Yeah, it's that black and white. There's no room to thoroughly enjoy what (hopefully) is a successful 2014, but simultaneously prefer us to play 1 decent big 5 non-conference game.

I fail to see why that embodies the type of fan you hate. Seems like a pretty innocuous reason to hate a type of fan.

"You want to watch decent non-conference games!?!?!?!???&3!1 I ****ing hate you!!!!!!"

[dawgs]

You just have no clue about other teams schedules, as evidenced by your statement that ULL could run USA off the field. What you are really asking is for MSU to schedule much harder than everybody else in the country. We have a top 25 SOS every year and have had a couple of years since Mullen has been here where we've been in the top 5. On a rolling average, we are probably way up there as far as our SOS. Everybody plays cupcakes, both because they're cheaper buy games and because they need weeks where they can recover from injuries and reduce the beating their key players take.

Maybe it would be fun if teams from teh power 5 only played other teams from the Power 5, but you have to be a complete moron to actually want us to try to have a top 5 SOS every year, which is basically what people are asking for when they complain about how easy our schedule is.

No one is saying to play no cupcakes. Nor is anyone advocating playing elite programs OOC.

But hey, keep setting up that strawman to knock down!

[FISHDAWG]

Yeah, I'm sure we "should" beat them 60-10 in your small world. Again, that reality thing gets in the way of your own self-interests.



You lack the fundamental understanding of how a football season works. The players are only physically able to get 'amped' for about 4-5 games per year. That's where our issues arise. Coaches have to figure out which games to lasso in the 'emotion'. Is it at Alabama? A game that we probably won't win no matter what? Or is it home vs. Auburn? This is why easy OOC games are paramount.....they don't require our 'A' game.....we can save those for the SEC teams. King Jackie said this best years ago.




You are absolutely the embodiment of the fan that I HATE. Remember, I said "HATE", which means I do care what you think, simply because you are a fellow State fan. Opposite of caring is indifference. Whatever though, different strokes for different folks. I'm just one guy, doesn't matter what I think, and I'm definitely not going to change your opinion.

no asshole ... I think you're just full of hate period ... newsflash, you don't have to try to sound like a badass on everything

ETA - whatever your response is I won't see it as I am finally blocking your pathetic post from here on out

[Dawg61]

I love the patsy games. Relax, get drunk and gives us all a chance to see what the newbies can do. They get good looks for the coaches to evaluate and experience for later in the season when we might need them. We probably lose the Egg Bowl this last year if Williams hadn't been able to get valuable experience earlier in the season.

[Johnson85]

No one is saying to play no cupcakes. Nor is anyone advocating playing elite programs OOC.

But hey, keep setting up that strawman to knock down!

You're just saying top 25 SOS every year and some yeras of top 5 SOS is not hard enough, regardless of what you think you're saying. We get to see more good teams and fewer patsies than just about anybody in the country, year in, year out.
Yes, it'd be nice to schedule bottom feeders from major conferences each year so that we could get almost as many breaks as every other team while still maintaining a little more excitement (if only because of perception), but even if we could identify those several years in advance, those are the schools everybody wants to schedule, and if you are those schools, you don't want to schedule an almost certain loss against a team that's not a traditional power.

[dawgs]

You're just saying top 25 SOS every year and some yeras of top 5 SOS is not hard enough, regardless of what you think you're saying. We get to see more good teams and fewer patsies than just about anybody in the country, year in, year out.
Yes, it'd be nice to schedule bottom feeders from major conferences each year so that we could get almost as many breaks as every other team while still maintaining a little more excitement (if only because of perception), but even if we could identify those several years in advance, those are the schools everybody wants to schedule, and if you are those schools, you don't want to schedule an almost certain loss against a team that's not a traditional power.

It's 1 game. And according to teamrankings.com SoS power ranking we had the 32nd toughest schedule WITH okie st in 2013. Sagarin had us 15th in 2013. Anderson & Hester and billingsley had us 9th. Cooley matrix had us 8th. Massey had us 24th.

So playing 1 10 W big 5 opponent didn't result in any of the major computer rankings putting out 2013 SoS in the top 7. So to suggest that scheduling 1 or even 2 avg or below avg big 5 non-conference games to go with our cupcakes is going to make our schedule impossibly hard is just flat out wrong.

Also, let's move past the idea that scheduling anyone is "an almost certain loss". There's maybe 2-3 OOC teams each season that'd be "an almost certain loss", but everyone else we could beat if we play a good game. That's where we are as a program. And shit, ole miss got a lot of run beating a crappy Texas team because it said Texas on their jersey. So sometimes it's worth gambling on catching a traditional power being down. At this point we shouldn't view any game outside of a top 5 team to be "an almost certain loss". We could have beaten okie st last year if we hadn't lost Russell and gone so conservative with dak. We were all concerned about our D, but the D played a good game, good enough to win with any offense at all.

[Dawg61]

It's 1 game. And according to teamrankings.com SoS power ranking we had the 32nd toughest schedule WITH okie st in 2013. Sagarin had us 15th in 2013. Anderson & Hester and billingsley had us 9th. Cooley matrix had us 8th. Massey had us 24th.

So playing 1 10 W big 5 opponent didn't result in any of the major computer rankings putting out 2013 SoS in the top 7. So to suggest that scheduling 1 or even 2 avg or below avg big 5 non-conference games to go with our cupcakes is going to make our schedule impossibly hard is just flat out wrong.

Why are we arguing this? Next year is the very last year we will have your "issue" arise. Enjoy the patsies while we still got em.

[dawgs]

Why are we arguing this? Next year is the very last year we will have your "issue" arise. Enjoy the patsies while we still got em.

Cause I'm going to point out when you're wrong ;)

[Goat Holder]

It's 1 game. And according to teamrankings.com SoS power ranking we had the 32nd toughest schedule WITH okie st in 2013. Sagarin had us 15th in 2013. Anderson & Hester and billingsley had us 9th. Cooley matrix had us 8th. Massey had us 24th.

So playing 1 10 W big 5 opponent didn't result in any of the major computer rankings putting out 2013 SoS in the top 7. So to suggest that scheduling 1 or even 2 avg or below avg big 5 non-conference games to go with our cupcakes is going to make our schedule impossibly hard is just flat out wrong.

Also, let's move past the idea that scheduling anyone is "an almost certain loss". There's maybe 2-3 OOC teams each season that'd be "an almost certain loss", but everyone else we could beat if we play a good game. That's where we are as a program. And shit, ole miss got a lot of run beating a crappy Texas team because it said Texas on their jersey. So sometimes it's worth gambling on catching a traditional power being down. At this point we shouldn't view any game outside of a top 5 team to be "an almost certain loss". We could have beaten okie st last year if we hadn't lost Russell and gone so conservative with dak. We were all concerned about our D, but the D played a good game, good enough to win with any offense at all.

I'll compromise with you dawgs. As long as this game takes the place of the USA/UAB/Louisiana Tech/Troy/USM road games, I'm all for it. Unfortunately that's not going to happen. We're still going to have to play the Big 5 game home/home, and we'll still be playing 2 for 1s for the others. So we'll be playing 6 home games half the time. This is the reason we don't have a 2016/2017 home/home lined up yet.

[Schultzy]

At Neyland Stadium last year. South Alabama 24 UT 31 and the game ended with USA inside Tennessee's 10 yard line.

Just because they've been around only a short period of time doesn't mean they are a cupcake, they're not. They are perceived easy but actually more difficult than perceived to be.

[dawgs]

I'll compromise with you dawgs. As long as this game takes the place of the USA/UAB/Louisiana Tech/Troy/USM road games, I'm all for it. Unfortunately that's not going to happen. We're still going to have to play the Big 5 game home/home, and we'll still be playing 2 for 1s for the others. So we'll be playing 6 home games half the time. This is the reason we don't have a 2016/2017 home/home lined up yet.

That sec network money you are wondering about not being used on the baseball stadium should ensure that we always play 7 home games and never have to do some bullshit 2-for-1 with c-USA and sun belt teams.

[Johnson85]

It's 1 game. And according to teamrankings.com SoS power ranking we had the 32nd toughest schedule WITH okie st in 2013. Sagarin had us 15th in 2013. Anderson & Hester and billingsley had us 9th. Cooley matrix had us 8th. Massey had us 24th.

So playing 1 10 W big 5 opponent didn't result in any of the major computer rankings putting out 2013 SoS in the top 7. So to suggest that scheduling 1 or even 2 avg or below avg big 5 non-conference games to go with our cupcakes is going to make our schedule impossibly hard is just flat out wrong.

Also, let's move past the idea that scheduling anyone is "an almost certain loss". There's maybe 2-3 OOC teams each season that'd be "an almost certain loss", but everyone else we could beat if we play a good game. That's where we are as a program. And shit, ole miss got a lot of run beating a crappy Texas team because it said Texas on their jersey. So sometimes it's worth gambling on catching a traditional power being down. At this point we shouldn't view any game outside of a top 5 team to be "an almost certain loss". We could have beaten okie st last year if we hadn't lost Russell and gone so conservative with dak. We were all concerned about our D, but the D played a good game, good enough to win with any offense at all.
Yes, each individual game is one game. Congratulations for stating the obvious. But it matters how many tough games we play overall. Just on our West schedule, we are going to face 3 top 20 teams pretty much every year, and some times it will be 3 top 15 teams, with two of the teams being in the top 5. Then roughly half the time we will have a top 25 team from the east, depending on our luck with our rotating opponent.

It's pretty much guaranteed that 6 of our 8 SEC opponents will be top 40 teams. Sometimes 3 of those will be ranked, sometimes all 6 will spend time ranked over the season. There aren't but a handful of teams each year that play have their games against teams in the top 25. If ranking system doesn't have our SOS in the top 25, it's only because they distinguish between the 120th best team and 200th best team, when there is no practical difference between them as far as recovery time and our location and need to avoid high cost buy games ensures we will have to fill out our schedule with cupcakes that put a higher drag on numerical rankings that do that.

[dawgs]

Yes, each individual game is one game. Congratulations for stating the obvious. But it matters how many tough games we play overall. Just on our West schedule, we are going to face 3 top 20 teams pretty much every year, and some times it will be 3 top 15 teams, with two of the teams being in the top 5. Then roughly half the time we will have a top 25 team from the east, depending on our luck with our rotating opponent.

It's pretty much guaranteed that 6 of our 8 SEC opponents will be top 40 teams. Sometimes 3 of those will be ranked, sometimes all 6 will spend time ranked over the season. There aren't but a handful of teams each year that play have their games against teams in the top 25. If ranking system doesn't have our SOS in the top 25, it's only because they distinguish between the 120th best team and 200th best team, when there is no practical difference between them as far as recovery time and our location and need to avoid high cost buy games ensures we will have to fill out our schedule with cupcakes that put a higher drag on numerical rankings that do that.

huh? the point is that even when we played a 10 W okie st last year, our SoS was strong, but not exactly unreasonably tough like some of yall make it sound like our schedule would be if we added 1 OOC game against a mid-tier big 5 game. if we played someone like tcu this year instead of south alabama, no one would bash our OOC, and our SoS would be a little stronger, but still not as strong as last year's (unless TCU wins 10+ games). yall keep saying i want us to play a top 5 SoS, when that's not even remotely true (hey look, it's a strawman again!), because i liked the okie st game last year, and i'm not even advocating playing a team that's been as strong as them the last 5 years, and yet despite playing them and them winning 10 games, we still didn't have a SoS by any of the various computer rankings that was as strong as the SoS yall are saying we'll have if we played a TCU or oregon st or colorado or something.

[Dawgcentral]

The attempt was made to have a schedule of reasonable strength. The only games we've played during the Mullen Era that have been more like scrimmages have been our games with the SWAC. It wasn't too long ago we were losing to regional match ups like Tulane and Memphis, and if not losing them, they were way too close. While I'm glad to see that we no longer lose to those teams, I don't mind having 3 of them on the schedule each year. Not a bad time traveling to New Orleans or Memphis for a game. We'll be introducing a yearly game with a Power 5 conference soon enough. We play against teams week after week that have won national titles in recent years. How many teams outside of the SEC West do this?

We have plenty of games with high tension each season. Maybe I'm just old and enjoy relaxing at a few, while also enjoying some games at the tailgate. Good food, good times, and good friends,..all without the obnoxious colors and chants we have to endure on campus each year.

[Todd4State]

huh? the point is that even when we played a 10 W okie st last year, our SoS was strong, but not exactly unreasonably tough like some of yall make it sound like our schedule would be if we added 1 OOC game against a mid-tier big 5 game. if we played someone like tcu this year instead of south alabama, no one would bash our OOC, and our SoS would be a little stronger, but still not as strong as last year's (unless TCU wins 10+ games). yall keep saying i want us to play a top 5 SoS, when that's not even remotely true (hey look, it's a strawman again!), because i liked the okie st game last year, and i'm not even advocating playing a team that's been as strong as them the last 5 years, and yet despite playing them and them winning 10 games, we still didn't have a SoS by any of the various computer rankings that was as strong as the SoS yall are saying we'll have if we played a TCU or oregon st or colorado or something.

The fact of the matter is playing someone like Colorado is more unpredictable than it is a Sun Belt team. Even if the Sun Belt team becomes ULL caliber, we're still probably going to beat them. Colorado could very well do something that we have no clue is going to happen now- say hire Tony Dungy for an incredibly random example- and then become a top 10 team by the time we play them. At the same time, they could very well be an 0-12 type team. It's just riskier.

[Todd4State]

The attempt was made to have a schedule of reasonable strength. The only games we've played during the Mullen Era that have been more like scrimmages have been our games with the SWAC. It wasn't too long ago we were losing to regional match ups like Tulane and Memphis, and if not losing them, they were way too close. While I'm glad to see that we no longer lose to those teams, I don't mind having 3 of them on the schedule each year. Not a bad time traveling to New Orleans or Memphis for a game. We'll be introducing a yearly game with a Power 5 conference soon enough. We play against teams week after week that have won national titles in recent years. How many teams outside of the SEC West do this?

We have plenty of games with high tension each season. Maybe I'm just old and enjoy relaxing at a few, while also enjoying some games at the tailgate. Good food, good times, and good friends,..all without the obnoxious colors and chants we have to endure on campus each year.

Personally, I've always enjoyed playing a power 5 team- in a bowl.

I think that's going to be one of the biggest negative effects on us- it's going to make it more difficult for us to go to a NYD bowl. See last year. We don't play Oklahoma State and we play someone like Tulane (who went to a bowl by the way) and we get to seven wins, we probably end up in the Music City playing GT instead of Ole Miss. We also may not have had the rash of injuries that we suffered against OSU and those players like Hughes, Malone, Tyler etc. healthy might have helped us pull off an upset of Auburn or someone like that.

[Todd4State]

That sec network money you are wondering about not being used on the baseball stadium should ensure that we always play 7 home games and never have to do some bullshit 2-for-1 with c-USA and sun belt teams.

So, I guess you're excited about Tucson and Manhatten, KS and not playing in Starkville?

If your answer is yes, I expect mandatory attendance from you at those road games.

[Goat Holder]

The attempt was made to have a schedule of reasonable strength. The only games we've played during the Mullen Era that have been more like scrimmages have been our games with the SWAC. It wasn't too long ago we were losing to regional match ups like Tulane and Memphis, and if not losing them, they were way too close. While I'm glad to see that we no longer lose to those teams, I don't mind having 3 of them on the schedule each year. Not a bad time traveling to New Orleans or Memphis for a game. We'll be introducing a yearly game with a Power 5 conference soon enough. We play against teams week after week that have won national titles in recent years. How many teams outside of the SEC West do this?

We have plenty of games with high tension each season. Maybe I'm just old and enjoy relaxing at a few, while also enjoying some games at the tailgate. Good food, good times, and good friends,..all without the obnoxious colors and chants we have to endure on campus each year.


Personally, I've always enjoyed playing a power 5 team- in a bowl.

I think that's going to be one of the biggest negative effects on us- it's going to make it more difficult for us to go to a NYD bowl. See last year. We don't play Oklahoma State and we play someone like Tulane (who went to a bowl by the way) and we get to seven wins, we probably end up in the Music City playing GT instead of Ole Miss. We also may not have had the rash of injuries that we suffered against OSU and those players like Hughes, Malone, Tyler etc. healthy might have helped us pull off an upset of Auburn or someone like that.

Both excellent points. After this thread, it's amazing that ANYONE who actually cares more about MSU than themselves, could want to schedule any harder than we have this year.

[dawgs]

So, I guess you're excited about Tucson and Manhatten, KS and not playing in Starkville?

If your answer is yes, I expect mandatory attendance from you at those road games.

No, we'll either play 4 home conference games and 3 cupcake OOC home games with 4 conf road games and 1 big 5 OOC road game; or we'll play 4 home conf games and 2-3 cupcake OOC home games and 1 big 5 OOC home game, and 4 conf road games. I don't see a situation where we play less than 7 home games unless the big 5 set up a scheduling system where everyone plays 6 home and 6 away games.

I am more excited about playing a home and home with k st, ncsu, and Arizona than I am about a home game every year against 1 of uab, Tulane, Memphis, Troy, etc. I don't see how any fan of good football wouldn't be. I'll be at Tucson though.

[dawgs]

Personally, I've always enjoyed playing a power 5 team- in a bowl.

I think that's going to be one of the biggest negative effects on us- it's going to make it more difficult for us to go to a NYD bowl. See last year. We don't play Oklahoma State and we play someone like Tulane (who went to a bowl by the way) and we get to seven wins, we probably end up in the Music City playing GT instead of Ole Miss. We also may not have had the rash of injuries that we suffered against OSU and those players like Hughes, Malone, Tyler etc. healthy might have helped us pull off an upset of Auburn or someone like that.

Or dak never gets meaningful snaps to develop last year and look like a future stud heading into 2014 (oh yeah and he was a big reason we nearly beat auburn, with Russell back there the whole game, I doubt we're in position to win the game), Clayborn doesn't get as many snaps at OL that will be key in his development, and Kendrick market doesn't show he's a sec caliber player. Hell, we might have played better in that auburn game because we actually played a real team instead of having a glorified scrimmage against a sun belt team. Our guys knew where ready for that kinda speed and hitting.

As for the liberty bowl v. the music city bowl, I honestly couldn't care less about which of those bowls we went to. Neither carries any more prestige than the other, main think is we went bowling.

Fwiw 7-5 ole miss went on the road and beat Texas. TEXAS. Yeah it was a down Texas team that just fired their DC the week before, but it's TEXAS. That name carries a lot of weight, and is one of the big reasons ole miss got hype and is getting hype. So while you might catch a wvu or gt in a banner year, you can also catch a Texas in a bad year.

[dawgs]

Both excellent points. After this thread, it's amazing that ANYONE who actually cares more about MSU than themselves, could want to schedule any harder than we have this year.

Maybe I just think it's fun to test ourselves against comparable opponents instead of outmatched opponents. Maybe I think winning a big OOC game does a ton for your reputation and confidence. Maybe for every bill Snyder, there's an Oregon or f$u that weren't scared to play anyone and built elite programs out of programs with next to no history.

[Dawgcentral]

Personally, I've always enjoyed playing a power 5 team- in a bowl.
I think that's going to be one of the biggest negative effects on us- it's going to make it more difficult for us to go to a NYD bowl. See last year. We don't play Oklahoma State and we play someone like Tulane (who went to a bowl by the way) and we get to seven wins, we probably end up in the Music City playing GT instead of Ole Miss. We also may not have had the rash of injuries that we suffered against OSU and those players like Hughes, Malone, Tyler etc. healthy might have helped us pull off an upset of Auburn or someone like that.

I won't disagree with that. Though I'm one who believes we would have had more success with an OSU type team a bit later in the season. It's hard to say what would have, or could have been. But these are the challenges we'll be facing in the future. We're looking at Arizona, Kansas St., and NC State soon. I'm hoping the timing will be more advantageous for those games. Just about any time besides the first game would be better from this view at this point in time.