Playing USM gives me the Willies.....

[Mutt the Hoople]

Maybe it's because I grew up in the 1970's and went to college in the 1980's, but I remember when USM would put a whupping on Mississippi State. They'd take guys that Ole Miss and State overlooked, coach them up, and then let them loose. By the end of the 1970's they were the best football program in Mississippi, regularily beating both schools.

Even the "magical" 1980 season when we beat Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and Ole Miss in order, USM pounded us 42-14.

Maybe South Alabama, Troy, UAB, ULL, etc. have eroded USM's recruiting base, but I still won't feel comfortable playing them until we put a pounding on them like we did Troy State last year.

[Coach34]

They will be worse than the Rice team we played in the bowl game. This aint no Bobby Collins coached Nasty Bunch team anymore

State 48 Nasty Bunch 10

[RC3]

45-7

[War Machine Dawg]

I'll be at least a touch disappointed if we don't break 50. Dan needs to run it up and make a statement, especially to their 10 ignorant fans.

[messageboardsuperhero]

They will be worse than the Rice team we played in the bowl game. This aint no Bobby Collins coached Nasty Bunch team anymore

State 48 Nasty Bunch 10

On paper, they are much worse than Rice.

Just to put it into perspective, Rice won the same conference that USM finished dead last in last season.

[Bully041184]

The spread is around 28+...we'll be fine.

[Political Hack]

48-13

[Political Hack]

31-3 at half.

[JDog13]

Mutt, that's just cause you looked at that post on their board of all those willies.

[fishwater99]

So y'all think we will cover the spread easily.

Can't believe I was banned for stating Mullen's record vs the Top 25.
Crazy.
Thanks to C34 for bringing me back.

[Pollodawg]

Come Sunday morning, they'll be flossing their teeth with Dak and Chris Jones' shoelaces.

[Liverpooldawg]

I grew up in that era. This game scares me as well. We used to think the exact same thing most people are saying in this thread too.

[Pollodawg]

I hope the boys and Dan aren't as afraid of a 1-23 team as some of our fans seem to be.

[Liverpooldawg]

The thing that worries me about it is we won't take them seriously. This is their Super Bowl. If we show up and give them the respect an instate rival deserves it shouldn't be close.

[Coach34]

It's the opening game of the season- our guys will be pumped. They are tired of beating on each other

[Pollodawg]

The thing that worries me about it is we won't take them seriously. This is their Super Bowl. If we show up and give them the respect an instate rival deserves it shouldn't be close.

On the contrary, I think our boys will come out more than motivated for this game. It's not everyday they get a chance to impose their will on the other, other school in this state.

[notsofarawaydawg]

50,000+ vs 10 hell of an advantage Bulldogs

[Todd4State]

USM is 1-10 against SEC teams since 2000- with that lone win coming against Alabama in 2000. They are 2-15 against the SEC since 1996. (Alabama 2000, Georgia 1996)

Worrying about what USM did to us in 1980 would be like us worrying about Ole Miss because they beat us in 1969. It's just a different era of college football. And one that is very unfavorable to USM.

Back in 1980, there weren't recruiting services and Internet message boards with people like- "Hey, did you see that Chris Jones guy from Houston?" It's very difficult to go under the radar nowadays- even a guy like McKinney was "known of"- even though they didn't rate him well.

USM was on a much more even footing with State and Ole Miss because being an Independent in 1980 meant you were basically in the same "league" as people like Notre Dame, Florida State, Penn State, etc. They could sell that to recruits in the early 80's.

Also, we used to play them in the middle of the season, and that was a mistake on our part. I think we're doing the right thing by playing them the first game because I think that will help counter the emotion that USM is going to have in the first half. And on top of that, Bobby Collins graduated from MSU so you know he put special emphasis on that game.

Also, these "new" D-I teams like South Alabama, Troy, Central Florida, South Florida, Georgia State, ULL and etc. are all taking a lot of the talent that they used to get. I think Dan making Mississippi an emphasis has really hurt them too. Guys like Chris Jones, McKinney, Love, Clayborn, Calhoun- all the 2 star guys that we get that turn out to be badasses- they were all going to USM in the late 1990's.

[LC Dawg]

We had a local kid playing for Southern the past two years so I've watched some of their games. They are a very bad football team. They may improve some but they'll be nowhere close to their teams from the past.

[Bully13]

Maybe it's because I grew up in the 1970's and went to college in the 1980's, but I remember when USM would put a whupping on Mississippi State. They'd take guys that Ole Miss and State overlooked, coach them up, and then let them loose. By the end of the 1970's they were the best football program in Mississippi, regularily beating both schools.

Even the "magical" 1980 season when we beat Auburn, Alabama, LSU, and Ole Miss in order, USM pounded us 42-14.

Maybe South Alabama, Troy, UAB, ULL, etc. have eroded USM's recruiting base, but I still won't feel comfortable playing them until we put a pounding on them like we did Troy State last year.

post less, read more often and you will be better off

[Todd4State]

We had a local kid playing for Southern the past two years so I've watched some of their games. They are a very bad football team. They may improve some but they'll be nowhere close to their teams from the past.

I bet they will be better than they were last year.

[DudyDawg]

I bet they will be better than they were last year.

Would be hard not to be....

[NCDawg]

I grew up in that era. This game scares me as well. We used to think the exact same thing most people are saying in this thread too.

And they didn't always beat us with players that Ole Miss and State didn't want. When they started whipping us a few times, it hurt our recruiting-I remember several players we wanted that we lost to USM during that time.

[Reason2succeed]

I think this game will help State in recruiting Mississippi kids. It solidifies State as university of the people of Mississippi. Hopefully, OM gets pressured into playing USM too even though they are too snobbish to stoop to such a level. OM would be much more susceptible to losing to USM because of their arrogance and because fewer of their star players are from Mississippi.

[msstatelp1]

I grew up in that era. This game scares me as well. We used to think the exact same thing most people are saying in this thread too.

I did too and the only thing I can say is that this ain't your Grandpa's Bulldog Football team. I remember the days when we couldn't take any game for granted, especially USM and Memphis. With DM as our coach, I've come to expect wins when we're favored and not worry about how we'll find a way to lose.