Biggest game of Mullen's tenure....

[Goat Holder]

Unfortunate it's in Baton Rouge, but it is. We must win or be very competitive on the national stage. ESPN night game. People will watch. Dak's return to the school he spurned last minute. We've had 3 games to prep and develop.

We are going to win this bitch. I feel it. I think our D can shut them down and for once, the talent levels are similar, if nothing else just because they are young.

Now, that's my logic talking. Reality says they rip us similar to the 2010 game simply because of the names of the 2 teams. But Mullen has changed many of the Moo U stereotypes, maybe the voodoo curse is next.

[PMDawg]

We have labeled about 6 games this way. I think he is 0 fer in those games. Unless you count the win over 3-9 Auburn.

[Statefan]

Beat UGA for the first time in forever
Beat UF in the swamp for the first time in forever
Won in the state of Arkansas for the first time ever
4 straight bowl games and Egg Bowl domination for the first time in forever

One more thing left gentlemen

[BrunswickDawg]

While the "win the big one" is important in general - "win the big one and get the LSU curse off our back" takes it up a notch. My first MSU season as a "recovering UGA-holic" was 1990. We've won THREE GAMES in that period! Please get that monkey off our back!

[sleepy dawg]

We have labeled about 6 games this way. I think he is 0 fer in those games. Unless you count the win over 3-9 Auburn.

At least 6. About every few weeks we have the biggest game of Mullen's tenure apparently.

[SignalToNoise]

It is possible for future games to have a perceived larger impact than previous games that had that title and therefore be "the biggest game of Mullen's career". This is especially true in a program like ours that is trying to establish itself as solidified mid-tier SEC team.

But yes that label does seem to be overused in general.

[Political Hack]

big game... not the "biggest" IMO. Egg bowl last year may have been the biggest.

[MarketingBully01]

Any win in Death Valley against even a marginal LSU team would be a big win for us. This LSU team more then likely at least moves up to #9 with Southern Cal losing. IMO, it would be the second to third biggest upset of the year next to Va Tech's win over OSU and BC's win over Southern Cal. I'd say it will be a huge win for Mullen and would set the tone for the year that we are for real. With that said, I like our chances.

[Goat Holder]

These two guys get it:


Beat UGA for the first time in forever
Beat UF in the swamp for the first time in forever
Won in the state of Arkansas for the first time ever
4 straight bowl games and Egg Bowl domination for the first time in forever

One more thing left gentlemen


While the "win the big one" is important in general - "win the big one and get the LSU curse off our back" takes it up a notch. My first MSU season as a "recovering UGA-holic" was 1990. We've won THREE GAMES in that period! Please get that monkey off our back!

[fishwater99]

It's Time for a Top 20 win.

[Goat Holder]

It's Time for a Top 20 win.

While I do not care for the stupid way you go about sharing your opinion, I, in general, agree with the premise. It's time to beat somebody that's better than 7-5 caliber, and do it on the big stage.

[CadaverDawg]

While I do not care for the stupid way you go about sharing your opinion, I, in general, agree with the premise. It's time to beat somebody that's better than 7-5 caliber, and do it on the big stage.

I wish this game was in Starkville. This isn't one of the better LSU teams we've played lately, but the home field advantage is just so big down there. I think we have a real shot. If we get beaten fairly easily...it will be a big big blow to our expectations for the rest of the year. This LSU team shouldn't beat us soundly, if at all, in my opinion.

[MarketingBully01]

I wish this game was in Starkville. This isn't one of the better LSU teams we've played lately, but the home field advantage is just so big down there. I think we have a real shot. If we get beaten fairly easily...it will be a big big blow to our expectations for the rest of the year. This LSU team shouldn't beat us soundly, if at all, in my opinion.

Agree 100% Cadaver. This will be a 4 quarter fight. My hope is that with the Auburn game the next week for them they will overlook us which would give us a distinct advantage. Not being ranked and giving up those points to UAB reinforce this possibility. If LSU overlooks us, we win easily. If not, I still say we win but it will be a dog fight. I am looking forward to this game. Time to see what we can do against a team ranked highly but we match up well with.

[CadaverDawg]

Agree 100% Cadaver. This will be a 4 quarter fight. My hope is that with the Auburn game the next week for them they will overlook us which would give us a distinct advantage. Not being ranked and giving up those points to UAB reinforce this possibility. If LSU overlooks us, we win easily. If not, I still say we win but it will be a dog fight. I am looking forward to this game. Time to see what we can do against a team ranked highly but we match up well with.

LSU plays New Mexico after us...they'll be focused. Auburn is two weeks after us I believe

[Quaoarsking]

Problem is --

if we beat LSU, they'll end up 8-4, and the Fishwater-types of this board will say that "LSU was down, so the win doesn't count."

See Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc. All of those teams would have had much better seasons had they beaten us, and the bashers would be giving them as examples of how Mullen could've had a signature win.

Until we beat a team that goes on to win the national title (it's possible -- Ole Miss did it in 2008), some people are still going to whine.

[Goat Holder]

Problem is --

if we beat LSU, they'll end up 8-4, and the Fishwater-types of this board will say that "LSU was down, so the win doesn't count."

See Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc. All of those teams would have had much better seasons had they beaten us, and the bashers would be giving them as examples of how Mullen could've had a signature win.

Until we beat a team that goes on to win the national title (it's possible -- Ole Miss did it in 2008), some people are still going to whine.

I see where you are coming from with this, and I somewhat agree. But 2010 says otherwise, we end up 8-4 and only lost to people that were like 9-3 or better. Nobody was bitching. The problem in 2011 was that we lost to Auburn and South Carolina. Problem in 2012 was that we lost to Ole Miss. Problem in 2013 was that we lost to Auburn. All of those are games in which we probably SHOULD have won or had every opportunity to win. So if you DON'T beat the top teams, you need to at least cover all your bases and beat the 8-4 teams and/or don't shit your pants when you have a possibility to win a big game (like Auburn - but at the time, nobody knew they were as good as they were).

It's just another step up that we haven't reached since 2010. Again, fishwater's communication method is sh*t, but the premise is the same.

[sleepy dawg]

We're not beating LSU unless we get lucky. We will very likely have to go for it on 4th a few times and get it, or actually make our field goals.

While it is very hard to tell exactly what your team will be after those first couple of weeks, LSU is very likely a better team than us. I would be surprised if we can make it to a 4-2 record.

[fishwater99]

Problem is --

if we beat LSU, they'll end up 8-4, and the Fishwater-types of this board will say that "LSU was down, so the win doesn't count."

See Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc. All of those teams would have had much better seasons had they beaten us, and the bashers would be giving them as examples of how Mullen could've had a signature win.

Until we beat a team that goes on to win the national title (it's possible -- Ole Miss did it in 2008), some people are still going to whine.

No, I will give him credit for finally beating a Top 20 team and his 1st win vs a Top 25 team since 2010.
I can't wait until Dan gets that signature win.
He also only has 1 win vs teams that finish the season ranked in the Top 25.
This is the year. #justwin

[Quaoarsking]

No, I will give him credit for finally beating a Top 20 team and his 1st win vs a Top 25 team since 2010.
I can't wait until Dan gets that signature win.
He also only has 1 win vs teams that finish the season ranked in the Top 25.
This is the year. #justwin

Maybe you specifically won't, thanks to your undying loyalty to the meaningless "ranking at the time" metric. But if LSU can't beat us at home, they're looking at 4 or 5 losses this year and may finish unranked. Lots of our "fans" will be racing to discount the win because "LSU was down," just like they do with Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc.

Unfortunately, polls disproportionately punish teams for losing to us, because lazy voters perceive it as a bad loss. Other teams and fanbases are likely to see losing to us as a horrible loss, and it can derail whole seasons. Had Tennessee beaten us in 2012, they likely don't unravel, beat Missouri and Vanderbilt (teams who definitely had less talent), and finish ranked at 9-4 after winning their bowl game. People would be pointing to that game as yet another signature win that Mullen could've had, yet because he won it, Tennessee is not perceived as a good win. There was just no way for Mullen to get any credit for it.

Similarly, had Florida beaten us in 2010, or Michigan in 2010, or Ole Miss in 2013, they likely finish ranked and some "fans" point to those as three more "signature win" opportunities that Mullen didn't get. Georgia in 2010 is less certain, because we came in the middle of a losing streak, but it's plausible that they pull it together and finished ranked if they beat us.

If you want to measure Mullen against top 25 teams, it should be his record against teams that finished in the AP top 25 OR that would have finished in the top 25 had they beaten us. Otherwise, you get a situation where Mullen gets discredit for losing but can't get credit for winning. It's not Mullen's fault that we had over a century of futility before he got here that set up pre-existing notions in voters' minds about how bad a loss to us is, and he shouldn't be punished for it.

[Dog316]

Problem is --

if we beat LSU, they'll end up 8-4, and the Fishwater-types of this board will say that "LSU was down, so the win doesn't count."

See Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc. All of those teams would have had much better seasons had they beaten us, and the bashers would be giving them as examples of how Mullen could've had a signature win.

Until we beat a team that goes on to win the national title (it's possible -- Ole Miss did it in 2008), some people are still going to whine.
^^^^^^

Good post. I might add that the message board geniuses will whine no matter what we do. The whiners love to whine, and and our best effort will never be good enough. Perhaps winning the national championship would help, but the whiners would still point out the third and one situation we failed to convert.

Whining is a state of mind. It is like insanity, medication may help, but get off the meds and the whining returns.

[CadaverDawg]

^^^^^^

Good post. I might add that the message board geniuses will whine no matter what we do. The whiners love to whine, and and our best effort will never be good enough. Perhaps winning the national championship would help, but the whiners would still point out the third and one situation we failed to convert.

Whining is a state of mind. It is like insanity, medication may help, but get off the meds and the whining returns.

So you're whining about whiners? #Productive

[cheewgumm]

I'm gonna predict we win
By 10-14. I know I know .... Save your insults.

My reasoning is 4 fold:
1) we will be able to stuff the run enough
2) les is not very creative offensively( normally
No need to be) so he'll just keep pounding and it won't work well enough
3) we will be able to run via dak
4) c jones / p smith sandwich May injure Jenkins

Done and done

[MarketingBully01]

LSU plays New Mexico after us...they'll be focused. Auburn is two weeks after us I believe

Gotcha, well I guess they were focused against Wiscy and for 3.5 quarters Wiscy was beating the shit out of them. Had it not been for three key injuries (their RB and two key DL going down) people would have a much different perception of them.

[MarketingBully01]

I'm gonna predict we win
By 10-14. I know I know .... Save your insults.

My reasoning is 4 fold:
1) we will be able to stuff the run enough
2) les is not very creative offensively( normally
No need to be) so he'll just keep pounding and it won't work well enough
3) we will be able to run via dak
4) c jones / p smith sandwich May injure Jenkins

Done and done

Very good points. We do those things and we will win easily.

[Goat Holder]

Maybe you specifically won't, thanks to your undying loyalty to the meaningless "ranking at the time" metric. But if LSU can't beat us at home, they're looking at 4 or 5 losses this year and may finish unranked. Lots of our "fans" will be racing to discount the win because "LSU was down," just like they do with Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, etc.

In this case, if LSU lost to us, then lost 4 or 5 total games, then wouldn't they technically be 'down'?


Unfortunately, polls disproportionately punish teams for losing to us, because lazy voters perceive it as a bad loss. Other teams and fanbases are likely to see losing to us as a horrible loss, and it can derail whole seasons. Had Tennessee beaten us in 2012, they likely don't unravel, beat Missouri and Vanderbilt (teams who definitely had less talent), and finish ranked at 9-4 after winning their bowl game. People would be pointing to that game as yet another signature win that Mullen could've had, yet because he won it, Tennessee is not perceived as a good win. There was just no way for Mullen to get any credit for it.

Not if we were good enough they wouldn't. We haven't beaten anyone. The end of the year is the perfect time to see how we really shaped up. Facts are, Tennessee finished 5-7. I thought they were a good team and still do, but a signature win it is not.


Similarly, had Florida beaten us in 2010, or Michigan in 2010, or Ole Miss in 2013, they likely finish ranked and some "fans" point to those as three more "signature win" opportunities that Mullen didn't get. Georgia in 2010 is less certain, because we came in the middle of a losing streak, but it's plausible that they pull it together and finished ranked if they beat us.

Florida, Michigan and Georgia were all 6-6, 7-5 type teams. And people DID give us credit for beating Ole Miss last year, even though they ended up 7-5.


If you want to measure Mullen against top 25 teams, it should be his record against teams that finished in the AP top 25 OR that would have finished in the top 25 had they beaten us.

That is plumb stupid. As stupid as fishwater is for sticking to the Top 20 deal, you take it equally as far the other way.


Otherwise, you get a situation where Mullen gets discredit for losing but can't get credit for winning. It's not Mullen's fault that we had over a century of futility before he got here that set up pre-existing notions in voters' minds about how bad a loss to us is, and he shouldn't be punished for it.

This is why rational fans like myself are very happy with 7-5 or 8-4 with a win or two over an SEC-have team every now and again. Acknowledging this doesn't make Mullen a good or bad coach.