In-depth season preview at SBnation

[DancingRabbit]

After you get past the guy's snarky Simmons shaming, there's lots of good info.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/8/15/12457660/mississippi-state-football-2016-preview-schedule-roster

[BeardoMSU]

Really good article.

[QuadrupleOption]

Now MSU will soon take the field, where Mullen's engineered a remarkable run. Here's a list of the eight teams that have finished in the S&P+ top 20 each of the last three years: Alabama, Baylor, Clemson, LSU, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Stanford, and (just barely) USC.

We could very well be 7-1 heading into the A&M game. I realize there's a lot of football prior to that, but I just don't see us losing to Auburn and BYU at this point.

[Taog Redloh]

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/8/15/12457660/mississippi-state-football-2016-preview-schedule-roster

7.4 projected wins.

[ShotgunDawg]

One of the fairest articles about our team & program that I have seen. Mullen has strengths & weaknesses. He's a flawed coach, but he is strong in mostly the right places to build & run a program that can sustain winning.

This article is Shakespearean compared the SDS hack that predicted MSU to go 4-8 due to Prescott doing everything. The cream rises to the top in the media as well. Research & educated opinions trump hype, & hot takes. It always has & always will.

This season sets up to be extremely satisfying, even if we only win 7 or 8 games. It feels like much our winning for the past two years has been credited to Dak, & right or wrong winning 7 or 8 games without him would serve as a nice statement that MSU will continue to win football games for the foreseeable future.

[tireddawg]

Good stuff. Guy did his homework. Mention of Wyatt Roberts.

[Taog Redloh]

One of the fairest articles about our team & program that I have seen. Mullen has strengths & weaknesses. He's a flawed coach, but he is strong in mostly the right places to build & run a program that can sustain winning.

This article is Shakespearean compared the SDS hack that predicted MSU to go 4-8 due to Prescott doing everything. The cream rises to the top in the media as well. Research & educated opinions trump hype, & hot takes. It always has & always will.

This guy's advanced stats are the real deal. If you're a betting man, Bill is the one you should be following. He does a podcast with Steven Godfrey every week.

[Jack Lambert]

I think Ole Miss pushes this Mullen to another school. With help from the CL that narrative comes out and gets pushed real hard close to the Egg Bowl and Signing day. I really hate ole miss and the CL.

When they hire Freeze they went all in on recruiting and PR. I truly believe they cheated and bought players. I truly believe that they give money to reporters to report good stuff on them and bad stuff on State. I don't think it is out of the possibility they give money to ESPN to promote good news and how good Ole Miss is or at least pay ESPN writers to do it for them.

We need to get a little dirty. Not cheating dirty but get dirty on the PR front.

[1bigdawg]

I truly believe that they give money to reporters to report good stuff on them and bad stuff on State. I don't think it is out of the possibility they give money to ESPN to promote good news and how good Ole Miss is or at least pay ESPN writers to do it for them.

I don't believe they give money to reporters. I do think they work harder on developing relationships with them. Yes, I think that means they buy them more meals and generally "entertain" them more. They are all in.

As to ESPN, I have noted before that the head of college sports for ESPN got his masters at UNM and loves the place. That probably makes their reporters and analysts biased, perhaps even unconsciously. They want to cover something where the boss is paying attention.

[Dawgcentral]

Hugh KillinBurgers was an OM beat writer. When a guy as young as he is gets a neck like that of Beano Cook you can tell he's been feeding from the trough.

Amazing that a guy with no editorial experience goes from beat writer to sports editor. And we know how much the CL has fallen since Rick Cleveland got out of there. He reads this page, so I expect Rick to speak up and say it if he never was offered incentives from OM for favorable press.

[Pollodawg]

Best I've seen so far.

[ShotgunDawg]

Best I've seen so far.

You know, it's interesting. Everyone thinks this is an exceptional article yet it only sets our win total at 7.4.

I find that interesting because it kind of shows that MSU fans don't demand sunshine pumpers. We are just so tired of being assumed a bad team & the media writing non-thought out, non-realistic, non-researched pieces based strictly off recruiting rankings that they google about for 5 minutes, that we truly appreciate it when a media member writes something that shows that they took the time to look at our program & team objectively & in depth.

Why can't more media members be this way?

The twitter mob media is just a bunch of fanboys that grew up loving SEC football & just spread their non-thought out, non researched, biased thoughts to the masses. However, it's sneaky bias. It's not that they dislike MSU, it's that they grew up in an SEC where MSU stunk & they are unable to get past that & see reality. It's kind of like you how you assume Thai food is bad, not because you have anything against Thai people, but because you've never tried Thai food or because your grandmother got sick eating Thai food 20 years ago. The common twitter media person is unable to take the jersey off the team & evaluate the team & program for what it truly is. That's what I appreciate about this article. It takes the jersey off the team & evaluates the program in a fair, non-biased way.

[BrunswickDawg]

You know, it's interesting. Everyone thinks this is an exceptional article yet it only sets our win total at 7.4.

I find that interesting because it kind of shows that MSU fans don't demand sunshine pumpers. We are just so tired of being assumed a bad team & the media writing non-thought out, non-realistic, non-researched pieces based strictly off recruiting rankings that they google about for 5 minutes, that we truly appreciate it when a media member writes something that shows that they took the time to look at our program & team objectively & in depth.

Why can't more media members be this way?

The twitter mob media is just a bunch of fanboys that grew up loving SEC football & just spread their non-thought out, non researched, biased thoughts to the masses. However, it's sneaky bias. It's not that they dislike MSU, it's that they grew up in an SEC where MSU stunk & they are unable to get past that & see reality. It's kind of like you how you assume Thai food is bad, not because you have anything against Thai people, but because you've never tried Thai food or because your grandmother got sick eating Thai food 20 years ago. The common twitter media person is unable to take the jersey off the team & evaluate the team & program for what it truly is. That's what I appreciate about this article. It takes the jersey off the team & evaluates the program in a fair, non-biased way.

Yes, it is objective, which is something hard to find. Something else interesting is it had us favored to win 9, which reinforces the idea that if things go our way we will have a season that exceeds expectations.

[archdog]

I get sick Everytime on Thai food, and my stomach can pretty much handle every other type of food. It something about the spice combo.

[ShotgunDawg]

I get sick Everytime on Thai food, and my stomach can pretty much handle every other type of food. It something about the spice combo.

Well, at least you tried it & that's an objective viewpoint.

[blacklistedbully]

This season sets up to be extremely satisfying, even if we only win 7 or 8 games.
:confused:

How in the hell can you call 7 wins, "extremely satisfying" when we have:
S. Bama
SCar
@ UMass
Auburn (free-falling)
@ BYU (assuming we don't get cheated)
@ UK
Samford

Then aTm & UPig at home?

I'll be pissed if we win only 7. I realize some think we may win only 7 this year, but, "extremely satisfying"??

[ShotgunDawg]

:confused:

How in the hell can you call 7 wins, "extremely satisfying" when we have:
S. Bama
SCar
@ UMass
Auburn (free-falling)
@ BYU (assuming we don't get cheated)
@ UK
Samford

Then aTm & UPig at home?

I'll be pissed if we win only 7. I realize some think we may win only 7 this year, but, "extremely satisfying"??

Just making a point that it shows how sustainable the program is. That's all