Mullen thread

[BB30]

I think Mullen will be here another year. To those that think he has peaked and it is close to time for a change whether it be this year or next dependent on how it plays out, just wanted to pick some brains. What makes our situation better than Tennessee when they got rid of Fulmer? Why are we set up better than Texas, USCW, and Tenn when it comes to making our next hire? I will say I am not quite ready to throw the towel in on Mullen. Tennessee went dormant for a decade, USCW is getting close to that type of lack of success along with Texas.I know most say we are now set up better than ever to be successful and I agree, but the programs listed above have always and still have the resources to be consistently successful. Hell, until Saban showed up at bama they has several years where they were mediocre at best by their standard. This isn't a we just have to settle thread I want to know the legitimate reasons as to why if we were to make a move we would be making a definite upgrade that is sure to lead us to better seasons?

[Dawgbite]

You are forgetting that most people on here are smarter than 90% of the head coaches and AD's in D1 football. A lot of the "get rid of Mullen" sentiment is a knee jerk reaction to the bears cheating their way to success. We all know that we are not going down that road so the next best thing is to fire Mullen because change is always good, right?****

[maroonmania]

You are forgetting that most people on here are smarter than 90% of the head coaches and AD's in D1 football. A lot of the "get rid of Mullen" sentiment is a knee jerk reaction to the bears cheating their way to success. We all know that we are not going down that road so the next best thing is to fire Mullen because change is always good, right?****

Well, to be fair to the fan base, most that are ready for him to go are that way much more for off field reasons than on the field reasons. There is a feeling, right or wrong, among a lot of fans that Mullen is looking for the first decent offer to exit Starkville and has not put the effort into recruiting he should lately because of it. At this point I just say whatever, we can't even hold on to our homegrown AD who was apparently good with just grabbing the next big opportunity/payday. Why should we hold it against our football HC if he is looking when he has no built in loyalty to us?

[BB30]

Well, to be fair to the fan base, most that are ready for him to go are that way much more for off field reasons than on the field reasons. There is a feeling, right or wrong, among a lot of fans that Mullen is looking for the first decent offer to exit Starkville and has not put the effort into recruiting he should lately because of it. At this point I just say whatever, we can't even hold on to our homegrown AD who was apparently good with just grabbing the next big opportunity/payday. Why should we hold it against our football HC if he is looking when he has no built in loyalty to us?

Nail on head. This is a job at the end of the day. But, I still want to know why we are set up to make a better hire and have more sustained success than the programs above. And don't give me the boosters are too involved at those programs etc. There are several people here that think boosters should be involved so that is not a valid excuse. These programs have bigger budgets, bigger Alumni base, and Texas and USCW are in a recruiting hotbed so why the lack of success and repeatedly failed hires? And what differentiates us from them?

[Dawg61]

Well, to be fair to the fan base, most that are ready for him to go are that way much more for off field reasons than on the field reasons. There is a feeling, right or wrong, among a lot of fans that Mullen is looking for the first decent offer to exit Starkville and has not put the effort into recruiting he should lately because of it. At this point I just say whatever, we can't even hold on to our homegrown AD who was apparently good with just grabbing the next big opportunity/payday. Why should we hold it against our football HC if he is looking when he has no built in loyalty to us?

Stricklin's salary just got tripled and he seriously upgraded his job in his field. How can anyone blame him for taking that? He'd be an idiot not to take that job. Who cares anyways cause SS is just a glorified ass-kisser wearing George Sherman's latest driving shoes. He did very little for us besides getting rich donors to donate money. We can get us a yes man fundraiser anytime. I want an AD that will bring us championships. I want one that has the stones to force Dan to fire his OL coach and one that will help Dan get what he needs to start signing 5* recruits. Dan can't go anywhere either btw because we pay him so much it eliminates all his other options. NOBODY is going to pay Dan $4.25 million a year but MSU. His contract is slightly brilliant. It kills any other options for him.

[Dawgbite]

As fans we only want what we think is best for our team and school, but as employees they want what is best for themselves and their family. I can't fault either one of them for that, I can fault Mullen for doing it in a public way but in his profession it is hard to avoid. All I know is that the past eight years have been the best time in my half century of memory, it is unfortunate that it happens at the same time as Saban taking Bama into legendary territory and it is frustrating seeing the Bears buying wins and the NCAA dragging their feet. Can we do better? All I know is they better have better already lined up before they fire Mullen. A Rick Ray type hire would handicap the program for 10+ years. Football can't regroup as fast as basketball. That fear is what makes me overlook some of Mullen's perceived faults. I would like to be a fly on the wall at the first meeting between Mullen and the new AD.

[maroonmania]

Stricklin's salary just got tripled and he seriously upgraded his job in his field. How can anyone blame him for taking that? He'd be an idiot not to take that job. Who cares anyways cause SS is just a glorified ass-kisser wearing George Sherman's latest driving shoes. He did very little for us besides getting rich donors to donate money. We can get us a yes man fundraiser anytime. I want an AD that will bring us championships. I want one that has the stones to force Dan to fire his OL coach and one that will help Dan get what he needs to start signing 5* recruits. Dan can't go anywhere either btw because we pay him so much it eliminates all his other options. NOBODY is going to pay Dan $4.25 million a year but MSU. His contract is slightly brilliant. It kills any other options for him.

First, Stricklin MAY have doubled his salary. If we went from 500k to an offer of 750K then he didn't even do that given the FL job was just a touch over a million. I think the main thing for Stricklin was the higher profile athletic program moreso than even the money. So if Mullen is working hard to get a job at a higher profile football program then I guess we should have the same attitude that he "would be an idiot not to try and get that job". We are just little ol' MSU anyway. That's exactly what it sounds like when our own fans are more than OK with any of our athletic staff leaving to take the exact SAME position at a different school in the SAME conference as we are.

[Maroonthirteen]

IF Mullen leaves on his own accord, we MIGHT get lucky and land a guy from a non-P5 school. Hud or Norvell.

Otherwise....without an AD in place.....we are probably getting Hud or some desperate retread looking to get back into the game.

We better be kissing Mulllen's tail to stay.

Who would want to go to work somewhere and not know who their boss was?

[maroonmania]

Nail on head. This is a job at the end of the day. But, I still want to know why we are set up to make a better hire and have more sustained success than the programs above. And don't give me the boosters are too involved at those programs etc. There are several people here that think boosters should be involved so that is not a valid excuse. These programs have bigger budgets, bigger Alumni base, and Texas and USCW are in a recruiting hotbed so why the lack of success and repeatedly failed hires? And what differentiates us from them?

We are certainly in the best shape we have ever been in to attract a high quality football coach but certainly jobs at Texas and USC are going to attract much bigger names.

[Dawg61]

First, Stricklin MAY have doubled his salary. If we went from 500k to an offer of 750K then he didn't even do that given the FL job was just a touch over a million. I think the main thing for Stricklin was the higher profile athletic program moreso than even the money. So if Mullen is working hard to get a job at a higher profile football program then I guess we should have the same attitude that he "would be an idiot not to try and get that job". We are just little ol' MSU anyway. That's exactly what it sounds like when our own fans are more than OK with any of our athletic staff leaving to take the exact SAME position at a different school in the SAME conference as we are.

Little ol MSU attitude has nothing to do with it. It's FLORIDA bro how can you expect him not to take that? He HAS TO TAKE THAT JOB. Be happy for him.

[the59dawg]

IF Mullen leaves on his own accord, we MIGHT get lucky and land a guy from a non-P5 school. Hud or Norvell.

Otherwise....without an AD in place.....we are probably getting Hud or some desperate retread looking to get back into the game.

We better be kissing Mulllen's tail to stay.

Who would want to go to work somewhere and not know who their boss was?

He might leave of his own accord, but he might (probably) not. Not having a boss is not all bad, but he does have to satisfy Keenum and I'm sure he knows what he has to do to accomplish that. He doesn't have to have a boss to perform his job. We'll have an AD before he makes such a decision to leave.

[NCDawg]

Stricklin's salary just got tripled and he seriously upgraded his job in his field. How can anyone blame him for taking that? He'd be an idiot not to take that job. Who cares anyways cause SS is just a glorified ass-kisser wearing George Sherman's latest driving shoes. He did very little for us besides getting rich donors to donate money. We can get us a yes man fundraiser anytime. I want an AD that will bring us championships. I want one that has the stones to force Dan to fire his OL coach and one that will help Dan get what he needs to start signing 5* recruits. Dan can't go anywhere either btw because we pay him so much it eliminates all his other options. NOBODY is going to pay Dan $4.25 million a year but MSU. His contract is slightly brilliant. It kills any other options for him.

I pretty much agree with this. Dan is a poor recruiter and will not do what's necessary to improve the team; specifically, get rid of the OL coach who is not getting the job done. We pay him so much that no other school will match it, therefore, he will probably be here, drawing his paycheck until he takes a lower paying job, or he is fired.

[maroonmania]

Little ol MSU attitude has nothing to do with it. It's FLORIDA bro how can you expect him not to take that? He HAS TO TAKE THAT JOB. Be happy for him.

Point is, if everyone is fine and dandy about Stricklin moving on to "greener pastures" then everyone should be fine and dandy with Mullen looking for greener pastures. And if he lucks up and lands one we should "be happy for him". I'm just saying we can't have it both ways. And personally I'm not real happy with being a stepping stone school whether its Florida, Texas, Alabama or anyone else but I realize that is where we are for the most part.

[RocketDawg]

You are forgetting that most people on here are much smarter and experienced than 90% of the head coaches and AD's in D1 football. A lot of the "get rid of Mullen" sentiment is a knee jerk reaction to the bears cheating their way to success. We all know that we are not going down that road so the next best thing is to fire Mullen because change is always good, right?****

FIFY. Not only is a lot of the animosity due to not beating Freeze (was and always is over stressed in my opinion), a good deal of is is due to losing to an FCS team that we should have dominated. Crap happens to the best of us. Mullen didn't try to lose the game, but I think he, the coaching staff, and the players got complacent. They'll do a lot better against many of the big boys of the SEC.

[Dawg61]

Point is, if everyone is fine and dandy about Stricklin moving on to "greener pastures" then everyone should be fine and dandy with Mullen looking for greener pastures. And if he lucks up and lands one we should "be happy for him". I'm just saying we can't have it both ways. And personally I'm not real happy with being a stepping stone school whether its Florida, Texas, Alabama or anyone else but I realize that is where we are for the most part.

Every school is a stepping stone to Florida, Texas and Alabama. If you can't handle that fact idk what to tell you. I am fine with Mullen taking a better job for more money and I would be happy for him. Problem for him though is he won't be able to do that like Stricklin. Losing Stricklin has almost no effect on our football program at all. We can go two years without an AD and you nor I nor anyone else will even notice. I don't give a shit that SS is gone because he didn't do anything besides be a cheerleader and raise money for MSU. That's it. I am not fine with Mullen trying to take worse jobs or using them to get more money from us. He makes an absurd amount already in a town and state that stretches his dollar farther than anywhere else not named Tijuana.

[Todd4State]

Tennessee made the mistake of hanging on to Fulmer too long because he won a NC. Then Lane Kiffen came in for only a year and didn’t have the opportunity to build a program that was already rebuilding. Had they fired Fulmer a year or two earlier in 2005 after going 5-6 I doubt they have the rebuilding job that they did. Kiffen compounded things.

USCw went down because of probation. Nothing more nothing less. In all honesty they probably should have been more patient with Kiffen so that they wouldn’t have this carousel of coaches thing going on. Once they get through probation they will be more than fine. They still have been recruiting at an extremely high level but probation killed their depth.

Texas also made the mistake of hanging on to Mack Brown for too long. They should have parted ways after going 5-7 in 2010. They’re paying for it now because if you hang on for too long recruiting suffers. Recruiting suffering leads to bad teams. They’ll fire Strong and go ahead and hire Tom Herman which doesn’t sound too bad to me.

Alabama demands National Championships and that’s why they overpaid Saban and why they have National Championships. Saban demands excellence just as much as their fans do. Shula took over just after Alabama was coming off of probation and a lot of people forget that he went 10-2 in 2005. He would not have won as much as Saban is now.

We need to learn from Tennessee and Texas and not hold on to a coach for too long simply because they had success in the past. Our leaders need to look for signs of burnout and then act accordingly and not be afraid to do so. A coach that does not want to be here and is not putting in relentless effort is not who we want as a football coach even if they have had previous success.

The second part of your post talks about us. Looking at our current situation it’s not too bad right now- which means it also may not be a bad time to make a change. We have a lot of things going for us right now- being in the SEC, draw well, excellent facilities, and we have money to perform at a high level, plus we’re on a run of six bowls in a row.

For me, it’s more about Dan looking like he is burned out more than anything. He’s looking for jobs every chance he can get, and he does not seem to have the intensity that he once had when he took over. It does not mean that Dan is bad, it just means that he probably needs to make a change for himself.

And as I have talked about before, I look at our situation and the three main sticking points that have been holding us back for years now are recruiting, offensive line play, and defensive performance. I’m not including personnel management because that is merely a symptom and not the cause.

So, I’ll say it again:
Can we recruit better? I think another coach could and would recruit better than Dan. He has made some changes, but his country club is still the main group out recruiting while the new guys and some of our best recruiters are stuck in Starkville because they aren’t on the field staff. It’s absurd that Terrell Buckley is having to do his job and also recruit for Hevesy. Dan has never placed the proper emphasis on recruiting that he should have. And I know a lot of people don’t care for the hat parties at the Army AA Game, but that sort of thing gets fans excited. It would be nice to see one of those go our way for once. And it’s not that Dan hasn’t landed big recruits- it’s just that he hasn’t done it enough. And losing the Golden Triangle last year was completely embarrassing. And how many times have we lost an o-line recruit because “MSU just didn’t call that much”? Roster management has been terrible as well- which is why we aren’t even close to the 85 man limit.

Can the offensive line perform better? Yes. See Jackie. The frustrating part is that Hevesy seems to get a total pass despite the fact that this unit consistently underperforms especially in big games. And it gets even worse when we play big time opponents like LSU or Alabama. We can’t allow those teams to get 5-8 sacks per game and expect to win.

Can the defense perform better here? Yes. See Joe Lee, See Ellis Johnson, and then you have Manny and Geoff Collins doing well thus far with their new teams. And not only that, those defenses don’t look anything like what they were when those two coached for us. That just screams micromanagement.

Sorry for the rant.

[Todd4State]

FIFY. Not only is a lot of the animosity due to not beating Freeze (was and always is over stressed in my opinion), a good deal of is is due to losing to an FCS team that we should have dominated. Crap happens to the best of us. Mullen didn't try to lose the game, but I think he, the coaching staff, and the players got complacent. They'll do a lot better against many of the big boys of the SEC.

It's not just that he lost to Freeze. It's the fact he didn't seem to care or have his team prepared and then proceeded to lose to Freeze. If he had come out and coached hard and the team looked prepared and we lost to Ole Miss like we did in 1997 I doubt many would be so pissed off about it.

[Dawg61]

https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/http://i.imgur.com/5S4RfCR.png

[Op4isabitch]

I think Dan is here through the end of 2017. Then I see Florida getting rid of McElwain ( his record is the same as Muschamps over the same time frame ) and Scott will push to hire Dan.

[lamont]

McElwain will be at Florida until Bama comes calling
Stricklin made the right move
We will have a new AD by the end of October
I think Mullen leaves of his own accord. The Bull Gators most likely wont let Stricklin hire Mullen. Georgia's AD got overruled and had to hire Smart.
I dont think the Hud faction gets their wish- but he is the absolute worst HC we would hire after Mullen. Hud is our plan D.
I think the GusBus wins 8 and he survives on the Plains- unless Auburn just decides they want Briles and dont give a **** what anybody else thinks.

Gonna be a fun ride this December

[msstate7]

Speaking of McE, I saw this post by a gator fan...

"His recruiting staff is average at best. Nord, Summers, Collins, Shannon, Rumph and even Mac himself. That's a lot of dead weight. We signed 0 DTs and 1 top DB the last 2 classes. Problem is we can't fire him because Dumbass Foley who gave him a 6 year deal after paying $5M to buyout CSU. After this year his buyout is still $10 fricking Million dollars."

[Political Hack]

You have to win the locker room before you can win on the field. If you have one foot out the door every December it takes an effect on your players. You lose them. That's my only concern. If he can keep the locker room, he can stay after 1 bad season. If he can't, he absolutely has to go.

I don't think this team has good chemistry, but they have plenty of season left to prove otherwise. And I hope they do.

[dawgday166]

It's not just that he lost to Freeze. It's the fact he didn't seem to care or have his team prepared and then proceeded to lose to Freeze. If he had come out and coached hard and the team looked prepared and we lost to Ole Miss like we did in 1997 I doubt many would be so pissed off about it.

Bingo. 2 years in a row too.

[maroonmania]

McElwain will be at Florida until Bama comes calling
Stricklin made the right move
We will have a new AD by the end of October
I think Mullen leaves of his own accord. The Bull Gators most likely wont let Stricklin hire Mullen. Georgia's AD got overruled and had to hire Smart.
I dont think the Hud faction gets their wish- but he is the absolute worst HC we would hire after Mullen. Hud is our plan D.
I think the GusBus wins 8 and he survives on the Plains- unless Auburn just decides they want Briles and dont give a **** what anybody else thinks.

Gonna be a fun ride this December

Well if Mullen leaves of his own accord he will be here at least through the end of next season. A 6-7 win season (our best case scenario) this year is not going to land him ANY jobs paying the kind of money he currently makes. We should be improved next year but the schedule will be tougher since our home games will be harder to win.

[Intramural All-American]

It's not just that he lost to Freeze. It's the fact he didn't seem to care or have his team prepared and then proceeded to lose to Freeze. If he had come out and coached hard and the team looked prepared and we lost to Ole Miss like we did in 1997 I doubt many would be so pissed off about it.

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.

[Dawg61]

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.

https://memecrunch.com/meme/1SV1B/damnnnn/image.jpg?w=400&c=1

[Todd4State]

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.

The bottom line is if you are the coach at Mississippi State, that all comes back on you. And if you do lose you have to look like you care whether it's your fault or Dak's. What about the offensive line giving up a ton of sacks that game? Is that Dak's fault too? Maybe Dak wouldn't have tried to do too much had we had a functional o-line and a running back bigger than a gnat? Did Dak decide to just run it up the middle of their defense on third and long over and over too?

Interesting that you think I have an agenda other than what's best for Mississippi State but then game one of this year we lose to South Alabama and our coach smiled about it. Was that Westin's fault? Damian's fault? The smiling and the shorts do get overblown, but it's still not a good look. And no one can deny that Dan coached and looked totally different during the first half of the South Carolina game.

It's also not a good look when it is revealed that our coach was talking to other schools during Egg Bowl week and then we lose on top of everything else.

To answer your question about Dan's desire to win- I think he still has that on some level. But I don't think he desires to be HERE. If someone doesn't desire to be where they are working, they probably should move on. That applies beyond football and I am on committees where I work where we have to make decisions about potential and current employees based in part on things like that, which is probably a big reason why I feel the way that I do. Do you think another coach could have beaten South Alabama? I do. Possibly even LSU given their situation at the time with Les on the way out, but at worst we should be 3-1 right now with some confidence going into Auburn.

As far as your second paragraph I don't remember saying anything about the Orange Bowl but maybe Geoff doesn't screw us over as bad if Dan held him to the same standard as our underperforming offensive line coach? Who knows. I was disappointed with the other two road losses, but the biggest thing about that Egg Bowl again that killed was our o-line. And again nothing has been done about it. It's not so much that we lost as much as it is very little seems to be done to correct the issue.

By the way I'm not the only one that feels like Dan has mailed it in- and some of those that feel that way are a lot closer to the program and have a lot more say than I do. That should tell you something the next time you think I sound like a "whiney fool" or have "an agenda". It certainly was not my decision to not extend Dan's contract after a 9 win season and it certainly wasn't based on any input I had. And I guarantee you that they have a reason for feeling the way that they do about Dan based on a lot more tangible things than I do.

[lamont]

Well if Mullen leaves of his own accord he will be here at least through the end of next season. A 6-7 win season (our best case scenario) this year is not going to land him ANY jobs paying the kind of money he currently makes. We should be improved next year but the schedule will be tougher since our home games will be harder to win.

Don't be surprised if he takes a paycut. He and the CCB's hate SEC recruiting

[Dawgtini]

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.
+1 💯

[basedog]

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.

Very nice post, you made way more sense and knocked it way out of the park. As for as the agenda, it is way beyond no return.

[Dawgtini]

Very nice post, you made way more sense and knocked it way out of the park. As for as the agenda, it is way beyond no return.
Unfortunately this is true and his disciples are spreading the agenda across other boards. Some of the posts are straight copy and paste. Smh. We are MState.

[basedog]

Unfortunately this is true and his disciples are spreading the agenda across other boards. Some of the posts are straight copy and paste. Smh. We are MState.

I suppose without the agenda the straw can't stir the milk for ED to survive. Well there was once a group who were considered the Cigar Boys, and now we have the Agenda Boys.

[dawgday166]

You realize that last year we came out with fire and were moving the chains until our All-world QB fumbled. Then he threw a quick pick 6. We were down 14-0 real quick, and that had absolutely nothing to do with Mullen. However, since you and others have an agenda, that loss gets placed on Dan somehow not having a desire to win. Huh?

I've seen others (maybe you) complaining about how Dan mailed it in and we tanked at the end of the 2014 season. How does losing to Bama (the team who finished #1) in T-town and then losing to your rival on the road equate to being an embarrassment? Screw the fact that we beat Arkansas between those games. Then you also blame Dan for the blowout to GT in the freaking Orange Bowl (yep, one of the biggest bowl games we've ever accomplished) when our DC decided to screw over his team and leave causing a secondary coach to have to call his first game ever against the most unique offense in the country.

Agendas gonna agenda. This year has sucked, but to say Mullen should be gone is just stupid. And you sound like a whiny fool for continuously clamoring for it.

1) We played Arky before not after Bama 2014. Scored 17 pts. Isn't Dan OC? Played Vandy between Bama & OM games.
2) Offense put us in big holes to start Bama game. D kept it as low as they could. Probably should've been 28 - 0 at half.
3) Offense only scored 17 against OM in 2014 too. Isn't Dan OC?
4) Go back and look at another really good start to a year - 2012. Was 7-0 then got destroyed by Bama. Went 1 - 4 rest of way and just really got whipped in 4 losses, only win was against Arky who had interim coach after Petrino debacle.
5) Ohio State ended up #1 in 2014.

Dan gets credit for Dak being so good. Dan gets credit when he was only an OC for Alex Smith (who played for Meyer BTW - Meyer who won NC with 3rd string QB who is now in the league too - seems like Meyer develops QBs pretty good too). Dan gets credit for Preston Smith and BMac (what about David Turner & Geoff Collins their position coaches). Hell, Dan gets partial credit for Cam Newton to some. Dan gets credit for ALL the good things that happen.

Yet, when a DC leaves, he's not very good anyway, he's an asshole, or whatever. When we lose a game, it's the DCs fault, or a couple of player's fault or whatever.

If Dan gets all the credit ... shouldn't he get an equal share of the blame?

Some on here want to fire Sirmon after 4 games into his first season as DC, with a whole new D staff. At one time Dan had similar turnover on the O staff, but that has been stable for 3 or so years now. Yet .. our offense has really struggled against good, physical Ds in the last 2 years. And last year and this year our O line deficiencies have been glaring.

Dan has some things HE needs to improve as a HC, and has needed to from the beginning. It's 8 years now and I don't see any improvement in these areas. If he goes to LSU, keeps his O staff intact as is, turns over D staff personnel continuously, and doesn't improve his coaching deficiencies, he may win 1 - 2 more each year but he won't win the West IMO. Not while Saban is at Bama.

I want Dan to turn it around. I heard him interviewed during the bye week and if he does those things, then it might work out ok. He mentioned that we as a staff (and he used the word we, which I liked), need to look at making some changes and adjustments, putting players in better positions to be successful, etc. etc. It was a good interview. I hope to see those kinds of things done ... but I ain't holding my breath either.

With all the possible hot seat HC fallout this year, I'm inclined to stand pat for now, regardless of what happens this year. However, if Dan is really pursuing the LSU job aggressively --- not sure what to do there in the near term.

[Todd4State]

Unfortunately this is true and his disciples are spreading the agenda across other boards. Some of the posts are straight copy and paste. Smh. We are MState.

Or maybe other fans are seeing the same things that "the agenda" is seeing? As I said- it is far from just a few fans that share this opinion.

[NCDawg]

The bottom line is if you are the coach at Mississippi State, that all comes back on you. And if you do lose you have to look like you care whether it's your fault or Dak's. What about the offensive line giving up a ton of sacks that game? Is that Dak's fault too? Maybe Dak wouldn't have tried to do too much had we had a functional o-line and a running back bigger than a gnat? Did Dak decide to just run it up the middle of their defense on third and long over and over too?

Interesting that you think I have an agenda other than what's best for Mississippi State but then game one of this year we lose to South Alabama and our coach smiled about it. Was that Westin's fault? Damian's fault? The smiling and the shorts do get overblown, but it's still not a good look. And no one can deny that Dan coached and looked totally different during the first half of the South Carolina game.

It's also not a good look when it is revealed that our coach was talking to other schools during Egg Bowl week and then we lose on top of everything else.

To answer your question about Dan's desire to win- I think he still has that on some level. But I don't think he desires to be HERE. If someone doesn't desire to be where they are working, they probably should move on. That applies beyond football and I am on committees where I work where we have to make decisions about potential and current employees based in part on things like that, which is probably a big reason why I feel the way that I do. Do you think another coach could have beaten South Alabama? I do. Possibly even LSU given their situation at the time with Les on the way out, but at worst we should be 3-1 right now with some confidence going into Auburn.

As far as your second paragraph I don't remember saying anything about the Orange Bowl but maybe Geoff doesn't screw us over as bad if Dan held him to the same standard as our underperforming offensive line coach? Who knows. I was disappointed with the other two road losses, but the biggest thing about that Egg Bowl again that killed was our o-line. And again nothing has been done about it. It's not so much that we lost as much as it is very little seems to be done to correct the issue.

By the way I'm not the only one that feels like Dan has mailed it in- and some of those that feel that way are a lot closer to the program and have a lot more say than I do. That should tell you something the next time you think I sound like a "whiney fool" or have "an agenda". It certainly was not my decision to not extend Dan's contract after a 9 win season and it certainly wasn't based on any input I had. And I guarantee you that they have a reason for feeling the way that they do about Dan based on a lot more tangible things than I do.

Good post and I agree with everything you said-particularly about the part of our underperforming offensive line coach. No excuse for Mullen not taking appropriate action to rectify this problem after last year.

[Intramural All-American]

1) We played Arky before not after Bama 2014. Scored 17 pts. Isn't Dan OC? Played Vandy between Bama & OM games.
2) Offense put us in big holes to start Bama game. D kept it as low as they could. Probably should've been 28 - 0 at half.
3) Offense only scored 17 against OM in 2014 too. Isn't Dan OC?
4) Go back and look at another really good start to a year - 2012. Was 7-0 then got destroyed by Bama. Went 1 - 4 rest of way and just really got whipped in 4 losses, only win was against Arky who had interim coach after Petrino debacle.
5) Ohio State ended up #1 in 2014.




1) We played Arky before not after Bama 2014. Scored 17 pts. Isn't Dan OC? Played Vandy between Bama & OM games.
2) Offense put us in big holes to start Bama game. D kept it as low as they could. Probably should've been 28 - 0 at half.
3) Offense only scored 17 against OM in 2014 too. Isn't Dan OC?
4) Go back and look at another really good start to a year - 2012. Was 7-0 then got destroyed by Bama. Went 1 - 4 rest of way and just really got whipped in 4 losses, only win was against Arky who had interim coach after Petrino debacle.
5) Ohio State ended up #1 in 2014.



1) Did you seriously just complain about scoring 17 points in a win? We were a top 15 offensive team in the country, so, yes, he is the OC and did pretty solid that year. And true, my apologies. We beat Vandy 52-0 between Bama and Ole Miss. (Obviously he tanked and didn't care after Bama).
2) Offense out gained Bama by 100 yards that game. A false start at the 2 yard line right before half didn't help. And we pretty easily controlled the second half. The first half was tough offensively, but complaining about offense in Tuscaloosa is something I think every single team could do. We lost by 5 by the way.
3) Dan is OC. Refer to point 1 again. Add to that that ole miss was a top 20 defense in the country and the game was in Oxford, and it's pretty understandable. Defense was the issue that game (Dan doesn't get a complete pass here obviously because he is HC, and it was a disappointing game. But let's not act like that was an embarrassing loss. They were just as good as us that year.)
4) 2012 was a facade the first 7 games, and no state fan would reasonably argue otherwise. We were an above average team who feasted on a weak 1st part of the schedule.
5) my apologies for not specifying that Bama was #1 in the playoffs at the end of the regular season. I didn't think someone would seriously argue the discrepancy between Bama and Ohio State there. Maybe that makes your point that Bama was average, though...

[dawgday166]

1) Did you seriously just complain about scoring 17 points in a win? We were a top 15 offensive team in the country, so, yes, he is the OC and did pretty solid that year. And true, my apologies. We beat Vandy 52-0 between Bama and Ole Miss. (Obviously he tanked and didn't care after Bama).
2) Offense out gained Bama by 100 yards that game. A false start at the 2 yard line right before half didn't help. And we pretty easily controlled the second half. The first half was tough offensively, but complaining about offense in Tuscaloosa is something I think every single team could do. We lost by 5 by the way.
3) Dan is OC. Refer to point 1 again. Add to that that ole miss was a top 20 defense in the country and the game was in Oxford, and it's pretty understandable. Defense was the issue that game (Dan doesn't get a complete pass here obviously because he is HC, and it was a disappointing game. But let's not act like that was an embarrassing loss. They were just as good as us that year.)
4) 2012 was a facade the first 7 games, and no state fan would reasonably argue otherwise. We were an above average team who feasted on a weak 1st part of the schedule.
5) my apologies for not specifying that Bama was #1 in the playoffs at the end of the regular season. I didn't think someone would seriously argue the discrepancy between Bama and Ohio State there. Maybe that makes your point that Bama was average, though...

1) My point was - the D won the Arky game for us, including the goal line stand. The O sucked in that game. If not for the 1 explosive play on an Arky busted coverage to I believe Fred Ross, the game is tied at end of regulation 10-10. Then 3 weeks later, Dan throws Collins under the bus for losing OM game. And you are correct - in our last 4 games we beat only Vandy (52 - 0) so I guess we didn't tank **
2) I know. We played pretty good, especially on D. For 2 and half quarters we played pretty good on O too. It's the 1st quarter and a half where the O killed us. Bama only gained 323 yds of O when they had been demolishing everyone that year in T-town. Cooper only had 88 yds receiving for Bama. The O lost that game for us IMO. We did lose by only 5. Needed 2 scores and got ball with about 5 and a half left to play. Scored with about :30 or so left. Took 5 minutes to score the TD to pull it to within 5 when needing 2 TDs to win. What a hurry up offense that is.
3) They were as good as us when healthy. However, they were sooo banged-up with injuries going into that game that virtually every announcer conceded the win to us and gave them virtually no chance. 2 or 3 said they didn't see how OM could compete with us due to all of the injuries. On offense and defense they were the walking wounded. Bo Wallace was severely banged up as well as a host of O-line and D players. Our all world offense should've scored way more than 17 against that injury-riddled OM D that day. But you're right about the D too ... they didn't show up either. IMO the WHOLE team didn't show up. That points to the HC IMO. The #1 job of the HC is motivating the team. The fact that EVERYONE picked us to win due to their injuries is what made it such an embarrassing loss.
Note: I will say on our D side we had an issue with critical loss of personnel - Starting S Justin Cox got booted from team that week for domestic violence issues. And then during game his backup Kendrick Market tore his ACL very early in game. That somewhat hindered our ability to stop the OM TE from exploiting our D down the middle of the field.
4) I agree with this but we should've at least beat OM in that last stretch - We were better than they were. And Northwestern in bowl game. BTW, we always feast on the easy part of the schedule. Dan has been pretty lucky that almost every SEC E team he plays, even the historically good ones, are having down years when they show up on our schedule (like SC this year). And of course he can't beat Saban, Miles, Sumlin or Freeze. (Before you correct me I know he's won against the last 3 one time for each.)
5) That was sorta the point I was trying to make.

[msstate7]

About the 17 points vs Arkansas...

Bama (playoff team) scored 14 vs them

Om (NY6 bowl) scored 0

Lsu scored 0

Mizzou (Sec east champs and 11-win team) scored 21

Texas scored 7

[dawgday166]

The main point I was trying to make is - Dan shouldn't get all of the credit and none of the blame. That's all. Arky had a good D and I'm very good winning that way. It's really a team thing. However, the whole team has a CEO which is the HC. So really it all comes back to him.

[blacklistedbully]

Point is, if everyone is fine and dandy about Stricklin moving on to "greener pastures" then everyone should be fine and dandy with Mullen looking for greener pastures. And if he lucks up and lands one we should "be happy for him". I'm just saying we can't have it both ways. And personally I'm not real happy with being a stepping stone school whether its Florida, Texas, Alabama or anyone else but I realize that is where we are for the most part.

There is big diff between Mullen shirking his responsibilities here because he's mentally checked out, while he or his agent whores him out to places like Maryland for no more money then he makes now, and Strickin doing his job here, getting approached by one of the premier programs in the nation with virtually unlimited resources offering at least a 100% increase over his current salary, and at least 33% more than our rumored counteroffer.

[confucius say]

The main point I was trying to make is - Dan shouldn't get all of the credit and none of the blame. That's all. Arky had a good D and I'm very good winning that way. It's really a team thing. However, the whole team has a CEO which is the HC. So really it all comes back to him.

You mean the CEO that has led your "company" to record highs in production and profits the last 7 years? And you want to can him over one down year?

[dawgday166]

You mean the CEO that has led your "company" to record highs in production and profits the last 7 years? And you want to can him over one down year?

I don't believe that I've said I want to can him - unless he is very actively pursuing every available top tier job. I've said that I want him to improve the things he doesn't do well so we can not only sustain the successes he has led us to, but also possibly go to higher levels too. I may also have said that if he isn't willing to make those changes, then it may be time for MSU to pursue other options before he drives us into the toilet cause he's not sustaining the relentless effort required as an SEC HC.

ETA: I may bitch about Dan. I may, as someone has said, "rip him every chance I get". Yea, I am highly irritated with him. But I'd really like for him to coach and manage his staff like I believe he's capable of doing. If he'll just do it. And I'd like to see a DC stay more than 1 year.

[Dawg61]

Florida has a big name but they don't have unlimited resources. Remember they were crying for a new indoor practice facility for football a couple years ago because they still didn't have one.