Just watched the Mullen presser from today....

[CadaverDawg]

And I think I see a major problem. He says on multiple occasions that there were specific plays that we run well that he wanted to call, "but the defense never gave us that look we were hoping for", that look that we knew "if they go to that look, we're running this play". Or something to that effect.

In other words, he is allowing the defense to dictate his play calling and to basically set the tempo. I hate that. I know sometimes the defensive look causes you to adjust your play, but good God it should NOT cause you to completely scrap your best offensive plays. That shit sounds ridiculous and pisses me off even more.

The ONLY bright side was that he blamed himself and he obviously recognizes that problem, but it causes me to second guess his entire offensive philosophy now after hearing that. And I also hate how he quickly jumped in and took blame when someone questioned Koenning. He sounded a hell of a lot like ole Sly when he did that.

I am not liking what Im seeing or hearing right now. We need a big blow out win over Alcorn, and then wins over Auburn and Troy, BADLY to get this ship righted.

[Bothrops]

I agree, Cadaver. Mullen has become somewhat of an enigma. I get the feeling that he's just grabbing for straws after listening to that. It sucks, but I feel like we're stuck in some sort of limbo. I just don't see a win at Auburn now. I hope to be surprised.

[smootness]

And I think I see a major problem. He says on multiple occasions that there were specific plays that we run well that he wanted to call, "but the defense never gave us that look we were hoping for", that look that we knew "if they go to that look, we're running this play". Or something to that effect.

In other words, he is allowing the defense to dictate his play calling and to basically set the tempo. I hate that. I know sometimes the defensive look causes you to adjust your play, but good God it should NOT cause you to completely scrap your best offensive plays. That shit sounds ridiculous and pisses me off even more.

The ONLY bright side was that he blamed himself and he obviously recognizes that problem, but it causes me to second guess his entire offensive philosophy now after hearing that. And I also hate how he quickly jumped in and took blame when someone questioned Koenning. He sounded a hell of a lot like ole Sly when he did that.

I am not liking what Im seeing or hearing right now. We need a big blow out win over Alcorn, and then wins over Auburn and Troy, BADLY to get this ship righted.

Agreed. It also tells any future opponents that if they line up the same way OSU did, they'll never see our best plays.

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

I am not liking what Im seeing or hearing right now. We need a big blow out win over Alcorn, and then wins over Auburn and Troy, BADLY to get this ship righted.

I am trying to be an optimist...but I just don't see it. Mullen has lost my backing, and I think we get stomped by Auburn.

ETA: I actually expected us to lose to Oklahoma State...it's not that we lost, it was just how we lost.

[Coach34]

He defends Koenning because Koenning does as he is told. Mullen called plays vs Ok State. This is Mullen's O. Mullen scripts the plays for practice- he even said that on the ESPNU show.

Koenning coaches QB's, helps him gameplan, and recruits. It's the Mullen Show on offense

[SPMT]

I'm even ok with him saying we had some good plays that we didn't run because of the defensive looks BUT why in the **** didn't we run OTHER plays that would work. Pathetic that he had a game planned so dictated by defensive looks.

In reality there aren't but a few coverages and fronts. The changes are just slight variations. Hell, most plays have variations that allow immediate adjustment for different coverages.

[Homedawg]

He defends Koenning because Koenning does as he is told. Mullen called plays vs Ok State. This is Mullen's O. Mullen scripts the plays for practice- he even said that on the ESPNU show.

Koenning coaches QB's, helps him gameplan, and recruits. It's the Mullen Show on offense

This^. The blame can only fall in his lap!

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

All he's done since Saturday is make excuses.

[SignalToNoise]

He defends Koenning because Koenning does as he is told. Mullen called plays vs Ok State. This is Mullen's O. Mullen scripts the plays for practice- he even said that on the ESPNU show.

Koenning coaches QB's, helps him gameplan, and recruits. It's the Mullen Show on offense

Knowing that he's behind the shitshow we've seen dating back to 2012 really fills the pit of my stomach with despair.

[ShotgunDawg]

I actually thought he did a good job in the press conference and didn't make excuses. I am not sure what you guys wanted to hear, but what I heard was a coach that realizes there are problems and is going to try and fix them.

I disagree with this whole thread. You can not have faith in his ability to fix the problem, and thats fair, but say that he was making excuses yesterday is simply inaccurate. Watch the press conference before complaining about it.

I thought he did well.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I hope he succeeds, but I was concerned when I saw the ESPNU special and his speech to the team did not seem like the kind of talk that gets the fire going. His reiterated theme seemed to be a warning to the players that they would become fatigued and had to fight through that to win. I don't know what's really going on in the locker room, but I didn't like that too much.

[Vandownbytheriver]

Knowing that he's behind the shitshow we've seen dating back to 2012 really fills the pit of my stomach with despair.

That's the thing most people either don't know or refuse to accept. Less is a figurehead. Nothing more, nothing less. Dan has been calling plays for a good while now, but folks like to throw Les under the bus. It's time blame went to the guy responsible.

[Johnson85]

what I heard was a coach that realizes there are problems and is going to try and fix them.


The time to fix them was the off season. We had the same play calling issues last year. Mullen should have turned over the play calling to Koennig or, if Koennig couldn't handle that, Mullen should have replaced him with an OC that can.

What I don't get is that the scripted plays at the beginning of the game are generally great. Who the hell puts those plays together? If it's Mullen, and he simply can't make calls in the heat of the moment, he needs to put together four or five different series of calls to use in the game. Hell, maybe he even needs to take every other offensive series off and let Koennig call plays while he thinks ahead to the next series and plans out how he wants to call plays.

[SignalToNoise]

That's the thing most people either don't know or refuse to accept. Less is a figurehead. Nothing more, nothing less. Dan has been calling plays for a good while now, but folks like to throw Les under the bus. It's time blame went to the guy responsible.

I've been pretty consistent in saying that regardless of who is in charge a change needs to be made. If it is Mullen, then hand the offense over to Les or go hire a bonafide OC and demote Les to QB coach. If it is Les, then replace him one way or the other-- demote or hand him a box so he can clean out his desk.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

I hope he succeeds, but I was concerned when I saw the ESPNU special and his speech to the team did not seem like the kind of talk that gets the fire going. His reiterated theme seemed to be a warning to the players that they would become fatigued and had to fight through that to win. I don't know what's really going on in the locker room, but I didn't like that too much.

It seems like Mullen has lost his fire. The first few years it seems like he would get pumped, come out on the field to tell the defense good job after making a stop (like I noticed Jimbo doing during the FSU game), he was chewing out both his players and the officials, and he just seemed excited to be there.

Now all he does is sit there and chew on his play calling sheet and stare blankly into space. I'm beginning to think his testosterone levels are dropping or something.

[fishwater99]

The time to fix them was the off season. We had the same play calling issues last year. Mullen should have turned over the play calling to Koennig or, if Koennig couldn't handle that, Mullen should have replaced him with an OC that can.

What I don't get is that the scripted plays at the beginning of the game are generally great. Who the hell puts those plays together? If it's Mullen, and he simply can't make calls in the heat of the moment, he needs to put together four or five different series of calls to use in the game. Hell, maybe he even needs to take every other offensive series off and let Koennig call plays while he thinks ahead to the next series and plans out how he wants to call plays.

It's all on Mullen and he is just not that great of an offensive head coach.


Quote of the weekend that makes you scratch you head..

“I should’ve done a better job taking shots down the field to them,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “We were trying to protect and slowly breaking in the wide receivers.”

Was he not trying to win the game?

[angusyoung]

We aren't good enough at any individual offensive unit right now. We have no play makers on the edge and our blocking up front doesn't give us an advantage in the middle of the field.

Mullen was looking for certain defensive alignments in order to take advantage of matchups but we never got them because OSU was basically in base D the whole game. We need individual players that can go make a play and force the defense to over commit like vandy did with Treadwell. Once freeze got that going there wasn't a defensive alignment that vandy could put on the field to stop OM.

If we are going to be an edge team we need better players out there. If we are going to be an interior run team we need to get better there. QB etc... Unfortunately we aren't that good at any of those right now.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

We aren't good enough at any individual offensive unit right now. We have no play makers on the edge and our blocking up front doesn't give us an advantage in the middle of the field.

Mullen was looking for certain defensive alignments in order to take advantage of matchups but we never got them because OSU was basically in base D the whole game. We need individual players that can go make a play and force the defense to over commit like vandy did with Treadwell. Once freeze got that going there wasn't a defensive alignment that vandy could put on the field to stop OM.

If we are going to be an edge team we need better players out there. If we are going to be an interior run team we need to get better there. QB etc... Unfortunately we aren't that good at any of those right now.

What players have we had that forced defenses to over commit before this year?

[angusyoung]

What players have we had that forced defenses to over commit before this year?

Well that's kind of the point isn't it? We haven't really had any of those players. This being the reason we have never finished above 8th in total offense and scoring offense with Mullen.

Bumphis and Ballard were the closest we have had to that but neither were superstars or physical freaks.

[Homedawg]

It seems like Mullen has lost his fire. The first few years it seems like he would get pumped, come out on the field to tell the defense good job after making a stop (like I noticed Jimbo doing during the FSU game), he was chewing out both his players and the officials, and he just seemed excited to be there.

Now all he does is sit there and chew on his play calling sheet and stare blankly into space. I'm beginning to think his testosterone levels are dropping or something.
You left out cussing Collins out after osu's first score. He's good at that too.

[Bubb Rubb]

He defends Koenning because Koenning does as he is told. Mullen called plays vs Ok State. This is Mullen's O. Mullen scripts the plays for practice- he even said that on the ESPNU show.

Koenning coaches QB's, helps him gameplan, and recruits. It's the Mullen Show on offense

I have mentioned this before, but I don't see much talk about it anywhere else, so I will bring it up again...

Do you ever notice that we almost always look good offensively on our first drive? I would say that was the case in 10 out of our 12 games last year, and it was the case on Saturday too. This is because the first few plays are scripted and we don't deviate for the most part outside of that. Once we go off script, that's when we start struggling. We don't do a good job of adjusting as the game progresses, either.

This is why, to me, it doesn't matter who the QB is. We have a coaching problem.

[WeWonItAll(Most)]

You left out cussing Collins out after osu's first score. He's good at that too.
I missed that. If I was Collins I would have lost it. He should have chewed *cough**cough**cough**cough**cough**cough**cough* ass out for running only 6 plays in the third quarter.

I know other people have said Mullen won't blame himself, but damn, he's willing to blame the area of our game that played lights out before he'll blame himself..

ETA: why did it change M-u-l-l-e-n-s to *cough**cough**cough**...?

ETA2: it did it again, I've never typed that in my life.

[Radddawg]

All he's done since Saturday is make excuses.

All he's done since Bama last season is make excuses... Really proud of our D but it concerns me that we didn't adjust for that QB read/run play they gashed us with.

[thunderclap]

This is one incredibly depressing thread.