If "bowl practice " is so crucial and beneficial

[Leroy Jenkins]

to moving into spring, how bad would S. Alabama have beaten us without our bowl practices last year?

[Liverpooldawg]

to moving into spring, how bad would S. Alabama have beaten us without our bowl practices last year?

Well Should we just turn it down then? Sheesh.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Well Should we just turn it down then? Sheesh.

No. Sheesh.

[Ari Gold]

Poor attempt. Try harder next time. Better yet don't

[lamont]

just shows what a terrible job our staff did to start the season

[Leroy Jenkins]

just shows what a terrible job our staff did to start the season

Someone gets the gist.

[Liverpooldawg]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

[Bass Chaser]

I guess we'll get to see on defense since none of them were here for bowl practice last year.

[ScoobaDawg]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

No the first dumb and wrong thing you have said before... we are used to it.

[lamont]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

lmao- thats awesome. You dont limit your awful posts to basketball- you bring on more grief to your obvious lack of knowledge on all things sports

[msstate7]

lmao- thats awesome. You dont limit your awful posts to basketball- you bring on more grief to your obvious lack of knowledge on all things sports

Didn't you say if Mullen gets to 6-6, he should be sec coach of the year? 3 last second plays all went against us or Mullen would've exceeded 6 wins

[HoopsDawg]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

Confirmed troll.

[RougeDawg]

Losing 3-4 games this year was solely on who dan did and did not play. Williams over Holloway early on and only Fitz in USA game and we win at least 2 more easy, probably 3-4 more.

[Liverpooldawg]

lmao- thats awesome. You dont limit your awful posts to basketball- you bring on more grief to your obvious lack of knowledge on all things sports

I expected to get blasted as I said, but I've seen teams like this one before. They usually die a fast and painful death after a start like we had. This one didn't. It got better. That is what I'm basing my opinion on. Y'all should have realized by now I really don't care what people think about my opinions. I'll express them anyway.

[Liverpooldawg]

Didn't you say if Mullen gets to 6-6, he should be sec coach of the year? 3 last second plays all went against us or Mullen would've exceeded 6 wins

I did. He damn near did it.

[Liverpooldawg]

Confirmed troll.

Nope. See mstate7's post.

[bluelightstar]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

we lost to *at least* three teams with less talent than we have

[preachermatt83]

to moving into spring, how bad would S. Alabama have beaten us without our bowl practices last year?

Funny, I saw this exact question asked on social media by an OM fan.

[tireddawg]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

I get what your trying to say. If the same players that played at the beginning of the season were playing at the end of the season, it make might some sense. But the reason we stunk it up at the beginning was Dan's decision to not play certain players more.

So no, it was not his best job. And I think you know that. If your serious, well...

[Liverpooldawg]

Losing 3-4 games this year was solely on who dan did and did not play. Williams over Holloway early on and only Fitz in USA game and we win at least 2 more easy, probably 3-4 more.

Early on I totally agree. Bad coaches don't adapt, EVER. Good ones do. Good ones also stick with guys they know can do it, even when others don't. Fitz looked like a deer in the headlights against South Alabama. His development ALONE this year justifies my opinion. As for Williams, I wanted him from the start this year, but I understand WHY he had to earn it. Chicken wing don't cut it in the SEC. He earned it, the right and hard way.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Funny, I saw this exact question asked on social media by an OM fan.


You found me out. Coach O to State.

[Johnson85]

I expected to get blasted as I said, but I've seen teams like this one before. They usually die a fast and painful death after a start like we had. This one didn't. It got better. That is what I'm basing my opinion on. Y'all should have realized by now I really don't care what people think about my opinions. I'll express them anyway.
Mullen did a great job not losing the team after a catastrophic start and the team improved probably more than any team he has had at state, at least on the offensive side of the ball. But part of that is because Mullen and co did such a terrible job before thes eason.

Mullen also did a good job of wishing any qb controversy after the lsu game, but again, there wouldn't have been that potential if he hadn't screwed up the USA game.

I think it was definitely his worst job overall, but still good enough that we probably should have gone 7-5 or 8-4 against a weak schedule.

[lamont]

Didn't you say if Mullen gets to 6-6, he should be sec coach of the year? 3 last second plays all went against us or Mullen would've exceeded 6 wins

were we 6-6?

[msstate7]

were we 6-6?

Missed graves chip shot is the difference between Mullen being sec coach of the year and you wanting to run him out of town?

[Liverpooldawg]

I get what your trying to say. If the same players that played at the beginning of the season were playing at the end of the season, it make might some sense. But the reason we stunk it up at the beginning was Dan's decision to not play certain players more.

So no, it was not his best job. And I think you know that. If your serious, well...

Perhaps best in season job would be more accurate. I'd say a similar but more successful example would be Amory under Trent Hammond the year Forrest Williams was the QB. Hammond was a TOTAL smashmouth guy. He changed 180 degrees IN season to become an air raid guy. They made it to the North Half that year. Dan ain't perfect, but he is possibly the best we have ever had. With the unprecedented for us advertisement that Dak is in the NFL, we need to hang on to Mullin for all we are worth. We need to be building the man up, not tearing him down at every opportunity. HAIL STATE!

[tireddawg]

I agree we should keep Dan, but only if he wants to be here

[Liverpooldawg]

were we 6-6?

LOL, no. But then I ain't trying to run him off either. I want to extend his contract back to the maximum. I certainly hope we do.

[lamont]

Who is trying to run Mullen off?

[msstate7]

Who is trying to run Mullen off?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ED admins/owners no longer support Mullen as HC

[Liverpooldawg]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ED admins/owners no longer support Mullen as HC

YEP, they made that announcement. If I'm not mistaken it was under HIS name. If I'm wrong or that has been reversed then I will stand corrected.

[I_Spy]

I think it's normal (and apart of sports in general to question coaching) Daks mother, you saw that on ESPN even she did in high school, nobody takes it personally. It's natural. We all though the DL would be good and the OL would suck. The OL was good. We all thought twice about Nick early. We all thought Holloway. However, the year finished stronger and Dak, the billboards, the NFL players wearing state clothing on their billboard days. It would be stupid or just let ok stupid if the fire Dan kept on. What I mean is its natural in sports..

So the fire Dan stuff isn't written anymore is what I mean but it's natural as to why it was.

[blacklistedbully]

I'm going to get blasted but this year is perhaps the best job Mullen has done since he has been here.

:confused: (Couldn't find a face-palm)

[Todd4State]

Early on I totally agree. Bad coaches don't adapt, EVER. Good ones do. Good ones also stick with guys they know can do it, even when others don't. Fitz looked like a deer in the headlights against South Alabama. His development ALONE this year justifies my opinion. As for Williams, I wanted him from the start this year, but I understand WHY he had to earn it. Chicken wing don't cut it in the SEC. He earned it, the right and hard way.

We lost to South Alabama because of Dan being overly loyal to senior players period. Dan said himself after the loss that he decided to go with Fitzgerald the rest of the year on the Sunday after the South Alabama game. That decision was made with no more than one practice if that- one which to my understanding we normally reserve for getting our younger players more reps. So, Fitz went from being a QB race to being the starter after he was pulled after one series. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Same with Holloway and Aeris. Our offense- and offensive line- got better all of a sudden after Holloway went down against Auburn and Aeris started playing more- which is something that I had been begging for over a year at that point not to mention it had gotten to the point that fans were booing Dan because of his insistence of running Holloway up the middle ad nauseum.

Dan made the changes he did because he put himself on the hot seat after losing to South Alabama. If we had beaten South Alabama with Damien, he probably would have continued to start.

Dan?s biggest weakness to me is his personnel usuage and being overly loyal to senior players. It has bitten us in the ass before- Alabama and Ole Miss 2014, LSU, Ole Miss 2015, and etc. but South Alabama was the first time it finally bit us in the ass against a team we without a doubt ?should have beaten?. In fact I think based on statistics and analytics our loss to South Alabama was considered statistically to be the biggest upset of the year for at least much of the year.

I actually hope that this is an area where Cohen can help us as an AD. I think Scott was pretty soft and just let the coaches do whatever and he went along with it and rah rah rah everyone buy Snow Bowl t-shirts. Cohen has actually coached real sports before in the SEC and he never had a problem sitting anyone to try to get the best lineup out on the field- something I personally never complained about because I would much rather our coach do that than keep doing something over and over again that isn?t working like Holloway up the middle. Dan would probably respect Cohen?s opinion on that over someone like Scott.

Dan should have taken control of the QB situation and told Damien and his friends that Nick is going to start and be the QB and that they needed to support Nick. He should have used Holloway as the role player that he is. Jenkins obviously should have started the season at guard but I can give that somewhat of a pass. Simmons and Peters should have played about twice as much as they did and it?s pretty bad of Dan to keep trotting Westin Graves and his bad back out there to the point where we actually had a fan that threatened to kick his ass on Twitter AFTER the Egg Bowl win.

[Liverpooldawg]

I think it's normal (and apart of sports in general to question coaching) Daks mother, you saw that on ESPN even she did in high school, nobody takes it personally. It's natural. We all though the DL would be good and the OL would suck. The OL was good. We all thought twice about Nick early. We all thought Holloway. However, the year finished stronger and Dak, the billboards, the NFL players wearing state clothing on their billboard days. It would be stupid or just let ok stupid if the fire Dan kept on. What I mean is its natural in sports..

With a normal kicker we are 7-5 right now.

[Liverpooldawg]

We lost to South Alabama because of Dan being overly loyal to senior players period. Dan said himself after the loss that he decided to go with Fitzgerald the rest of the year on the Sunday after the South Alabama game. That decision was made with no more than one practice if that- one which to my understanding we normally reserve for getting our younger players more reps. So, Fitz went from being a QB race to being the starter after he was pulled after one series. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Same with Holloway and Aeris. Our offense- and offensive line- got better all of a sudden after Holloway went down against Auburn and Aeris started playing more- which is something that I had been begging for over a year at that point not to mention it had gotten to the point that fans were booing Dan because of his insistence of running Holloway up the middle ad nauseum.

Dan made the changes he did because he put himself on the hot seat after losing to South Alabama. If we had beaten South Alabama with Damien, he probably would have continued to start.

Dan?s biggest weakness to me is his personnel usuage and being overly loyal to senior players. It has bitten us in the ass before- Alabama and Ole Miss 2014, LSU, Ole Miss 2015, and etc. but South Alabama was the first time it finally bit us in the ass against a team we without a doubt ?should have beaten?. In fact I think based on statistics and analytics our loss to South Alabama was considered statistically to be the biggest upset of the year for at least much of the year.

I actually hope that this is an area where Cohen can help us as an AD. I think Scott was pretty soft and just let the coaches do whatever and he went along with it and rah rah rah everyone buy Snow Bowl t-shirts. Cohen has actually coached real sports before in the SEC and he never had a problem sitting anyone to try to get the best lineup out on the field- something I personally never complained about because I would much rather our coach do that than keep doing something over and over again that isn?t working like Holloway up the middle. Dan would probably respect Cohen?s opinion on that over someone like Scott.

Dan should have taken control of the QB situation and told Damien and his friends that Nick is going to start and be the QB and that they needed to support Nick. He should have used Holloway as the role player that he is. Jenkins obviously should have started the season at guard but I can give that somewhat of a pass. Simmons and Peters should have played about twice as much as they did and it?s pretty bad of Dan to keep trotting Westin Graves and his bad back out there to the point where we actually had a fan that threatened to kick his ass on Twitter AFTER the Egg Bowl win.

You don't have to write a book. You want Mullen gone and have since 2014. LOL.

[Todd4State]

I agree we should keep Dan, but only if he wants to be here

If Dan is smart, he will stay at MSU and coach his ass off the next two years at least. He would have much better leverage to find another job after two 8-10 win seasons than he would after a 5-6 win season. That way he can pass this season off as just a down year. He has the QB and the RB to be successful the next two years and that’s really the biggest thing. If he averages 8 wins the next two years that should make him our most successful coach in terms of wins as well which would make him even more attractive. I would say the biggest need for us right now is to fix the DC situation or at the very least solidify it. I’m not saying that we necessarily need to fire Sirmon but at the very least we need some of these JUCO players like Sweat, Autry, Pope, hopefully Rivers, hopefully Landrews, and then a random JUCO LB to come in and have an impact on day one. After seeing our d-line this year I understand why we are going so JUCO heavy now. We had very little pass rush from anyone other than Simmons and that really exposed and stressed our secondary. We need to get Graves and Cooke healthy as well- they’re solid when they are healthy.

Ole Miss frying and LSU losing Miles has to help as well.

[blacklistedbully]

Everybody remember this post Liverpool made earlier this year:

Fitz is a loser ......
And always will be as long as he is a QB. Ive always been a Mullen guy but enough is enough. Fitz is NOT a QB. That has been obvious since the start of the season. Bench Fitz, cut him if we have to, or I am done. I'm sick of players being played because of politics. If that's all Mullen can do then he needs to go.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Everybody remember this post Liverpool made earlier this year:

Fitz is a loser ......
And always will be as long as he is a QB. Ive always been a Mullen guy but enough is enough. Fitz is NOT a QB. That has been obvious since the start of the season. Bench Fitz, cut him if we have to, or I am done. I'm sick of players being played because of politics. If that's all Mullen can do then he needs to go.

https://media.giphy.com/media/26AHvF2p5pridaSf6/giphy.gif

[Liverpooldawg]

Everybody remember this post Liverpool made earlier this year:

Fitz is a loser ......
And always will be as long as he is a QB. Ive always been a Mullen guy but enough is enough. Fitz is NOT a QB. That has been obvious since the start of the season. Bench Fitz, cut him if we have to, or I am done. I'm sick of players being played because of politics. If that's all Mullen can do then he needs to go.

Yep, and I was wrong. I will always admit that. MSU is more important than my internet points. I made reference to that above in case you missed it. Mullen stuck by his man...........and he was right on that one. I was wrong. It makes me respect Mullen even more.

[Todd4State]

You don't have to write a book. You want Mullen gone and have since 2014. LOL.

I want the Mullen that coached the 2015 Egg Bowl and 2016 South Alabama gone. Maybe he is gone- I sure as hell hope so. I want the Dan Mullen that coached us from 2009-2011, the last part of 2013, most of 2014, South Carolina 2016, and November of 2016 to stay.

I just wanted to point out to why saying that Dan “did his best coaching job” in 2016 was absurd. He took what should have been an 8 win team and turned them into a 5 win team because of his own personnel decisions- South Alabama, BYU, and Kentucky were lost mainly because of his personnel decisions- which were obviously terrible decisions to pretty much everyone except you and Dan. And maybe Scott and Megan Mullen.

The ball is in Dan’s court. We’ve given him more of a leash than he would have gotten at any other SEC school other than Vandy and Mizzou and given him all of the resources he has asked for in terms of facilities to the best of our abilities. Most SEC schools would have fired him for some of the things he has done. It’s up to him to finish this season strong and fix the defense and have a great year in 2017.

[Todd4State]

Everybody remember this post Liverpool made earlier this year:

Fitz is a loser ......
And always will be as long as he is a QB. Ive always been a Mullen guy but enough is enough. Fitz is NOT a QB. That has been obvious since the start of the season. Bench Fitz, cut him if we have to, or I am done. I'm sick of players being played because of politics. If that's all Mullen can do then he needs to go.
Ironically that was probably the least political personnel decision Dan has made since he has been our head coach.

[Liverpooldawg]

I want the Mullen that coached the 2015 Egg Bowl and 2016 South Alabama gone. Maybe he is gone- I sure as hell hope so. I want the Dan Mullen that coached us from 2009-2011, the last part of 2013, most of 2014, South Carolina 2016, and November of 2016 to stay.

I just wanted to point out to why saying that Dan “did his best coaching job” in 2016 was absurd. He took what should have been an 8 win team and turned them into a 5 win team because of his own personnel decisions- South Alabama, BYU, and Kentucky were lost mainly because of his personnel decisions- which were obviously terrible decisions to pretty much everyone except you and Dan. And maybe Scott and Megan Mullen.

The ball is in Dan’s court. We’ve given him more of a leash than he would have gotten at any other SEC school other than Vandy and Mizzou and given him all of the resources he has asked for in terms of facilities to the best of our abilities. Most SEC schools would have fired him for some of the things he has done. It’s up to him to finish this season strong and fix the defense and have a great year in 2017.

And I want to keep the one that got us to #1 in those three epic games. And put us in a place to do that when you were wanting him gone prior to that. It's the same guy.

[Liverpooldawg]

Ironically that was probably the least political personnel decision Dan has made since he has been our head coach.

I agree. I was wrong. Have you EVER been wrong?

[Liverpooldawg]

I want the Mullen that coached the 2015 Egg Bowl and 2016 South Alabama gone. Maybe he is gone- I sure as hell hope so. I want the Dan Mullen that coached us from 2009-2011, the last part of 2013, most of 2014, South Carolina 2016, and November of 2016 to stay.

I just wanted to point out to why saying that Dan “did his best coaching job” in 2016 was absurd. He took what should have been an 8 win team and turned them into a 5 win team because of his own personnel decisions- South Alabama, BYU, and Kentucky were lost mainly because of his personnel decisions- which were obviously terrible decisions to pretty much everyone except you and Dan. And maybe Scott and Megan Mullen.

The ball is in Dan’s court. We’ve given him more of a leash than he would have gotten at any other SEC school other than Vandy and Mizzou and given him all of the resources he has asked for in terms of facilities to the best of our abilities. Most SEC schools would have fired him for some of the things he has done. It’s up to him to finish this season strong and fix the defense and have a great year in 2017.
He turned what looked to be a 2 or 3 win team at the actual start of the season into a 5 win team and by doing it he right way got them to a bowl. YOU would have let the man go after 2014. And you have said so.

[blacklistedbully]

We lost to South Alabama because of Dan being overly loyal to senior players period. Dan said himself after the loss that he decided to go with Fitzgerald the rest of the year on the Sunday after the South Alabama game. That decision was made with no more than one practice if that- one which to my understanding we normally reserve for getting our younger players more reps. So, Fitz went from being a QB race to being the starter after he was pulled after one series. I thought that was pretty interesting.

Same with Holloway and Aeris. Our offense- and offensive line- got better all of a sudden after Holloway went down against Auburn and Aeris started playing more- which is something that I had been begging for over a year at that point not to mention it had gotten to the point that fans were booing Dan because of his insistence of running Holloway up the middle ad nauseum.

Dan made the changes he did because he put himself on the hot seat after losing to South Alabama. If we had beaten South Alabama with Damien, he probably would have continued to start.

Dan?s biggest weakness to me is his personnel usuage and being overly loyal to senior players. It has bitten us in the ass before- Alabama and Ole Miss 2014, LSU, Ole Miss 2015, and etc. but South Alabama was the first time it finally bit us in the ass against a team we without a doubt ?should have beaten?. In fact I think based on statistics and analytics our loss to South Alabama was considered statistically to be the biggest upset of the year for at least much of the year.

I actually hope that this is an area where Cohen can help us as an AD. I think Scott was pretty soft and just let the coaches do whatever and he went along with it and rah rah rah everyone buy Snow Bowl t-shirts. Cohen has actually coached real sports before in the SEC and he never had a problem sitting anyone to try to get the best lineup out on the field- something I personally never complained about because I would much rather our coach do that than keep doing something over and over again that isn?t working like Holloway up the middle. Dan would probably respect Cohen?s opinion on that over someone like Scott.

Dan should have taken control of the QB situation and told Damien and his friends that Nick is going to start and be the QB and that they needed to support Nick. He should have used Holloway as the role player that he is. Jenkins obviously should have started the season at guard but I can give that somewhat of a pass. Simmons and Peters should have played about twice as much as they did and it?s pretty bad of Dan to keep trotting Westin Graves and his bad back out there to the point where we actually had a fan that threatened to kick his ass on Twitter AFTER the Egg Bowl win.

Yep

[blacklistedbully]

I want the Mullen that coached the 2015 Egg Bowl and 2016 South Alabama gone. Maybe he is gone- I sure as hell hope so. I want the Dan Mullen that coached us from 2009-2011, the last part of 2013, most of 2014, South Carolina 2016, and November of 2016 to stay.

I just wanted to point out to why saying that Dan ?did his best coaching job? in 2016 was absurd. He took what should have been an 8 win team and turned them into a 5 win team because of his own personnel decisions- South Alabama, BYU, and Kentucky were lost mainly because of his personnel decisions- which were obviously terrible decisions to pretty much everyone except you and Dan. And maybe Scott and Megan Mullen.

The ball is in Dan?s court. We?ve given him more of a leash than he would have gotten at any other SEC school other than Vandy and Mizzou and given him all of the resources he has asked for in terms of facilities to the best of our abilities. Most SEC schools would have fired him for some of the things he has done. It?s up to him to finish this season strong and fix the defense and have a great year in 2017.

Yep

[Todd4State]

And I want to keep the one that got us to #1 in those three epic games. And put us in a place to do that when you were wanting him gone prior to that. It's the same guy.

I included “early 2014” in my “Dan that I want to stay” point. If you think that the Dan that coached South Alabama and the one that coached the Egg Bowl in 2015 literally 24 hours after interviewing at Miami are the same guy you are wrong.

Dan gets distracted sometimes and possibly burned out as well. I think him getting Sexton will help him out with that because he has had enough clients that he knows how to handle things and can advise Dan better than his last agent- advice such as “Hey, if you win the Egg Bowl and take State to the Sugar Bowl I can probably get you a better job”.

It’s part of the learning process for Dan. But now that he has gone through that I’m hopeful that he will learn from it and the next two years will be better than 2014 and 2015.

[Todd4State]

I agree. I was wrong. Have you EVER been wrong?

Yes. Shit happens. But this isn't one of those times.

[blacklistedbully]

He turned what looked to be a 2 or 3 win team at the actual start of the season into a 5 win team and by doing it he right way got them to a bowl.

Nope

[Liverpooldawg]

Yep

That quote about taking control and telling one guy' friends to support another sounds great. It also shows NO understanding of team dynamics in a transition year. It's a damn hard thing to get right. It's almost impossible sometimes. It obviously wasn't where it needed to be early on. Fitz didn't back up that argument till about midseason. When he DID, the team came around. Mullen, or someone, held the team together in the meantime. That may sound simple, but it dang sure ISN'T.

[Liverpooldawg]

Yes. Shit happens. But this isn't one of those times.

When?

[Liverpooldawg]

Nope

So you thought we looked BETTER than 5-7 in the USA game? REALLY? I was scared we wouldn't win but maybe ONE after that one.

[Liverpooldawg]

I included “early 2014” in my “Dan that I want to stay” point. If you think that the Dan that coached South Alabama and the one that coached the Egg Bowl in 2015 literally 24 hours after interviewing at Miami are the same guy you are wrong.

Dan gets distracted sometimes and possibly burned out as well. I think him getting Sexton will help him out with that because he has had enough clients that he knows how to handle things and can advise Dan better than his last agent- advice such as “Hey, if you win the Egg Bowl and take State to the Sugar Bowl I can probably get you a better job”.

It’s part of the learning process for Dan. But now that he has gone through that I’m hopeful that he will learn from it and the next two years will be better than 2014 and 2015.
Actually we were #1 headed into November, but don't let facts get in the way of your argument, as usual.

[Todd4State]

He turned what looked to be a 2 or 3 win team at the actual start of the season into a 5 win team and by doing it he right way got them to a bowl. YOU would have let the man go after 2014. And you have said so.

Absolutely I would have let him go as in let him take another job on his own accord- he was looking for another job. A lot of other corporations would have done the same thing as well. That's a sign that he didn't want to be here and I said we would decline because of it and I took a lot of crap for saying that. But then we lost to South Alabama and only won five games and I turned out to be correct. You're usually better off with someone that wants the job as opposed to looking around. That's business 101.

So, you think with a schedule that included- South Alabama, South Carolina in Starkville, UMass, BYU, Kentucky, and Samford we should have only won 2-3 games? I'm not even including the hindsight of having beaten A&M and Ole Miss in that equation. You could make a strong argument that we probably should have beaten Arkansas at home as well since we scored 42 points on them and literally only needed to stop them 2-3 times. We should have won six at a minimum. We lost South Alabama because we failed to play our best QB more than one series and our best running back and we lost to BYU and Kentucky because we insisted on using a kicker that had a herniated disk in his back and not even giving the back ups a shot.

[Todd4State]

Actually we were #1 headed into November, but don't let facts get in the way of your argument, as usual.

Everyone here knows what I mean. Twisting it is not going to make you right- ask Will James. Early in this instance means before we played Alabama in 2014.

[blacklistedbully]

A big part of what helped Dan this year was Holloway getting injured, so Dan had to play Aeris.

Dan had the same problem in 2013 with Perkins as JRob rode the bench. LP was a great back, when used appropriately...but just like this year with Holloway, Dan would run him repeatedly up the middle, where he would be arm-tackled for a loss or no gain.

Overall stats would not tell the story, because those guys could pop some nice long runs going to the outside or occasionally zip through the middle untouched. But most of the runs up the middle were disasters and drive-killers. We lost some close games where wasting 3 or 4 drives doing this shit made all the difference.

And Dan did the same shit with the kickers, past and present.

I, too, want the old Dan back, but also want him to get it through his stubborn head he needs to learn from his mistakes and IMPROVE. He's EXCEPTIONAL in many ways...but in the areas he refuses to improve on...he's stopping us from taking the next step.

[blacklistedbully]

So you thought we looked BETTER than 5-7 in the USA game? REALLY? I was scared we wouldn't win but maybe ONE after that one.

Don't be silly. I just don't think Dan did a great job to get us to 5-7. We shouls not have lost to USA, UK or BYU. We should not have looked like shit in our win vs UMass. We should not have looked heartless vs Auburn. We should not have gotten hammered at home by UPig with a shot at 6-6 on the line.

While I do give Dan credit for helping Fitz develop as a QB...the 5 wins were probably more about Dan being forced to use Aeris more, and with Dan FINALLY realizing he needed to just stick with Fitz and drop the really stupid DWill BS.

It also had to do with aTm melting down, as they always do in the 2nd half of a season. Did you not notice they tanked? It also had to do with UNM playing like hot garbage as well.

[Todd4State]

A big part of what helped Dan this year was Holloway getting injured, so Dan had to play Aeris.

Dan had the same problem in 2013 with Perkins as JRob rode the bench. LP was a great back, when used appropriately...but just like this year with Holloway, Dan would run him repeatedly up the middle, where he would be arm-tackled for a loss or no gain.

Overall stats would not tell the story, because those guys could pop some nice long runs going to the outside or occasionally zip through the middle untouched. But most of the runs up the middle were disasters and drive-killers. We lost some close game were wasting 3 or 4 drives doing this shit make all the difference.

And Dan did the same shit with the kickers, past and present.

I, too, want the old Dan back, but also want him to get it through his stubborn head he needs to learn from his mistakes and IMPROVE. He's EXCEPTIONAL in many ways...but in the areas he refuses to improve on...he's stopping us from taking the next step.

I’m not sure where I saw this and it may not be correct but on runs up the middle I think Holloway was averaging something like 1.7 YPC on runs up the middle only. Even with the long runs Holloway still finished behind Ashton Shumpert in YPC.

Dan needs to stay away from scatbacks or at the very least understand that in the SEC you need a Ballard, Dixon, Robinson, Aeris type of running back to make his offense work. Running Holloway up the middle caused us to get behind the sticks which made us pass the ball more and pass the ball more in obvious passing situations. It also makes our QB runs less effective because then the defense can key in on the QB if they don’t have to worry about the running back.

[Todd4State]

Don't be silly. I just don't think Dan did a great job to get us to 5-7. We shouls not have lost to USA, UK or BYU. We should not have looked like shit in our win vs UMass. We should not have looked heartless vs Auburn. We should not have gotten hammered at home by UPig with a shot at 6-6 on the line.

While I do give Dan credit for helping Fitz develop as a QB...the 5 wins were probably more about Dan being forced to use Aeris more, and with Dan FINALLY realizing he needed to just stick with Fitz and drop the really stupid DWill BS.

It also had to do with aTm melting down, as they always do in the 2nd half of a season. Did you not notice they tanked? It also had to do with UNM playing like hot garbage as well.

I'd be willing to bet that we don't beat A&M and Ole Miss with Holloway as the primary running back. We still might have won the Egg Bowl but certainly not by five TD's.

[Leroy Jenkins]

He turned what looked to be a 2 or 3 win team at the actual start of the season into a 5 win team and by doing it he right way got them to a bowl. YOU would have let the man go after 2014. And you have said so.

Who's fault is that? No one should go from being #1 to a "2 or 3 win team" in 2 years. You HAVE to capitalize on that success and parlay it into something more than a losing record.

[blacklistedbully]

Who's fault is that? No one should go from being #1 to a "2 or 3 win team" in 2 years. You HAVE to capitalize on that success and parlay it into something more than a losing record.

yep

[Jack Lambert]

to moving into spring, how bad would S. Alabama have beaten us without our bowl practices last year?
I don't think any amount of bowl practice would help our kicking game or another way to look at it think how bad it would have been if we did not go to a bowl game last year.

[msstate7]

Who's fault is that? No one should go from being #1 to a "2 or 3 win team" in 2 years. You HAVE to capitalize on that success and parlay it into something more than a losing record.

Would you fire dantonio?

'13 -- 13-1
'14 -- 11-2
'15 -- 12-2
'16 -- 3-9

You have to fire him, right? He didn't capitalize

[ShotgunDawg]

I expected to get blasted as I said, but I've seen teams like this one before. They usually die a fast and painful death after a start like we had. This one didn't. It got better. That is what I'm basing my opinion on. Y'all should have realized by now I really don't care what people think about my opinions. I'll express them anyway.

It only looks better because Mullen did such a terrible job early.

[Red Sox Dawg]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but ED admins/owners no longer support Mullen as HC

Just curious, what is the "official" stance by ED ownership and management on Mullen after the Egg Bowl beat down of umiss?

[Todd4State]

Would you fire dantonio?

'13 -- 13-1
'14 -- 11-2
'15 -- 12-2
'16 -- 3-9

You have to fire him, right? He didn't capitalize

He definitely should be on the hot seat. I don't know all the particulars of their program. Much like people look at us and wonder why we get upset at Dan sometimes even though it's legit.

[Tbonewannabe]

I expected to get blasted as I said, but I've seen teams like this one before. They usually die a fast and painful death after a start like we had. This one didn't. It got better. That is what I'm basing my opinion on. Y'all should have realized by now I really don't care what people think about my opinions. I'll express them anyway.

We were flat out dominated by Bama (expected), Auburn (not expected), and Arkansas (embarrassing with bowl on the line on Senior Day). I will give props to turning around the next week and dominating UNM but we lost to several average and bad teams.

[basedog]

Damn, I learned nothing from all the post, nothing new but the same ole same ole.

It's like riding in the back seat of your parents car saying "are we there yet"?

[Dawgsfanalongtime77]

This was definitely the toughest season. Even his first season in which we were 5 7 as well. I like how the offense came along but the defense was by far the worst under him. Alot blame sirmon and I get he has a job to do. However he was hired to come into the sec with zero experience. I consider that to be a lazy hire. Name another school in the west especially that would make that hire. The defense is just too soft right now. Some changes will have to be made the way I see it. And is it possible to maybe recruit another kicker. Graves mentality was shot way early in the season but Mullen kept sending him out.

[oldjoedawg]

Damn, I learned nothing from all the post, nothing new but the same ole same ole.

It's like riding in the back seat of your parents car saying "are we there yet"?

basedog gets it!...I know I don't have to read it, but its like getting caught in a whirlpool....once I read the first couple of posts I am sucked in by the same back and forth, adolescent, my daddy can whip your daddy drivel and, realizing these are adults, I just cannot stop myself...LOL

[lamont]

Just curious, what is the "official" stance by ED ownership and management on Mullen after the Egg Bowl beat down of umiss?

We havent talked about an official stance. But mine is as follows:

Why pull Fitz 2 series into the USA game? That was dumb. Mullen had him coming out and throwing the ball all over. He is green and making his first start. #RTGDF and get him into the flow of the game. We lost a game we shouldnt have there because of coaching.

Why did it take Holloway getting hurt to make us a better football team? EVERYBODY knows the A-Train is a better football player and RB than Holloway. Love Holloway to death- but he is just too damn small to be an SEC TB. He should have helped lead Delta State to a playoff game in Div II- not play SEC football. Why does it take him getting injured for us to play the best player?????

For all the good Mullen does- he also does things that guarantee our program will never maximize its potential. I really dont like going to a bowl at 5-7, but it does have some value. But we lose alot of important guys heading into next year that have to be replaced- and we are a 6-6 type team again in 2017 especially when you look at the schedule. The Egg Bowl was nice- but reality is that we had a losing season and will most likely be predicted last in the West heading into 2017. And there is nothing you can point to on this team to argue that we shouldnt.

[Liverpooldawg]

He definitely should be on the hot seat. I don't know all the particulars of their program. Much like people look at us and wonder why we get upset at Dan sometimes even though it's legit.

No he shouldn't. If he does it again next year then yeah.

[Liverpooldawg]

We havent talked about an official stance. But mine is as follows:

Why pull Fitz 2 series into the USA game? That was dumb. Mullen had him coming out and throwing the ball all over. He is green and making his first start. #RTGDF and get him into the flow of the game. We lost a game we shouldnt have there because of coaching.

Why did it take Holloway getting hurt to make us a better football team? EVERYBODY knows the A-Train is a better football player and RB than Holloway. Love Holloway to death- but he is just too damn small to be an SEC TB. He should have helped lead Delta State to a playoff game in Div II- not play SEC football. Why does it take him getting injured for us to play the best player?????

For all the good Mullen does- he also does things that guarantee our program will never maximize its potential. I really dont like going to a bowl at 5-7, but it does have some value. But we lose alot of important guys heading into next year that have to be replaced- and we are a 6-6 type team again in 2017 especially when you look at the schedule. The Egg Bowl was nice- but reality is that we had a losing season and will most likely be predicted last in the West heading into 2017. And there is nothing you can point to on this team to argue that we shouldnt.

So what is our potential? If you look at Mullen historically he is preforming WAY above our historical average. We have only had one coach who stayed more than a year or two to do better.

[Liverpooldawg]

Absolutely I would have let him go as in let him take another job on his own accord- he was looking for another job. A lot of other corporations would have done the same thing as well. That's a sign that he didn't want to be here and I said we would decline because of it and I took a lot of crap for saying that. But then we lost to South Alabama and only won five games and I turned out to be correct. You're usually better off with someone that wants the job as opposed to looking around. That's business 101.

So, you think with a schedule that included- South Alabama, South Carolina in Starkville, UMass, BYU, Kentucky, and Samford we should have only won 2-3 games? I'm not even including the hindsight of having beaten A&M and Ole Miss in that equation. You could make a strong argument that we probably should have beaten Arkansas at home as well since we scored 42 points on them and literally only needed to stop them 2-3 times. We should have won six at a minimum. We lost South Alabama because we failed to play our best QB more than one series and our best running back and we lost to BYU and Kentucky because we insisted on using a kicker that had a herniated disk in his back and not even giving the back ups a shot.

Read what I said. After seeing the USA game I thought Samford might be the only win. We were absolutely horrid in the USA game. I had NO expectations of any kind, good are bad coming into the year. This was truly a new team. You never know what you have till you see it in that situation. When asked here locally to make a prediction I said 6-6 but I qualified that to say I didn't really have any idea.

[Todd4State]

Read what I said. After seeing the USA game I thought Samford might be the only win. We were absolutely horrid in the USA game. I had NO expectations of any kind, good are bad coming into the year. This was truly a new team. You never know what you have till you see it in that situation. When asked here locally to make a prediction I said 6-6 but I qualified that to say I didn't really have any idea.

You said that we should have been a 2-3 win team this year and that was why Dan according to you did his best job ever. We should win six at a minimum with our schedule. When we play Samford, UMass, South Alabama, Kentucky, BYU and South Carolina expecting is to only win 2-3 is simply football ignorant.

[Todd4State]

No he shouldn't. If he does it again next year then yeah.

I'd like to work for you. I wouldn't have to perform for three years.

[lamont]

So what is our potential? If you look at Mullen historically he is preforming WAY above our historical average. We have only had one coach who stayed more than a year or two to do better.

Our history begins in 1991. You simply cant compare what we have now and where we are to what State was before that.

Mullen has done a good job at State. But now we are in a period of regression. 2017 needs to play out and we will see what happens. He has 2 years left on his contract now (unless we give him an extension for some stupid reason). After next season he'll be down to 1 and a decision needs to be made if he is the guy to continue on moving forward or not. I would think our performance in 2017 would greatly affect that

[Red Sox Dawg]

For all the good Mullen does- he also does things that guarantee our program will never maximize its potential. I really dont like going to a bowl at 5-7, but it does have some value. But we lose alot of important guys heading into next year that have to be replaced- and we are a 6-6 type team again in 2017 especially when you look at the schedule. The Egg Bowl was nice- but reality is that we had a losing season and will most likely be predicted last in the West heading into 2017. And there is nothing you can point to on this team to argue that we shouldnt.

I agree that Mullen can be frustrating, but he also does some things well. There are some question marks next year but some of the younger guys that got experience this year will be improved next year. I don't doubt that we will be predicted last in the West next year, but we were picked last this year too and we didn't finish last.

I support Coach Mullen and I think we will be improved next year, that's why I'll be buying tickets and going to watch my dogs in 2017. Can Mullen improve? Absolutely. Is he holding our program back? Absolutely NOT! What I am hoping for is improvement in all facets of the game next year and a return of Mississippi State brand football. Will it happen? Who knows, but I choose to see if we can learn from this year and get better in the areas we need to improve in and compete at a higher level.

Dan will never be Saban. He is an anomaly in College football. But Dan can be successful at MSU, he already has been.

Things are never as good as they seem, and never as bad as they seem...reality is usually somewhere in between.

[blacklistedbully]

We have one extra game since CJS. In the first 10 years under Jackie (before the UNM-lead NCAA bashing), CJS averaged 4.8 losses per year.

Under Dan we average 5.25 losses.

Dan looks great compared to Croom, but not compared to pre-NCAA CJS...and Croom was saddled with a team gutted by the NCAA.

What Dan has done is re-energize the program, bring us the best QB situation we have ever had, and a much more explosive offense. Vs what Croom did, he's made us nearly 2.5 games better overall in the loss column (Croom averaged 7.6 losses). But Dan has also easily cost us probably at least 2 losses a year just from stupid or stubborn personnel decisions, game-management decisions, and recruiting problems exacerbated by his or his former agent's mishandling of his "testing the market for other opportunities", etc.

Were Dan able to admit his faults and work on them, we could likely see him bring his loss average down to 3-something...not 5.25. But we see the same damned frustrating mistakes year-after-year.

Yes...he has improved our program overall. Yes...he has taken us to heights we haven't seen before. Yes...it's entirely possible we would take a step back if we lose him as our coach. But yes...unless he stops being so stubborn and allows himself to recognize and improve on his weaknesses, we will likely never take the next step up, actually competing for the SEC West on at least a semi-regular basis.

So, in short...losing Dan may well land us back in a place where we go back to averaging 6-7 losses per year. But if he doesn't adapt, we'll likely continue to lose a game or two per year on average that we shouldn't, to go along with the 2-3 we should.

[Liverpooldawg]

Our history begins in 1991. You simply cant compare what we have now and where we are to what State was before that.

Mullen has done a good job at State. But now we are in a period of regression. 2017 needs to play out and we will see what happens. He has 2 years left on his contract now (unless we give him an extension for some stupid reason). After next season he'll be down to 1 and a decision needs to be made if he is the guy to continue on moving forward or not. I would think our performance in 2017 would greatly affect that

In absolute terms we are way ahead of where we were in 1991. In relative terms we are pretty much ch where we have always been. I'm talking about money, facilities, and tradition, that kind of thing.