Former players perspective

[bulldawg28]

All this talk of HUD is sickening. For those fans old enough to remember MSU history you understand how great of a job Mullen is doing. Even in our best years one side of the ball carried the other. We call Jackie Wayne the king and for good reason. He took us places we've never gone before but here's a news flash, our offense sucked then!!!! It was the defense that won us the Western division and almost the championship. Our school has had a history of not knowing what's good for us. We have booed our starting Qbs if they struggle and only watched as the backup gave ONLY a temporary spark. Wayne Makin our winninegst Qb threw up before every game scared to death. From my experience playing with Wayne I don't know if it was our crowd or the other team that did it. Ole Miss has baited us hook line and sinker on what *cough**cough**cough**cough**cough**cough**cough* supposed ceiling is and we've taken the bait. I call BS. We as a fan base should realize all that is happening for us right now. Sellouts, NFL draft picks, holiday bowl games, boasting over rival victories, new facilities, and stadium expansions are all aligned in what Mullen has done for us. If we as fans keep doing our part IF by chance MUllen DECIDES to leave, contrary to blackbear belief people will knock our door down trying to get in. As a former player Mullen has done things that no other coach has done. Leave the man alone and let's enjoy this success for awhile. When we make it to another bowl this year and next year's team is looking at a possible 10 win season this decapitation talk should finally rest. Cheer, scream, yell today for our team and enjoy some football. HAILSTATE!!!!!!

[AROB44]

Outstanding.....thank you!

[Schultzy]

I'm glad to finally read a post like this. Too many in our fan base are Knee jerk emotional mouth breathers and I'm tired of people referencing "year five". There is nothing magical about year five. We are deeper than we've ever been overall and recruiting better than we are giving ourselves credit for.
Teams with good defenses always have a chance to improve as the season goes forward.

[msstate7]

I wanna believe DM is still an outstanding coach. I want him to succeed so bad. Questioning him is fair game though bc in year 5 he fielded an offense that wasn't as good as year 1. Do I think he can turn it around? Yeah I do, but he's got pressure on him now that hasn't been there before. He needs to step it up. It's really concerning to me that in year 5 one ol going down has us in really bad shape on the oline.

[msstate7]

I'm glad to finally read a post like this. Too many in our fan base are Knee jerk emotional mouth breathers and I'm tired of people referencing "year five". There is nothing magical about year five. We are deeper than we've ever been overall and recruiting better than we are giving ourselves credit for.
Teams with good defenses always have a chance to improve as the season goes forward.

I do think we're deeper in almost every position but 2. Unfortunately it's the 2 most important offensive positions: ol and qb. You're right there's nothing magical about year 5, but when you go thru a 1-6 stretch in year 4-5 that's concerning. In those 6 losses, how many were competitive?

[slickdawg]

Thank you.

People forget where we've been and have been spoiled. There's no shame in losing to Oklahoma State, a top 15 team. Losing to Maine? Yeah, that's pure shame. 2001-2008 was largely pure shame.

We have a good chance to go bowling this year, for a school record fourth straight year. Jackie didn't do that. Nobody did. Sure I'm disappointed with the play calling and offensive play last Saturday. People forget the players have been working their asses off since January and this is their home opener on the field they work hard to protect. People need to be there, be loud and be proud.

[msstate7]

Thank you.

People forget where we've been and have been spoiled. There's no shame in losing to Oklahoma State, a top 15 team. Losing to Maine? Yeah, that's pure shame. 2001-2008 was largely pure shame.

We have a good chance to go bowling this year, for a school record fourth straight year. Jackie didn't do that. Nobody did. Sure I'm disappointed with the play calling and offensive play last Saturday. People forget the players have been working their asses off since January and this is their home opener on the field they work hard to protect. People need to be there, be loud and be proud.

There's no shame in losing to Osu, but I think we should've won. I'm not as big on Hud as everyone else is but if petrino coached us game 1 we'd be 1-0. If Dan bombs this year, petrino is my first pick. If Dan gets bowl this year and I think he will, I'm happy with him. I do like that DM is recruiting ol heavy this year. We need more run blockers!

[Political Hack]

I like this guy.

[engie]

I'm glad to finally read a post like this. Too many in our fan base are Knee jerk emotional mouth breathers and I'm tired of people referencing "year five". There is nothing magical about year five. We are deeper than we've ever been overall and recruiting better than we are giving ourselves credit for.
Teams with good defenses always have a chance to improve as the season goes forward.

Exactly.

To be clear -- there is nothing wrong with complaining about specific THINGS. It's the big picture fire Mullinz crowd that's the problem...

[Dawg61]

Mullen himself needs a kick in the pants. We didn't lose to OSU from a talent standpoint. It was all in-game coaching adjustments. We lost because Gundy outcoached Mullen. Now I might be able to accept that if Mullen looked like he gave a shit but no he's just chillen on the sidelines chewing on his playchart.

[PMDawg]

Exactly.

To be clear -- there is nothing wrong with complaining about specific THINGS. It's the big picture fire Mullinz crowd that's the problem...

I'm not saying fire Mullen, but isn't he the one calling the plays right now? If so, that's a specific problem, but a very big one. I just want our offense to be good enough to give our defense even a chance against the A&M's, LSU's, and OSU's of the world. Notice I didn't even put Alabama in there. I think an offense in the 40-60 range (nationally) along with a top 20-40 defense is the ideal situation for MSU. I will never complain when/if we get there. I just don't think that's too much to ask.

[Schultzy]

Mullen will be back next year no matter what happens. Yes we need better run blocking.

[engie]

Everyone wants the offense to be better.

It's a huge leap to think the only way that can happen is to get rid of Mullen. The same people wanting to fire Mullen are the ones complaining about recruiting -- while ignoring how their own actions can't possibly have a positive effect on the programs...

[99jc]

Your not the only one who played at State. And The problem I have is Offensive play calling. We need to open up the playbook and put our skill player's 1 on 1 in space.

[msstate7]

Everyone wants the offense to be better.

It's a huge ass leap to think the only way that can happen is to get rid of Mullen. The same people wanting to fire Mullen are the idiots complaining about recruiting -- while ignoring how their own actions can't possibly have a positive effect on the programs...

Well I do hold Mullen responsible for the offense. He's an offensive coach and his offense has no identity and can't perform consistently against quality teams. Who is responsible for that?

[DapperDawg]

Using our history as a measuring stick will only keep us down. We compete against other teams, not our history, so let's use other teams and our performances against said teams as the measuring stick. We haven't been close to competitive in our last 6 losses, primarily from our coach's offense, the very coach who used to be touted as an offensive guru.

Also, this same coach has always preached and promised relentless effort. What we've seen over the past few years is very distant from relentless effort, especially from him. This team has taken over the personality of their leader, their head coach. The reason some folks are calling for a change, even though it's premature, is because they see the trend. They see a small flame beginning to grow, and it's easier to smother a small flame, than fight a raging fire. Hopefully Mullen puts this flame out on his own, with personnel and in-game adjustments, but he has shown us nothing so far to make us think he'll do so.

[Coach34]

I'll also remind people- it took Jackie 9 seasons to win more than 8 games. He must have forgotten what "his ceiling" was

[engie]

Well I do hold Mullen responsible for the offense. He's an offensive coach and his offense has no identity and can't perform consistently against quality teams. Who is responsible for that?

Who doesn't hold Mullen responsible for the offense? Where has that been said?

Just another overreaction to a simple point that I made...

[msstate7]

Who doesn't hold Mullen responsible for the offense? Where has that been said?

Just another overreaction to a simple point that I made...

Calm down engie. I'm just saying that Mullen isn't getting it done on the side of the football he's supposed to be best at. I'm not ready to fire Mullen, but the honeymoon is over. He needs to fix the offense at all costs. If he has to turn the offense over to a good, young OC, then do it

[engie]

Using our history as a measuring stick will only keep us down. We compete against other teams, not our history, so let's use other teams and our performances against said teams as the measuring stick.

This isn't delusional at all**

Let's just ignore our past in order to set expectations for the future.... Makes perfect sense....

[RougeDawg]

Mullen will be back next year no matter what happens. Yes we need better run blocking.

Our run blocking will improve solely on the fact we have a mobile QB in the game. With TR in the defense disregards him as a ball carrier. All blocking should improve since defenses will have to play container more with Dak.

28 I don't think Mullen shoul get the pink slip, but as a former player it should disgust you to see a coach not adapt, stop being stubborn, and put the fest players and scheme out on the field each week. We have some bruiser RB's and some speedsters. We send the speedsters up the gut and bruisers on sweeps. We as fans just want Dan to put our players in the best position to be successful. You can have a the talent in the world on a team, but its not worth a **** if you don't use it to the best of its ability. Last year and last week our offense looked like someone trying to dig a hole with a spoon, while your shovel is sitting in the shed.

[ShotgunDawg]

I love Mullen and believe he is just going through his adolescence as the MSU coach. To think that every head coach has it all figured out when they take their first head coaching job is completely naive. If Mullen can figure this out, then I think he will coach at MSU for a very very long time. There are just too many positives that he has done for the university.

REMEMBER THIS/MAIN POINT: We are all complaining about something that will naturally fix itself due to who our QBs will be for the foreseeable future. Mullen has done a terrible job at adjusting his offense to fit Tyler, but it's' not a longterm problem because of Dak, Staley, Fitzgerald, and Williams are all dual threat QBs. So whether Mullen figures this out or not, it doesn't really effect his long term job security at MSU unless he forgets how to run his offense with a dual threat QB.

[blacklistedbully]

There was one brief, shining moment in our history when we had an elite offense AND defense. Bond, Cooks, Hull, Haddix, Collins, Edwards, Jackson, King, Knight, Young, Keys, Fesmire, McDoyle, Miller, Moore, Bell are some of the names that come to mind. Emory Bellard had it going until injuries took their toll. I was at State then and it spoiled me. I have had a hard time thinking of us as a traditional SEC bottom-dweller because of this. My personal memories are of us being great. Snake-bit as always, but great.

[Dawgface]

It's good to hear a players perspective. Not sure how many post on here. As far a Mullen is concerned, I don't think many really think Mullen should be fired. Most negative posts about him are right after a loss. But many are concerned with trend over the last 7 games. Not just the losses, but they way we lost. The OSU game did show some promising signs in terms of the defense. But with Mullen being forced to change QB's, maybe we will see a more run/option oriented team that Mullen seems to run better. Maybe today will be the first step in getting us back on track.

[Bothrops]

Contrary to what a lot of people say, I think Mullen is a cool guy, personally. But I also know that MSU football, as a program, can't afford to be buried again. The concerns are all warranted as far as I can see. If people would stop reiterating our lack-of-success in our history, I'll quit bringing up "year 5".