Todd4State
12-31-2017, 10:50 PM
1. Win the Sugar Bowl. This goes without saying. We would paint the Superdome maroon.
2. Beat Ole Miss in a high stakes game. High stakes meaning going to a NY6 or NYD bowl game. We've lost too many of these lately and we need to turn this around. Thankfully Dan won't spend Egg Bowl week talking to his agents and people like Maryland. I mean seriously? Maryland?
3. Bring back the interlocking MSU. If MSU won't do it, the fans should put together an independent drive/petition and buy the logo back from Nike and then donate it to MSU to use. And MSU, I understand the "marketing" argument but people still mix us up with Ole Miss and others. My conspiracy theory on the interlocking MSU logo is that LT didn't like it and really liked the old M-State logo from the Croom era. As hard as this is for us to believe I think many of MSU's past administrator's look up to LT because he gave some of them a start and he did do some good things for MSU....in the 1980's. I think the MSU administration is using the "we can't buy it back from Nike" excuse because they really want to keep the M-State logo to honor LT and the aforementioned excuse is up there with the Holloway is playing because he knows the blocking assignments excuse.
And you know what? Maybe it's the tin foil from the pizza I just heated up in the microwave. But it does seem plausible.
But I would say this to the MSU administration. You CAN own the interlocking MSU logo AND still use the M-State logo. We did that in the late 1990's- go watch the 1999 Egg Bowl replay and look at the M-State logo at midfield. It doesn't HAVE to be either/or. You CAN STILL make the M-State logo the primary logo. At this point, I would be totally fine with using the interlocking MSU once a year on a throwback uniform against Tarleton State for homecoming and then the M-State logo the rest of the year. Owning the interlocking MSU logo gives you that option. Why not? What does it hurt?
And here's some food for thought- during the early NSD we had at least TWO recruits sign with the interlocking MSU helmet on the table. Two players who were in diapers the last time we wore them. I think that says a lot about how MSU fans view the logo in general.
Anyone have any idea how much it costs to buy logos? I honestly have no idea- and I will add that. I could be wrong but I bet it's doable if the fans band together and do it.
4. Our gameday atmosphere is awesome. We stand toe to toe with anyone else in the SEC- and I have been to every stadium in the league. And unintentionally about half of C-USA too. But as a band nerd there is one thing I would like to see us tweak and I got this idea from Texas A&M. There needs to be speakers around the stadium dedicated to the band so that everyone can hear them around the stadium. The scoreboard unintentionally drowns them out. Texas A&M had speakers around the stadium and it really helped their fans with their cheers- which added to their atmosphere. Really the main value here would be the GO STATE! GO STATE! cheer. In reality it's a little thing that just makes things a little bit better. It might help with the HEY! GO STATE! cheer too.
5. I want to see a major increase in the recruiting budget and more of a focus on football recruiting. If baseball (yeah OK), basketball, and women's basketball can recruit at a high level there is ZERO reason why football can't. Ole Miss cheats? OK, well let's buy one of their Mississippi recruits and let them see how they like it. If someone bullys you- if you stand up to them more often than not they will back down. We need to start using recruiting as a promotional tool- something we NEVER did under Dan. And heck no I'm not saying that we should do what Ole Miss did in 2013 by any stretch of the imagination. Find a guy that is extemely solid (but privately committed) that is going to the UA AAG or ARMY AAG and then have them choose us with the hat party thing. No throwing Ole Miss hats and please by God no throwing Alabama hats. Just pick up the MSU hat. One player a year would suffice. And I don't know if it would help or not but maybe one of our recruiting analysts like a Brad Peterson or Rod Gibson could contact the 247 people about our recruits. I don't know if it would help or not but a cursory "Hey, you should look at this Kwatrivous Johnson guy." probably wouldn't hurt. At least it would save the 247 people the embarrassment of "Gee I never heard of that guy even though he was invited to one of the top two most prestigious national all-star games months ago". (I mean what do these guys do in between the Opening and the UA All-American Game?) The fact of the matter is even if it is staged perceived recruiting success leads to fans that are more confident in the direction of the program and therefore creates more support. Dan didn't get that at all- or just didn't care which is an entirely separate issue.
Hail State! And Happy New Year!
2. Beat Ole Miss in a high stakes game. High stakes meaning going to a NY6 or NYD bowl game. We've lost too many of these lately and we need to turn this around. Thankfully Dan won't spend Egg Bowl week talking to his agents and people like Maryland. I mean seriously? Maryland?
3. Bring back the interlocking MSU. If MSU won't do it, the fans should put together an independent drive/petition and buy the logo back from Nike and then donate it to MSU to use. And MSU, I understand the "marketing" argument but people still mix us up with Ole Miss and others. My conspiracy theory on the interlocking MSU logo is that LT didn't like it and really liked the old M-State logo from the Croom era. As hard as this is for us to believe I think many of MSU's past administrator's look up to LT because he gave some of them a start and he did do some good things for MSU....in the 1980's. I think the MSU administration is using the "we can't buy it back from Nike" excuse because they really want to keep the M-State logo to honor LT and the aforementioned excuse is up there with the Holloway is playing because he knows the blocking assignments excuse.
And you know what? Maybe it's the tin foil from the pizza I just heated up in the microwave. But it does seem plausible.
But I would say this to the MSU administration. You CAN own the interlocking MSU logo AND still use the M-State logo. We did that in the late 1990's- go watch the 1999 Egg Bowl replay and look at the M-State logo at midfield. It doesn't HAVE to be either/or. You CAN STILL make the M-State logo the primary logo. At this point, I would be totally fine with using the interlocking MSU once a year on a throwback uniform against Tarleton State for homecoming and then the M-State logo the rest of the year. Owning the interlocking MSU logo gives you that option. Why not? What does it hurt?
And here's some food for thought- during the early NSD we had at least TWO recruits sign with the interlocking MSU helmet on the table. Two players who were in diapers the last time we wore them. I think that says a lot about how MSU fans view the logo in general.
Anyone have any idea how much it costs to buy logos? I honestly have no idea- and I will add that. I could be wrong but I bet it's doable if the fans band together and do it.
4. Our gameday atmosphere is awesome. We stand toe to toe with anyone else in the SEC- and I have been to every stadium in the league. And unintentionally about half of C-USA too. But as a band nerd there is one thing I would like to see us tweak and I got this idea from Texas A&M. There needs to be speakers around the stadium dedicated to the band so that everyone can hear them around the stadium. The scoreboard unintentionally drowns them out. Texas A&M had speakers around the stadium and it really helped their fans with their cheers- which added to their atmosphere. Really the main value here would be the GO STATE! GO STATE! cheer. In reality it's a little thing that just makes things a little bit better. It might help with the HEY! GO STATE! cheer too.
5. I want to see a major increase in the recruiting budget and more of a focus on football recruiting. If baseball (yeah OK), basketball, and women's basketball can recruit at a high level there is ZERO reason why football can't. Ole Miss cheats? OK, well let's buy one of their Mississippi recruits and let them see how they like it. If someone bullys you- if you stand up to them more often than not they will back down. We need to start using recruiting as a promotional tool- something we NEVER did under Dan. And heck no I'm not saying that we should do what Ole Miss did in 2013 by any stretch of the imagination. Find a guy that is extemely solid (but privately committed) that is going to the UA AAG or ARMY AAG and then have them choose us with the hat party thing. No throwing Ole Miss hats and please by God no throwing Alabama hats. Just pick up the MSU hat. One player a year would suffice. And I don't know if it would help or not but maybe one of our recruiting analysts like a Brad Peterson or Rod Gibson could contact the 247 people about our recruits. I don't know if it would help or not but a cursory "Hey, you should look at this Kwatrivous Johnson guy." probably wouldn't hurt. At least it would save the 247 people the embarrassment of "Gee I never heard of that guy even though he was invited to one of the top two most prestigious national all-star games months ago". (I mean what do these guys do in between the Opening and the UA All-American Game?) The fact of the matter is even if it is staged perceived recruiting success leads to fans that are more confident in the direction of the program and therefore creates more support. Dan didn't get that at all- or just didn't care which is an entirely separate issue.
Hail State! And Happy New Year!