Why is Mullen attacked by SEC media- but Crooms patted on the back?

[Coach34]

I've never seen anything like this in my 44 years- it really defies logic

The media takes potshots at Mullen and points out his flaws at every attempt.
They are quick to tell you who he hasnt beat
They are quick to talk about his shitty recruiting rankings (but dont mention our NFL draft numbers)

Mullen is winningest coach at State since the 1940's- that cant even be denied. It's a fact.
Mullen has led us to 3 straight bowls

Crooms?

Couldnt beat Conf-USA teams
Lost to Maine
Had an offense that couldnt break the top 100 in 5 seasons- an unprecedented feat in NCAA football
Told the TV crew for a national TV game that he would retire before changing his offense that isnt working

Yet they did an SEC story on ESPN for him and never used to hate on him. He got SEC COY because Ellis Johnson had a defense that was unreal and scored 6 defensive TD's to help pull out a couple of wins that we had no business winning.


It's really becoming comical at this point. What tha ****ing ****?

[cheewgumm]

All true and reason is apparent. However it is on mullen's hands. Win.

[ShotgunDawg]

Its all about the business of football. The truth is that for the media like Sallee and all the other idiots, college football is their business and they need page view to survive. Therefore, the biggest threat to their business is "small market" teams like MSU becoming relevant, and "big market" teams becoming less relevant.

Its kinda of like in MLB, would the advertisers rather the World Series be Boston vs LA Dodgers or Cleveland vs Pittsburgh. Its obvious that in baseball the advertisers would rather have Boston vs LA, but, in baseball, there isn't any recruiting and there is little the media can do to effect the sport's climate.

However, in college football the media makes an effort to shape perceptions in order to effect recruiting, and by doing that, they are effectively able to have influence over who wins and loses.

I haven't quite figured out why they love OM, other than OM must, due to their history must capture the imagination of people outside of the south. Can't explain the love for them.

But, in any event, the media fears what Mullen could do if he could recruit. With Croom, not so much.

[msstate7]

Its all about the business of football. The truth is that for the media like Sallee and all the other idiots, college football is their business and they need page view to survive. Therefore, the biggest threat to their business is "small market" teams like MSU becoming relevant, and "big market" teams becoming less relevant.


Then why the OM love?

[slickdawg]

The media has loved to kick us when we are down. Jackie told us when he came here that the media was one of seven things you needed to succeed. He finally got that in the late 90's, then along came Xenareb.

So Croom got a pass because the "mess he inherited", he was the son of Bear's preacher, played for Bear, and he was the first black head coach in the SEC.

Mullen came in and got an epic mess handed to him. 1 winning season in 8 years, a roster full of 2*'s, but he was Tebow's OC, so he should work magic immediately. It doesn't work that way in the SEC. If you don't have quality linemen and depth, you aren't doing much in this conference.

Screw the media. Mullen comes in and wins 5 his first year, 1-2 more than Sylvester did in 4 of his 5 years. He tops Crooms best year in his second season, 3 straight bowl games, 3-1 against Ole Miss, all while learning on the job as a new head coach. Freeze had head coaching experience and won exactly 1 more game in his first regular season than Dan did. Dan had the toughest rated schedule in the nation in his first year.

He got to 30 wins faster than any coach in our history, but gets no respect or credit for that. There's been not one bad loss, like Maine. We've been close a few times on the big games. I think the best of Mullen is yet to come.

[bully99]

Coach get you a photo of each man and hold them together. You're a smart man....you will figure it out.

[Coach34]

Then why the OM love?

Archie Manning
Peyton Manning
Eli Manning

ESPN

[slickdawg]

Then why the OM love?

Ole Miss is a journalism school, they've got a lot of people spreading the romance of Oxford. Coach, what is Oxford? Grenada without a lake?

They are paying for press and PR. They are killing themselves on social media trying to be relevant. If they lose this weekend, they might lose 3-4 in a row. The 25-0 skulldrag with a Croomesque performance is killing them. No way Bama beat their ass, it was Tyler Siskey. Right.

[ShotgunDawg]

Then why the OM love?

Because they have a ton of actual OM fans, Alumni, and former coaches in the media.

Wright Thompson (lives in Oxford)
Pete Roussel (Lives in Oxford)
Godfrey (OM grad)
Edward Aschoff (OM grad)
Bruce Feldman (OM allowed him access for Meat Market)
Archie (CBS Halftime analyst and very influential)
Tim Brando (Daughter did or still goes to OM)
Richard Cross (Not very influential, but still a slanted media member)
Brandon Speck (Not very influential, but still and slanted media member)

This is just the start. These people talk to their buddies about how great OM is and the ball gets rolling. Its like a rock rolling down a hill, these people nudge it and begin to shape a perception that other media member just latch onto because they need something to write and are to lazy to do any real research.

Compare that list to MSU's media supporters:

1. Matt Wyatt (LOL, he tries to stay unbiased 99% of the time)
2. Crickets......IDK who number two is

THIS IS OUR GREATEST BATTLE. WE MUST DEVELOP MEDIA MEMBERS THAT WILL SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT MSU.

[Coach34]

Ole Miss is a journalism school, they've got a lot of people spreading the romance of Oxford. Coach, what is Oxford? Grenada without a lake?

They are paying for press and PR. They are killing themselves on social media trying to be relevant. If they lose this weekend, they might lose 3-4 in a row. The 25-0 skulldrag with a Croomesque performance is killing them. No way Bama beat their ass, it was Tyler Siskey. Right.

Exactly- they spend so much time and energy "controlling the message"

Last year when they recruiting this big class- I pointed out to everyone that on their school website, ON THEIR SCHOOL WEBSITE, the name Ole Miss comes from slave times. So what happens????

They removed it completely from their school website. It happened within 72 hours of me posting and making a big deal out of it. They are controlling the message

[bully99]

Their PR department has done a great job of pumping sunshine about the grove, the square, and the writers in Oxford. The only thing they do to Starkville is ridicule it. I think Dan has brought a lot of this crap on himself with all of his talk and bravado.

[Coach34]

All Dan's talk and bravado is well deserved being State's beat coach sinc ethe 1940's to this point

I don't think the media does it because of skin color- I really don't think they are racist toward Mullen. I think it's more about keeping status quo in the SEC

[cheewgumm]

Look I love Mullen but to this point there is no reason to fear him . We haven't beat anybody.

If he could recruit we'd be in the hunt but to this point the consistency is not there. He can make them fear him on Saturday .won... That's all.


All Dan's talk and bravado is well deserved being State's beat coach sinc ethe 1940's to this point

I don't think the media does it because of skin color- I really don't think they are racist toward Mullen. I think it's more about keeping status quo in the SEC

[bluelightstar]

Please, this has nothing to do with race. Mullen is just objectively the coach doing the worst in the SEC overall right now. Last year, the potshots were Dooley, John L. Smith, and Joker. This year, Mullen and Pinkel looked to be the easiest targets -- Pinkel's 4-0 (against nobody, which has been acknowledged) and Mullen's 2-2 with a loss to a mediocre Auburn team. He's going to be the butt of the jokes until (a) he wins more or (b) some other coach tanks and becomes the easy target.

References to Mullen not winning are easy. Don't like it? Beat somebody.

[Todd4State]

As bad as Croom was, the media talking good about him is good for MSU. We were the first school in the SEC willing to hire a black coach? That's not a bad thing even if it didn't work out. If it did work out, it would have been huge for us. That's why I wanted Croom to work out SO badly. It is what it is.

Dan right or wrong is going to have to beat someone worth a darn to get attention in the media- something Jackie was able to do from time to time. We aren't a flashy offensive team like ahem... Ole Miss, Auburn, or Texas A&M and we don't have any media darling players right now- and even if we did, the university doesn't promote them all that well. That or we would turn ourselves in to the NCAA for some BS or shut down any grassroots thing like Smoot for Heisman. Right now we look like a 5 or 6 win team- the media is not going to talk about how awesome Dan is in year five with that.

[Negative Waves]

It's not going to matter if we beat one of the big boys. They'll do just like what they've done with the Georgia and Florida wins in 2010. They'll say, "dang so and so is having a terrible year. They got beat by Mississippi State!" If the media is going to fall in love with us, we're going to have to become what we were under Jackie, the bad boys of the SEC. We played hard-nosed defense and hit hard all over the field and played with swagger. Even when the other team won, they walked off the field battered and bruised. Sure, we got a ton of penalties, but it was fun to watch. Of course if the current rules were in place back then, half the defense would be sitting out due to targeting the head penalties.

[bluelightstar]

It's not going to matter if we beat one of the big boys. They'll do just like what they've done with the Georgia and Florida wins in 2010. They'll say, "dang so and so is having a terrible year. They got beat by Mississippi State!" If the media is going to fall in love with us, we're going to have to become what we were under Jackie, the bad boys of the SEC. We played hard-nosed defense and hit hard all over the field and played with swagger. Even when the other team won, they walked off the field battered and bruised. Sure, we got a ton of penalties, but it was fun to watch. Of course if the current rules were in place back then, half the defense would be sitting out due to targeting the head penalties.

I disagree -- if we beat a traditional name that doesn't finish with five or six losses, that will be acknowledged.

[Drugdog]

All good points in this thread. To solve the problem and have the pen taken out of the reporters hand is to win and then win more.
If left to an "unbiased reporter" we will lose every time.
Look at Baseball. We win. We get good pub.
Beating LSU would be a Great place to start.
As C34 says " it's time Dan"

[C222]

I disagree -- if we beat a traditional name that doesn't finish with five or six losses, that will be acknowledged.

Nope....if we beat LSU, everyone will say they are having a bad year with 2 losses already.

[cheewgumm]

If lsu ends up going 5-7 they will be right... See tenn and auburn last year.


Nope....if we beat LSU, everyone will say they are having a bad year with 2 losses already.

[sandwolf]

I don't think the media does it because of skin color- I really don't think they are racist toward Mullen. I think it's more about keeping status quo in the SEC

Honestly, I just don't think that Mullen is a very likable guy. I mean most of our fans like him because he is doing a good job for us, but if he coached a different SEC West team I would despise him. I met him briefly when he was on one of the marketing tours, and he just isn't very personable......he has an extremely hard time maintaining eye contact when he talks to you (during our 30-45 second conversation I turned and looked over my shoulder at least twice to see what in the hell was going on behind me) and he was just generally hard to talk to and not very good at hiding the fact that he did not want to be there. Add in the fact that he did a good bit of shooting off at the mouth when he was having a lot of success, and he is just a pretty easy guy to pull against.

[Jack Lambert]

Please, this has nothing to do with race. Mullen is just objectively the coach doing the worst in the SEC overall right now. Last year, the potshots were Dooley, John L. Smith, and Joker. This year, Mullen and Pinkel looked to be the easiest targets -- Pinkel's 4-0 (against nobody, which has been acknowledged) and Mullen's 2-2 with a loss to a mediocre Auburn team. He's going to be the butt of the jokes until (a) he wins more or (b) some other coach tanks and becomes the easy target.

References to Mullen not winning are easy. Don't like it? Beat somebody.

If it is about performance why was Croom getting cut slack? Croom was horrible and he did not get taken to the wood shed. I am sorry but I am not buying your rational.

[bluelightstar]

If it is about performance why was Croom getting cut slack? Croom was horrible and he did not get taken to the wood shed. I am sorry but I am not buying your rational.

If you think there's some deeper meaning, please explain why Joker was lambasted by the media as an awful coach at every turn.

[smootness]

If it is about performance why was Croom getting cut slack? Croom was horrible and he did not get taken to the wood shed. I am sorry but I am not buying your rational.

Croom was the 1st black SEC coach and was a great man.

Mullen is kind of arrogant and doesn't mind rubbing people the wrong way.

The media tends to go easy on people they personally like and be tougher on those they don't.

Take Barry Bonds vs. Mark McGwire. McGwire was hailed as a hero on his march, while Bonds was crucified and everyone jeered at him for juicing. It was obvious to anyone that they both got there the same way.

[bully99]

Dan doesn't make eye contact. That's usually a sign of being uncomfortable around people. But hell Emory Bellard didn't make eye contact either but he had a glass eye and that made him uncomfortable. Horrible recruiter.

[MadDawg]

"Why is Mullen attacked by SEC media- but Crooms patted on the back?"

Because nobody ever had any expectations of Croom until the very bitter end. It's almost identical to what we have in basketball now - a coach that has zero expectations from the fanbase, and ulitmately and by extension, the media. We were told so many times how Sherrill ran the program completely in the ground and "the inmates were running the asylum" that everyone pretty much decided there was no saving the program as it was. That's why when Croom said he was going to tear down the program and start over from scratch, most of the fans and the media fell right in line. It coresponded to the narrative most believed, so it was accepted. In the end, we went a stretch of 5 (reallly 7 considering there weren't any expectations on Mullen in year 1 or 2) years before we got back to expecting the things that got Sherrill fired for not accomplishing.
Same thing with basketball now. The narrative is that Stansbury destroyed the program and there really was no saving it. So we went wholesale change with an unknown coach - and along with it zero expectations. So now we have a program with zero expectations, and none on the horizon. Will it be 5, 6 or 7 years before we have the same expectations we had under the previous staff? I hope not, but judging by experience, it quite possibly will be.

[Jack Lambert]

Because he wasn't the first and he wasn't the only one at the time. Croom was the only black coach at the time where Joker was not and as I said Croom was the first. The ice had been broken and they had Franklin at Vandy to prop up to make themselves feel better.

[bluelightstar]

Because he wasn't the first and he wasn't the only one at the time. Croom was the only black coach at the time where Joker was not and as I said Croom was the first. The ice had been broken and they had Franklin at Vandy to prop up to make themselves feel better.

Sounds like the rationalizing is coming from you -- not me.

[CJDAWG85]

I was just on espn, looking at the SEC Blog and became curious when the last time there was an article on MSU or a player on MSU. September 4th. Yes, MSU is mentioned here and there in some articles, but September 4th is the last article written about MSU and only MSU. If you aren't a fan of Bama, UGA, A&M, LSU, or Fla, I wouldn't waste my time on there.