When I look back over the last 5 years, and see UT, UF, A&M, TX and others, I realize

[Bully13]

how fortunate we are. I often wonder what we are doing right while others with more tradition and resources just can't seem to figure out how to right their ships. Throw in baseball, a great run in hoops with tons of promise this year along with our Lady Dogs and it really is a good time to be a Dog Fan.

Hail State and Thanks to all of those in leadership positions. They've really done a great job all things considered.

[Cowbell]

how fortunate we are. I often wonder what we are doing right while others with more tradition and resources just can't seem to figure out how to right their ships. Throw in baseball, a great run in hoops with tons of promise this year along with our Lady Dogs and it really is a good time to be a Dog Fan.

Hail State and Thanks to all of those in leadership positions. They've really done a great job all things considered.

Such a good post. You sir are right own and I am in full agreement. Too bad the media can?t stand it and will not point it out to the rest of the country.

[RocketDawg]

Such a good post. You sir are right own and I am in full agreement. Too bad the media can?t stand it and will not point it out to the rest of the country.

I saw some article a few days ago that said something to the effect that Mullen was basically a rookie at Florida, but was expected to be really good. It was kinda like he'd not done 8 or 9 years that counted while he was at MSU. It wasn't a dig at Mullen, but at us. We're not elite in football, but not all that bad a job either.

[gravedigger]

how fortunate we are. I often wonder what we are doing right while others with more tradition and resources just can't seem to figure out how to right their ships. Throw in baseball, a great run in hoops with tons of promise this year along with our Lady Dogs and it really is a good time to be a Dog Fan.

Hail State and Thanks to all of those in leadership positions. They've really done a great job all things considered.

Well in football it can all be summed up in one word. Recruiting.

As the rankings so obviously point out, we have out recruited them.

[LC Dawg]

Ridding ourselves of an albatross with the initials LT was a huge step in getting us to where we are today.

[Leroy Jenkins]

When this season is over, only 2 teams in the SECW will have won 9 games 4 out of the last 5 years. Alabama and.....

[dawgoneyall]

This while uofm was/is cheating on a grand scale.

[Johnson85]

Ridding ourselves of an albatross with the initials LT was a huge step in getting us to where we are today.

This is a huge part of the answer. We are definitely overachieving right now and have had good leadership and some good breaks to get us here. But we're not overachieving by some incredible amount. It just looks like it because we underachieved by so much for so long. Give us a competent athletic director during LT's tenure, and we avoid Polk II and avoid Croom. Rick Ray was obviously a disaster but even well run programs are occasionally going to make disastrous picks (usually not so obvious without hindsight) and that was a tough hire to make because of the state of hte program.

But give us a middling coach instead of croom that gets to 6 or 7 wins a year, and then make a good hire in baseball which we should have been able to do, and we have a multidecade run of successful baseball, an almost three decade run of average to pretty good football with only the end of the Jackie years being bad, and one disastrous stretch of basketball hopefully sandwiched between solid runs.

[thf24]

Rick Ray was obviously a disaster but even well run programs are occasionally going to make disastrous picks (usually not so obvious without hindsight) and that was a tough hire to make because of the state of hte program.

Hindsight might actually reveal the Ray hire to be a great move in its own way. Whether intentional or not, it assured we were off the radar of the FBI investigation. One has to think we had the potential to be a prime target given the way thing were under the previous staff, which likely would have continued under a guy like Kenny Payne.

[Johnson85]

Hindsight might actually reveal the Ray hire to be a great move in its own way. Whether intentional or not, it assured we were off the radar of the FBI investigation. One has to think we had the potential to be a prime target given the way thing were under the previous staff, which likely would have continued under a guy like Kenny Payne.

Very valid point. Extremely fortunate to the point you would think we had been tipped off the way we suddenly decided to make the insane decision to recruit basketball without involving ourselves in the seedier parts of the AAU/Shoe company racket.

[msudawglb]

In the South, in general, football carries the most weight as far as image goes. You can have a bad baseball team or basketball team and most don't seem to notice. But when you have a bad football team and everyone's favorite teams are beating your ass in the Fall on tv, everyone knows it. Those 8 years in the 2000's with Sherrill and then Croom set our image back sooo far. It's taken us 9 years of consecutive bowl games to finally dig our way out.

[Dawg61]

You can't cut corners in the big 3 sports. You have to build and sustain. Just look at us in men's basketball. We are just now back to where we were when Stans reign was over. The Ray hire was our previous AD throwing in the towel and accepting we'd suck for the next 3-4 years. This football season's potential success will be basically 80% Mullen and how stocked he left the cupboard. Joe has added some nice pieces already and looks to be a great hire. Dan really left at the best possible time for us to keep on having success and it hasn't gone unnoticed.

[msbulldog]

Hindsight might actually reveal the Ray hire to be a great move in its own way. Whether intentional or not, it assured we were off the radar of the FBI investigation. One has to think we had the potential to be a prime target given the way thing were under the previous staff, which likely would have continued under a guy like Kenny Payne.
True Dat!