Bob Shoop at Broyles Award Dinner

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

"2018 was a magical season for us at Miss. State, a record setting defense. I'll say this, there are good defenses, there are great defenses, but at the end of the day there is only going to be one championship defense, and we definitely had a championship caliber defense. I'm very, very fortunate to work with a tremendous staff. Joe Moorhead is our head football coach at Miss. State. He is an incredible man. He hired a great staff, a very diverse staff, a group of great men who are teachers, leaders, role models, and he allows us to do our jobs. I am very appreciative of the job Joe Moorhead provided me. Today is the year anniversary of my hiring at Miss. State, so I'm appreciative of that. Our defensive staff, I truly believe we have the best defensive staff in all of college football. We lock ourselves in the bunker and we get things done. We have a great group of coaches, we have a great group of G.A.'s, quality control and analysts, that really believe in our core values and made it happen this year. And most importantly, we had a great group of players. They were smart, tough, aggressive, unselfish football players who bought into our core values and played the game of football with intense passion, incredible toughness, and a team first mindset. It's as fun a year as I have ever had in this profession".

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

I kept looking for the "but"***

[maroonmania]

Hope we can hold on to him for a few more years. Never thought we would upgrade when Grantham left with Mullen but we did. This was the most sound MSU defense at every level that I have ever seen.

[Jack Lambert]

Hope we can hold on to him for a few more years. Never thought we would upgrade when Grantham left with Mullen but we did. This was the most sound MSU defense at every level that I have ever seen.

Remember back in the Summer when so many were worried about the hire. He basically took the same guys Grantham had and made them really really good.

[TrapGame]

Give that man a blank check and a pen, now.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Give that man a blank check and a pen, now.

I believe Shoop was great for these guys, but it's not like these guys weren't VERY good last year. I agree that we need to keep Shoop and believe he deserves a raise, but we don't need to overpay right now. Now if we're a top 10 defense next year and look dominant once again, then look up Dave Arranda's salary and pay him $1 dollar more.

[Cooterpoot]

We aren't paying him Aranda money. You can forget that. He's the highest paid assistant in college football. I suspect he gets bumped to $1.5M or so.

[Dawgowar]

He should at least get a Silver Dipped Cowbell and a Jerry Clower Pez Dispenser?

[starkvegasdawg]

He should at least get a Silver Dipped Cowbell and a Jerry Clower Pez Dispenser?

And an Edam cheese ball.

[StarkVegasSteve]

We aren't paying him Aranda money. You can forget that. He's the highest paid assistant in college football. I suspect he gets bumped to $1.5M or so.

If he has the kind of defense next year that he had this year then we ABSOLUTELY should give him Aranda money. That tells me it's more about him and his schemes and development than it is about the talent that he inherited.

[Cooterpoot]

Unless Jo wants to take some more pay cuts, we aren't paying for the highest paid assistant coach in college football. And we shouldn't.

[DancingRabbit]

We obviously need to get ShoopDog on this list. I got a good chuckle when I saw #20 on there.

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/sports/2018/12/05/college-football-assistant-coaches-salary/2205587002/http://

[Dawgowar]

And an Edam cheese ball.

Maybe just the Jalape?o Spread the first year?

[Turfdawg67]

Remember back in the Summer when so many were worried about the hire. He basically took the same guys Grantham had and made them really really good.

Yep! It wasn't Shoop that had good defenses, but some lackey that was with him until UT. So it was never Shoop, but this other dude. Same MFers that bitch and moan about everything MSU... except for a few fleeting moments when we win. MSU fans...

[Lord McBuckethead]

I believe Shoop was great for these guys, but it's not like these guys weren't VERY good last year. I agree that we need to keep Shoop and believe he deserves a raise, but we don't need to overpay right now. Now if we're a top 10 defense next year and look dominant once again, then look up Dave Arranda's salary and pay him $1 dollar more.

Pay him that money now. Screw next year. Give him Co Head Coach title too. We need a three headed monster at HC. Moorhead, Huff, and Shoop.

[preachermatt83]

We are paying our headcoach peanuts. If we can afford to offer Mullen close to six mil to stay then we can afford to pay shoop whatever it takes to keep him

[Dawg61]

Unless Jo wants to take some more pay cuts, we aren't paying for the highest paid assistant coach in college football. And we shouldn't.

We could make Shoop the highest paid assistant in CFB without Moorhead taking another pay cut. We are saving something like $2 mill on Moorhead's salary compared to 2017 Mullen and it'd be closer to $3 mill if Dan had returned. We were paying Grantham $1 mill I believe so pretty sure we are already saving money on Shoop right now without even factoring in the extra money Joe had us put aside for assistant pay. Not saying we are going to make Shoop the highest paid DC in the country or that we should but we could if we wanted to.

[Bothrops]

Guys, Shoop is great, but we are going to take a step back next year on D. But I say lock him in because they will be great again fairly soon. Pay him.

[MoreCowbell]

Do not ever undersell the 2018 Miss. State defense. In this day and age in offensive football, to hold teams to less than 13 points a game and give up only 12 damn touchdowns is absolutely incredible. This was one of the best college defenses of the modern era. I would say 2012 Bama defense is the last one on par with this one. We will look back and have had probobly all 11 starters drafted and wouldn?t surprise me to see 15-20 defensive players on this roster get drafted.

[msbulldog]

Coach Shoop if you read this board let me express from the bottom of my heart, how grateful we are for the job that you and your staff do. A BIG OLE BULLDOG NATION THANK-YOU!
Now Coach Cohen I do believe you read this board, please raise this mans compensation enough, that anybody else will have to think very hard before they try to beat it.

[TimberBeast]

Do not ever undersell the 2018 Miss. State defense. In this day and age in offensive football, to hold teams to less than 13 points a game and give up only 12 damn touchdowns is absolutely incredible. This was one of the best college defenses of the modern era. I would say 2012 Bama defense is the last one on par with this one. We will look back and have had probobly all 11 starters drafted and wouldn?t surprise me to see 15-20 defensive players on this roster get drafted.

Yep, I said it earlier this season and I’ll say it again. You could have an NFL defense in the next year or two made with all State guys. We were that good this year on D.

[RiverCityDawg]

Guys, Shoop is great, but we are going to take a step back next year on D. But I say lock him in because they will be great again fairly soon. Pay him.

Yeah all the more reason we need to keep Shoop. I love Sweat and Abram, two MSU all-time greats, but losing Simmons will drastically change our defense with VERY little experience returning at DT. We can't afford to be losing continuity or changing schemes AND losing Simmons.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Here's his full speech at the awards dinner if you're interested:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdXEGJkagR0

As someone who was skeptical of Shoop's hire, I'm thrilled to have been proven wrong. Even with the returning talent we had, my best-case scenario was that Shoop would keep us at the same level that Grantham elevated us to following the Sirmon debacle. It never occurred to me that we could go from very good to nationally elite. The list of superlatives is too long to review in total. In SEC games, we had the No. 1 scoring defense, No. 1 total defense (yards per play allowed), No. 1 3rd down defense, No. 1 red zone TD defense (7 TDs allowed in 27 red zone trips), No. 1 defense in giving up plays of 10+, 30+, and 40+ yards, No. 1 in opposing QB passer rating, and so on and so on. (Dude, check this out -- in SEC games against us, opposing QBs' TD-to-INT ratio was 3-to-8. WTF?!) And they weren't just elite in the SEC. National ranks for total D, scoring D, opposing QB rating, red zone TD defense, and 3rd down defense were all Top 5. And the advanced stat systems agreed -- No. 2 nationally in FEI defensive ranking, No. 6 nationally in S&P+ defensive ranking, and No. 2 nationally in Bartoo's scoring efficiency D metrics.

That's damn strong.

[Dawg61]

I wonder where 12 tds allowed in a season ranks historically. Anyone know?

[Bully13]

I wonder where 12 tds allowed in a season ranks historically. Anyone know?

Good question. I'd also like 3rd down stops stats. Shitbird went 0-11 in the egg bowl.

[TUSK]

I wonder where 12 tds allowed in a season ranks historically. Anyone know?

I'll have to dig that up... I do have Scoring D, though...

This is 09-Present - SEC Only - Scoring Defense - Top 20 Teams

Year Name PPG
2011 Alabama 7.40
2011 LSU 9.80
2009 Alabama 10.90
2012 Florida 11.90
2012 Alabama 13.10
2017 Alabama 13.40
2009 Florida 14.20
2018 MSU 14.40
2013 Alabama 14.60
2017 Georgia 14.80
2016 Alabama 14.90
2015 Florida 15.20
2018 Alabama 15.70
2018 Kentucky 16.50
2011 S Carolina 16.90
2014 Mississippi 16.90
2015 Alabama 17.10
2016 LSU 17.60
2010 Alabama 17.90
2014 Alabama 18.60

[Dawg61]

7.4 ppg holy shit I'm surprised the entire 2011 Bama defense wasn't brought up on criminal charges for abuse every time they took the field.

[TUSK]

7.4 ppg holy shit I'm surprised the entire 2011 Bama defense wasn't brought up on criminal charges for abuse every time they took the field.

That Defense was Savage, buddy.... The 1992 D was really, really good, as well... But I didn't go back that far...

[DancingRabbit]

This is our best defense ever, right? Or is it 1999? Is there another year in the running?

You would think that with the rule changes and high-powered offenses that it's harder today to average giving up 1 TD per game.

We had more talent in the secondary in '99. Maybe more DL talent in 2018. I loved Joe Lee when he had it rockin' and rollin' but we were probably a much better coached defense in 2018.

[TimberBeast]

That Defense was Savage, buddy.... The 1992 D was really, really good, as well... But I didn't go back that far...

92 bama state game was when I first saw blatant referee bias

[DancingRabbit]

92 bama state game was when I first saw blatant referee bias

Your first Bama game, I presume.

[Pit Bull]

Hope we can hold on to him for a few more years. Never thought we would upgrade when Grantham left with Mullen but we did. This was the most sound MSU defense at every level that I have ever seen.

I am very happy with the job Shoop did. Only our offense kept us from being 10-2 or 11-1. Next year will be a much bigger challenge for Shoop with much less high level talent available....but there are some really good YOUNG pieces coming up that could produce another Sweat, Simmons, or Green. If we go 8-4 or 9-3 next year, Shoop will have done a super job IMO.

[Pit Bull]

And an Edam cheese ball.

Just keep the cheese balls away from Moorhead and Lemonis.