The fact that nobody is defending Moorhead anywhere should be telling

[Irondawg]

The fans piling on shouldn't be surprising.

But most of the national media that has written/talked about our program blames him and doesn't make any excuses for him (injuries, youth, needing more time, etc etc).

Ex players aren't actively endorsing him and rallying around him.

Current players don't act like they are motivated to save his job so while they may like him, I get the feeling they blame him as well.

Lastly and maybe most importantly I think Joe blames himself. His ego seems absolutely crushed. He watches and the film and sees even more than we do that what has always worked for him is not working at all here. So he keeps trying to solve it and keeps failing. There is nothing more frustrating to a coach then knowing you should be better than you are yet and you can't seem to fix it.

The TN game just broke the program's back it seems. A good showing at TAMU might could have turned the tide a bit but then we faceplanted there as well. Getting to 6-6 might get him a good exit strategy, but unless we win these next three games by an average of 50-10 I think a divorce is inevitable.

[Dawgtini]

Tom Lugenbill (sp?) just spoke well of him on Bo Bounds show. Did say he wonders if the fit is just not good.

[Churchill]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

[confucius say]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

I said I was worried about this back in April and I think you are right. It also has not gotten talked about enough. I get both sides of it, but the last time we had a divided locker room over qb play was 2016 and that team never recovered either.

[TrapGame]

Tom Lugenbill (sp?) just spoke well of him on Bo Bounds show. Did say he wonders if the fit is just not good.

That's the narrative it seems. Finebaum was talking about Joe being a poor fit here on Monday.

[ShotgunDawg]

Joe's issues as a head coach are so deep that I wouldn't know where to start in fixing them, which is why both sides need a divorce here & a new start.

As I wrote yesterday, Joe entered into a difficult situation to get buy in due to the team feeling like a lover that has been cheated on.

Let this be a lesson, when you have a great coach, you can't lose him. Not sure what else MSU could've done to keep Mullen, but whatever can be done must be done.

[bluelightstar]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

All over a career backup who still couldn't win the job.

[Irondawg]

Poor fit is a nice way of saying he's doing a poor job and we're still not quite sure why. Everybody seems to like him personally and nothing in his past would lead you to believe he'd be terrible coach.

I hope we get to 6-6 and he gets offered and takes the Rutgers job. Everybody wins.

[ShotgunDawg]

We've seen this with Arkansas as well. When you make a coaching change, unless you have elite talent, you can't dramatically alter the offensive philosophy. Doing so will not allow the new coach a chance to get his feet underneath him

[dawgday166]

I said I was worried about this back in April and I think you are right. It also has not gotten talked about enough. I get both sides of it, but the last time we had a divided locker room over qb play was 2016 and that team never recovered either.

Actually by the 6th or 7th game they were recovering. Certainly by the 8th (not counting Bama beatdown).

[confucius say]

Actually by the 6th or 7th game they were recovering. Certainly by the 8th (not counting Bama beatdown).

Good point. It did get better after there was fitz buy in after fitz proved he was a warrior.

[msstate7]

Dave bartoo thinks Moorhead is a plus coach.

[dawgday166]

Dave bartoo thinks Moorhead is a plus coach.

Bartoo bases every W/L analytic off of recruiting rankings only. So according to him 8 wins last year was about right. I'm also starting to question whether he's shooting straight each time he comes onto Bo's show. Wonder if his website shows the analytics or not ... hadn't looked.

[dawgday166]

Still a lot of fluffiness over on Gene's Page.

[BeastMan]

Was JoMo a poor fit at UConn? Was he a good fit at PSU or did he have an NFL QB, TE, lottery pick RB, a more talented roster than most everyone he played, and James Franklin’s program standards? Maybe he’s Butch Jones

[dawgday166]

Was JoMo a poor fit at UConn? Was he a good fit at PSU or did he have an NFL QB, TE, lottery pick RB, a more talented roster than most everyone he played, and James Franklin’s program standards? Maybe he’s Butch Jones

Butch had actually been a pretty successful HC at Cincy hadn't he?

[bulldog20]

Was JoMo a poor fit at UConn? Was he a good fit at PSU or did he have an NFL QB, TE, lottery pick RB, a more talented roster than most everyone he played, and James Franklin?s program standards? Maybe he?s Butch Jones

Not trying to disagree with anything you said, but Franklin was struggling for 2 years before Moorhead got there and helped turn things around. A lot of what they do now is still pretty similiar to what Moorhead ran there. I think personally the biggest thing with Moorhead's offense here is SEC defenses are so fast generally that the longer developing plays he runs don't work as well. If you really watch most of the games, we have people running free a decent amount and just can't seem to hit the big plays. It works in the Big 10 because generally the athletes there are not on SEC level. Which is why most programs up there struggle against SEC defenses majority of the time except Ohio State. They have SEC talent playing in the Big 10. He should adapt his system to fit here, but seems adamant on making it work which in turn is going south quickly. I don't post here ever, but that is my 2 cents which doesn't mean much.

[Really Clark?]

Butch had actually been a pretty successful HC at Cincy hadn't he?

The question mark about Butch was he inherited Brian Kelly teams twice, staying 3 years, before getting Tenn. Same reason I would want to see what Josh Huepel at UCF does for 4-5 years there. How much riding former success helped him. Although winning 9 games back to back suggests he was not bad but there was always issues at Tenn and was a dumpster fire his last 2 years.

[dawgday166]

The question mark about Butch was he inherited Brian Kelly teams twice, staying 3 years, before getting Tenn. Same reason I would want to see what Josh Huepel at UCF does for 4-5 years there. How much riding former success helped him. Although winning 9 games back to back suggests he was not bad but there was always issues at Tenn and was a dumpster fire his last 2 years.

Thanks ... didn't go look it up. Amazing how some coaches can use good talent they inherit to do well, and another totally screws up top 10 talent he inherits and sets the program inherited back and probably can't get another HC gig himself.

[MoreCowbell]

The fans piling on shouldn't be surprising.

But most of the national media that has written/talked about our program blames him and doesn't make any excuses for him (injuries, youth, needing more time, etc etc).

Ex players aren't actively endorsing him and rallying around him.

Current players don't act like they are motivated to save his job so while they may like him, I get the feeling they blame him as well.

Lastly and maybe most importantly I think Joe blames himself. His ego seems absolutely crushed. He watches and the film and sees even more than we do that what has always worked for him is not working at all here. So he keeps trying to solve it and keeps failing. There is nothing more frustrating to a coach then knowing you should be better than you are yet and you can't seem to fix it.

The TN game just broke the program's back it seems. A good showing at TAMU might could have turned the tide a bit but then we faceplanted there as well. Getting to 6-6 might get him a good exit strategy, but unless we win these next three games by an average of 50-10 I think a divorce is inevitable.

Good post

[MoreCowbell]

I actually feel bad for Moorhead, he just was not ready. Hindsight though

[dantheman4248]

We did ban the one guy defending him

[MoreCowbell]

We say this all the time but it is true that the SEC is just a different beast. There is more pressure to win in this league than anywhere and it will chew you up and spit you out if you cannot handle it.

[TrapGame]

I actually feel bad for Moorhead, he just was not ready. Hindsight though

Yeah, I guess Dan was prepared by being at Florida for four years. He knew how the SEC worked and what was expected. Had Joe been with Franklin at Vandy he might would have had a much smoother transition to HC in the SEC.

[HailStateSZN19]

Did anyone else see what Moorhead said today on his teleconference deal whatever it is? This might not be word for word but it was like "I'm excited about what we did last year, I'm excited about the current state and I'm excited about the future of the program. That's where we're at, and that's where I'm at. If I was any better, there'd be two of me!"..... Ummmmm what? Excited about the "current state" of losing 4 games in a row for the first time since '05? I hate to pile on him and I'm not critiquing every little thing the guy says but damn.... Went on about knowing what he signed up for and competing against the best on the field and off the field recruiting & said he took this job to gauge himself against the best of the best in the SEC. But that statement about being excited about the current state of the program in the midst of a 4 game losing streak just makes no sense... I get he can't come out and say "We don't like where we're headed" but saying this during a losing streak makes very little sense.

[NCDawg]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

He may have screwed it up with the QB debacle, but that in no way excuses our lackluster performance on defense. I think our very poor defensive play has as much to do with our slide as the offense. Last week I didn't see anybody on our defense look as if they wanted to make a tackle, with the exception of our DE's. The LBs play is not good and the defensive backs look like they don't know where to go or who to cover. I realize we have had some injuries, but the defense doesn't seem to me to be fully prepared to play.

[trojandawg]

he is just saying crap now to make himself look better because of the losing and the harsh criticism he is getting from the fan base and media. he is getting very defensive of his performance. he thinks its okay and he is doing great things. just trying to make himself look better in his own mind.

[confucius say]

he is just saying crap now to make himself look better because of the losing and the harsh criticism he is getting from the fan base and media. he is getting very defensive of his performance. he thinks its okay and he is doing great things. just trying to make himself look better in his own mind.

Coaches think differently than we do.
What he prob thinks is, we are second in the league behind only bama in explosive plays (runs of +10 or passes of +20). So what are we doing that is killing us? We are 105 in the country in interceptions per game at 1.1 and 117 in the country in fumbles lost per game at 1.1. And 85 in the country in penalties-per-play at .05. There are only 130 teams.

So, he prob thinks my offense is working as far as being explosive, but we are so damn sloppy that our drives keep getting killed by turnovers and penalties. And there is some truth to that. The thing is though, he thinks he can fix the sloppiness and I am not sure he can.

[Churchill]

He may have screwed it up with the QB debacle, but that in no way excuses our lackluster performance on defense. I think our very poor defensive play has as much to do with our slide as the offense. Last week I didn't see anybody on our defense look as if they wanted to make a tackle, with the exception of our DE's. The LBs play is not good and the defensive backs look like they don't know where to go or who to cover. I realize we have had some injuries, but the defense doesn't seem to me to be fully prepared to play.

And that's exactly what a team looks like when there are problems in the locker.

[Lord McBuckethead]

I hope he turns it around, personally. I think his style of play can work, but not when he goes conservative as hell. I also think, protections need to be simplified because olinemen cannot come out firing off the ball very often in this system. We do not take advantage of tempo. We do not take advantage of quick throws/quick routes/quick sweeps. Everything about us is slow. It is time to put some pressure on some folks. I swear, if we pick two plays every down and let the qb audible to which one he thinks would work we would be better off.

On defense....well the front 7 is so bad our safeties and dbs are 17d. DL gets zero pressure and push. LBs are out of position or a second late 90% of the time playing on their heals. 40 couldn't cover me in the flat. Missing our tutor 10 adds so much inconsistancy to the lineup. That along with injuries, shit I am suprised we have enough players left to field a team. Add to the number of times they take the field a game due to stupid shit our offense isn't executing..... we are 17d.

So, things are not good, but 17 guys I want the light bulb to come on for our team. I want them to build some momentum. I want them to beat UM this year. I want Joe to beat whomever we play in the bowl game. I want next year to be better. I am behind Moorhead until he either leaves or we fire him, because it is hard to see what he has been dealing with when you are in a 4 game skid. Some of it is his fault. Some of it is not his fault. Stevens playing like he hasn't seen a football is his fault. I still think the dude tore his labrum or something.

[Goldendawg]

Did anyone else see what Moorhead said today on his teleconference deal whatever it is? This might not be word for word but it was like "I'm excited about what we did last year, I'm excited about the current state and I'm excited about the future of the program. That's where we're at, and that's where I'm at. If I was any better, there'd be two of me!"..... Ummmmm what? Excited about the "current state" of losing 4 games in a row for the first time since '05? I hate to pile on him and I'm not critiquing every little thing the guy says but damn.... Went on about knowing what he signed up for and competing against the best on the field and off the field recruiting & said he took this job to gauge himself against the best of the best in the SEC. But that statement about being excited about the current state of the program in the midst of a 4 game losing streak just makes no sense... I get he can't come out and say "We don't like where we're headed" but saying this during a losing streak makes very little sense.

From Day 1 he has "talked the talk", but has never been able to "walk the walk", and I see nothing changing. I saw my 1st game in 63, as an eight year old Dawg and have seen much more bad than good and it has been obvious since KY last year that he is Croom stubborn and in over his head. The sooner we part ways with this mistake the better. Hail State and save us from another year of this destruction of our Program!

[OLJWales]

The defense can't get off the field fast enough to give the offense more time / plays and the offense can't stay on the field long enough to give the defense a break / breather. Other than that, we doing Awright.

[Goldendawg]

The defense can't get off the field fast enough to give the offense more time / plays and the offense can't stay on the field long enough to give the defense a break / breather. Other than that, we doing Awright.

Time? Under the current rules, SloJo often can't even get one of "genius" plays in on offense without having to call a timeout. Most recently, what. twice in the aTm game?

[Katdoc12]

Did anyone else see what Moorhead said today on his teleconference deal whatever it is? This might not be word for word but it was like "I'm excited about what we did last year, I'm excited about the current state and I'm excited about the future of the program. That's where we're at, and that's where I'm at. If I was any better, there'd be two of me!"..... Ummmmm what? Excited about the "current state" of losing 4 games in a row for the first time since '05? I hate to pile on him and I'm not critiquing every little thing the guy says but damn.... Went on about knowing what he signed up for and competing against the best on the field and off the field recruiting & said he took this job to gauge himself against the best of the best in the SEC. But that statement about being excited about the current state of the program in the midst of a 4 game losing streak just makes no sense... I get he can't come out and say "We don't like where we're headed" but saying this during a losing streak makes very little sense.

I cant believe this isnt getting more attention, I guess just so many are tuned out at this point. I dont know how you look at the performance this season & be excited about anything! To me, THIS is the main problem, he truly doesnt see a problem out there which means he cant (or rather REFUSES!) to fix the basic problems that everyone else sees & has issues with. But he did get the 2nd most explosive plays in the SEC this week, apparently thats the most important thing. :rolleyes:

[dawgday166]

The defense can't get off the field fast enough to give the offense more time / plays and the offense can't stay on the field long enough to give the defense a break / breather. Other than that, we doing Awright.

Dying ain't much of a livin boy.

[BhamDawg205]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

He put that in motion last year. Even the games Fitz wasn't getting it done, KT got no PT. Don't forget get how he treated Aries, 1100 yd rusher and could pass block consistently.

[BhamDawg205]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle. It's gonna be extremely hard to put this "humpty dumpty" back together again.

He put that in motion last year. Even the games Fitz wasn't getting it done, KT got no PT. Don't forget get how he treated Aries, 1100 yd rusher and could pass block consistently.

[MaroonFlounder]

Joe screwed up his locker room with his QB debacle.

That's bullshit. Joe took a gamble that Stevens could stay healthy and he couldn't. The team bought in. KT had a 47% completion percentage against FCS teams and a bad Louisville sermon defense. If he had a crystal ball he would have taken a pass on TS and Garrett would have gotten 1st team reps from jump street.

[OLJWales]

Dying ain't much of a livin boy.

None of this is necessary, you can just ride on

[dawgday166]

None of this is necessary, you can just ride on

LOL ... I reckon that's so.

But he'll probably have to come back.

[MarketingBully]

Joe's issues as a head coach are so deep that I wouldn't know where to start in fixing them, which is why both sides need a divorce here & a new start.

As I wrote yesterday, Joe entered into a difficult situation to get buy in due to the team feeling like a lover that has been cheated on.

Let this be a lesson, when you have a great coach, you can't lose him. Not sure what else MSU could've done to keep Mullen, but whatever can be done must be done.

Don?t you understand! We couldn?t keep Mullen. That asshole was going to TN until Florida called. We matched it in every way. We were willing to pay him $6 mil a year. He didn?t want to be here. He was gone no matter what we did.

[OLJWales]

LOL ... I reckon that's so.

But he'll probably have to come back.

"I had to come back"

OLJW: " I know"