Impact of single games on a football program

[BeastMan]

I was searching for an idea on what to write yesterday and came up with this. First off, can 1 game make an impact that can be felt throughout the program. Next, what games on our 2013 schedule could be program changers? I thought this was a good off-season discussion topic.

http://3rdand57.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/can-1-game-change-msus-program/

[Bo Darville]

Good write-up as usual. The thing I often see is a heart-breaking game early in the season that sometimes makes a team go in the tank. There are usually one or two teams in college football each year that fall victim to that. It is one game that means the difference between 8-4 or 4-8.

[gravedigger]

Oklahoma state. And not for the obvious reason of being first. Just because that will change the team and collective fan base attitude from the way we ended our season last year.

All the moaning about schedules, a win in this game will effectively erase the "you haven't proved anything" that stuck with us all last season.

[FISHDAWG]

gotta get LSU off our back ... this would be signature even if we end up 6 & 6

[BeastMan]

Good write-up as usual. The thing I often see is a heart-breaking game early in the season that sometimes makes a team go in the tank. There are usually one or two teams in college football each year that fall victim to that. It is one game that means the difference between 8-4 or 4-8.

That is so true. 1 game can negatively impact a program as well. Look at OM losing to JSU a cpl years ago. It broke them. You're right about the confidence that is either gained or lost in 1 game being the difference in 4-8 and 8-4

[BeastMan]

I listed OSU for the reason you said and more. LSU is def 1 as well Fish. 1 thing I put in the article that I hope everyone catches is that with with the SEC adding Texas A&M it widened the recruiting footprint of even us to Texas. We have an extremely rare opportunity of 2 monster regular season games played in Texas this year. Wins in either or both could pay immediate dividends to a recruit who wants to play in the SEC

[HereComesTheSpiral]

OSU, a win gives the team the we can beat anyone, close loss signals compete and win some we shouldn't, blowout loss might be the beginning of a long season with back half of the schedule piled with 3 great teams (going on last years data), 1 solid, and two unknowns with new coaches.

[Coach34]

Any of those would be big and grab some prestige, but I look at the Auburn game as one of the biggest games we play this season.

We really need to beat Auburn to have any kind of momentum in the season. We can lose to OSU but turn around and beat Auburn- and the season feels just fine. We lose to both- things could get ugly quick and the finger pointing will begin.

We win both? And we will have some serious momentum moving forward

[biscuit]

I'll take the Auburn game. We win that one, we can reach 8-9 possibly.

[Ghost of Hank Flick]

The Auburn game is so huge every year, but probably not a program changer. Like mentioned earlier in the thread, one bad loss early in the year can be so costly - I really think us beating Auburn like we did last year put them in a tailspin. They played competitively with Clemson and LSU before and after they played us. Of course, they probably could've never been more than a 6-6 team last year so the trend keeps recurring: we beat a big program while they are down and so it's not viewed as a "signature win" for Mullen. I keep thinking we have a shot at LSU this year - maybe, maybe not. But it seems like right now if we beat them, no matter how their season goes that is an amazing win, but if they tank and go 7-5 (they did that in '08 so it's possible) then it will be viewed as another win over a down program - still can't win the big one. If beating Florida in 2010 was after they were 48-7 the previous 4 years this has to be true. I wrote a whole article on this today on M&WN, I'd put the link here but I don't want to hijack BeastMan's thread, ha.

[BeastMan]

Go for it. Same team, the more the merrier

ETA- I just read yours. Good stuff. Goodness it's strange we had the same thought.check your pm