Who needs stars when you can develop talent?

[bulldawg28]

https://247sports.com/college/ucla/Article/UCLA-Bruins-Football-Top-25-Schools-with-the-Most-Players-in-the-NFL-148218894/



#12 on the list of teams with most players in the NFL isn't too shabby. Hopefully Leach can continue the trend.

[msbulldog]

This is the full list you can see where Mississippi is:
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/college/

[R2Dawg]

https://247sports.com/college/ucla/Article/UCLA-Bruins-Football-Top-25-Schools-with-the-Most-Players-in-the-NFL-148218894/



#12 on the list of teams with most players in the NFL isn't too shabby. Hopefully Leach can continue the trend.

Impressive but too bad we haven't done more with that talent. Guess it is just spread out over too many teams. You gotta like what MSU has done though.

[msbulldog]

Looks good for recruiting.

[ShotgunDawg]

Impressive but too bad we haven't done more with that talent. Guess it is just spread out over too many teams. You gotta like what MSU has done though.

Realistically, when you look at the list, you can't ignore Alabama & LSU being 1 & 3. That's ultimately why we haven't done more.

However, we have to 10 straight bowl games while bungling a hire when we had our best roster. With a decent coaching hire in 2018, we've likely added another NY6 bowl to the list. We probably should've made a Citrus Bowl with this much NFL talent, but it is what it is.

The reason I believe we haven't done with all these NFL players is due to our recruiting not improving for some extremely odd reason. Because we recruit in the 20s, we always have holes on the roster. Some years it's OL, most years WR, some years the back 7 on defense, some years RB(2015), etc. The lack of top 20 recruiting means that we just aren't getting the depth on the roster of having a 4 star type players at every starting position.

Again, I don't get how we've produced so much NFL talent & been to 10 straight bowl game only to see recruiting not improve at all.

[ShotgunDawg]

Looks good for recruiting.

But it hasn't really helped at all. Some how we've done all this in the vacuum where the media & recruits haven't noticed.

Somehow we retain being Mittittippi Tate or a Mississippi school, when we've been anything but.

It's strange. We either lack the branding, fan base size to influence, or both

[msbulldog]

But it hasn't really helped at all. Some how we've done all this in the vacuum where the media & recruits haven't noticed.

Somehow we retain being Mittittippi Tate or a Mississippi school, when we've been anything but.

It's strange. We either lack the branding, fan base size to influence, or both

It's that damn flag!

[ShotgunDawg]

It's that damn flag!

Getting rid of the flag certainly won't hurt. I know that for damn sure.

Getting rid of old Mississippi perceptions all the way around will only help with out of state kids weather it's perception or reality

[1bigdawg]

Our recruiting did not improve for several reasons. Mullen was a lazy recruiter and had several assistants that were bad also. Some of our staff did not believe in MSU as a destination and had a hard time selling it as a result. Joe worked hard but the transition happened at the wrong time and his assistants did not have the energy he did, probably because he did not hold coaches accountable just as he did not hold players accountable.

I believe our new staff, while not known for recruiting, will be our best since Sherrill. It may not show this year because our base is Mississippi and it is not that strong a year in state. I believe we will break the top 20 no later that the '23 recruiting class.

[ShotgunDawg]

Our recruiting did not improve for several reasons. Mullen was a lazy recruiter and had several assistants that were bad also.

Those same coaches currently have the #7 class in the country along with a top 10 class last year.

We've got a real perception problem

[Hambone]

Those coaches don’t have to recruit kids to Florida. It does that on its own.

[coachnorm]

If it is so easy to dveloep talent why will Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, and Miss St have starting quarterbacks from Los Angeles within the next two years?

[Bdawg]

Those same coaches currently have the #7 class in the country along with a top 10 class last year.

We've got a real perception problem

You have to admit Florida is a hot bed and recruits itself to an extent with national titles on its resume. But to take up for Mullen some, he found some great players that were not highly rated. If you went back now and rated some of those classes, I would have to assume some of them would rate fairly higher.

[ShotgunDawg]

Those coaches don’t have to recruit kids to Florida. It does that on its own.

To some degree yes, but you’re making the perception argument for me.

Have you been to Gainesville? It’s basically Hattiesburg 2.0. No beaches around and lots of white trash

[bulldawg28]

Our recruiting did not improve for several reasons. Mullen was a lazy recruiter and had several assistants that were bad also. Some of our staff did not believe in MSU as a destination and had a hard time selling it as a result. Joe worked hard but the transition happened at the wrong time and his assistants did not have the energy he did, probably because he did not hold coaches accountable just as he did not hold players accountable.

I believe our new staff, while not known for recruiting, will be our best since Sherrill. It may not show this year because our base is Mississippi and it is not that strong a year in state. I believe we will break the top 20 no later that the '23 recruiting class.

You do realize those players making up the list 99.9% were coached and recruited by Mullen.

[TaleofTwoDogs]

Since I'm a stat guy, here are some tidbits:

Remember these numbers are pre-Dak getting paid the big bucks.

MSU #14 players with 39, #20 Total Payroll $322M, #67 average comp at $8.25M

Ole Miss #28 players with 30, #59 Total payroll $90M, #140 average comp at $3.01M

Total all NFL for players with reported comp: 2,803 players, earning $20.589 Billion, average $734K

Richest school (DRUM ROLL) Miami (Ohio) 4 players, payroll $266M, average $66.44M

nearest SEC school on average comp - Georgia $14.35M

Definitely not chump change.

[dotcomdawg]

Would love a detailed explanation about the Hattiesburg-Gainsville comparison and how Hattiesburg has lots of "white trash."

Have you been to Gainesville? It?s basically Hattiesburg 2.0. No beaches around and lots of white trash[/QUOTE]

[SteelCurtain74]

Would love a detailed explanation about the Hattiesburg-Gainsville comparison and how Hattiesburg has lots of "white trash."

Have you been to Gainesville? It?s basically Hattiesburg 2.0. No beaches around and lots of white trash[/QUOTE]

100% agree. It has to be the worst SEC college town. Absolutely no appeal to it. I went to a Soulshine type pizza place located in this old building that had burglar bars on all the windows.

[R2Dawg]

Those same coaches currently have the #7 class in the country along with a top 10 class last year.

We've got a real perception problem

Uh, he is at UF now and he did take Grantham with him. He screwed us up for 8 years with DC issues until he got Grantham. UF recruits itself to a point and the state is full of high rated talent, deserved or not. MS always is under the radar talent wise but on field results always do better than ratings.

[Todd4State]

First of all, I will say it- Dan is overrated as a coach and our administration at the time let him get away with WAY too much in regards to job hunting and poor recruiting and I have been long confused as to why our President and AD at the time just didn't tell him to take a hike after 2015. We could and should have called his bluff and dumped him on Maryland and hired Leach instead. We've had problems since 2015 at least in large part because of Dan and his staff and it gets glossed over because he wasn't as bad as Croom or Felker- but still problems nonetheless. We were never going to move beyond 8-9 wins a year with Dan here because he and his staff weren't bought in to MSU.

Because of all the things that Dan did that unnecessarily held us back- I think Nick Fitzgerald said it perfectly in an interview when he called him bipolar which may be true along with being an arrogant narcissist.

1. What doesn't show up in the recruiting rankings is the fact that Dan was HORRIBLE at roster management. So, the rankings may be OK but we had classes with only slot receiver types and one with ZERO offensive linemen that qualified. That really kills a team like MSU because as a program that has to develop programs we can't count on freshmen to plug holes. See freshman Osirus Mitchell dropping the game winning TD pass against Florida. See us having to use a 280 pound TE in Jordan Thomas at WR.

2. This was compounded by Dan's upperclassmen only start policy which unnecessarily minimized the impact of the rare special talents like Chris Jones that we did get. It did get humorous at times when Aeris Williams went from not knowing the plays and how to block to magically becoming a football gym rat in one week after Brandon Holloway went down with an injury.

3. We don't know what the results would be had Dan been able to land more bluechips on offense. What happens in 2018 if AJ Brown is on the team? Or Saahdiq Charles? Sure, Dan found a lot of talented diamonds in the rough like Elgton Jenkins but for MSU to reach our ceiling it takes landing our share of blue-chip 4-5 star players to go along with the diamonds in the rough and the blue collar guys like Malcolm Johnson. So yes, we should keep recruiting and developing diamonds in the rough and blue collar guys but we also need to add the bluechips in as well.

[Todd4State]

100% agree. It has to be the worst SEC college town. Absolutely no appeal to it. I went to a Soulshine type pizza place located in this old building that had burglar bars on all the windows.[/QUOTE]

I'm guessing you went to that pizza place that us supposed to be their signature place to go to. Florida fans are easily some of the worst in the SEC. Not Ole Miss bad or Alabama/SEC bandwagon fan bad, but they're next in line after that.