Football situation is a metaphor for MSU/Starkville/etc.......

[Goat Holder]

The way I see the football program, is that we have a good program, good team, good potential, but a few key cogs or 'eyesores' holding us back from realizing that potential. Just a few blunders here and there. We're taking care of one of them with the stadium. The others are just some coaching blunders at times, or a playmaker here or there, or fan negativity. Get rid of those things, we likely achieve.

That can be applied to our campus. Have you ever noticed that we really do have a beautiful and awesome campus - except for Dorman and the Hump, maybe a few other places. Starkville is actually a very nice town - except for the eyesores at 12 and Spring, a centralized bar district and transportation access. But slowly and surely these things are being taken care of. But damn if they don't stand out and make the rest look bad, just like our football program.

We've got 2 four lane roads into Starkville now. And expanded stadium. Bar districts in Starkville. A great airport at GTR.

I don't know, I guess that's just how I see it all, football program and town. Great ability/potential but masked to the outside by a few ugly obstructions.

[Maroonthirteen]

Both have improved tremendously over the years. Back in my day, you had 30K fans and prayed for a win over Memphis. Starkville had one restaurant....Harvey's and one bar...Cheers. If you went out a night, you went to the crossroads or Columbus. Yeah, it sucks that everyone in the SEC is a top 25 team now but us and two others. But things have improved for the football program and town of Starkville. Like I said in another thread, i would have never guessed I saw the day when we had a string of sell out football games and multiple NFL players. Also, multiple restaurants, hotels and the Cotton District in Starkville.

[Eric Nies Grind Time]

Yeah, it sucks that everyone in the SEC is a top 25 team now but us and two others. But things have improved for the football program and town of Starkville.

Huh?

[Goat Holder]

Agreed and I also think more emphasis should be placed on West Point and Columbus as part of the MSU community. Even the Noxubee Refuge. I mean, lots of Greek parties and shit are already held at places in those towns, we need to encompass it. Mossy Oak, Old Waverly, GTR, MUW. The whole Golden Triangle should be working for MSU.

[smootness]

Interesting take, and I mostly agree.

Like I've said before, I'm conflicted on where we should go as a program. On one hand, I agree with those who see problems in coaching. We definitely make some dumb decisions at times (like a Russell-Perkins read option from the shotgun on 4th and short) and are penalized a lot more than we used to be. Also, recruiting could certainly improve.

On the other hand, I think our staff is doing a lot of things right as well. Mullen's system works, it just does...but it has to have the right pieces. A lot of the playcalling issues come down to having bad fits for the system yet trying to run the same stuff. Yes, it suggests an issue with being able to mold what we do offensively to fit personnel, but at the same time I don't see any Russell's or Perkins' coming down the pike in recent or future recruiting. Mullen seems to now know exactly what he wants to do and is recruiting to it...Prescott, Staley, Fitzgerald, J'Mar Smith; Griffin, Robinson, Shumpert, Aeris Williams...we will be a power-running team, and we know that his system works when it is truly that. And he has shown to be pretty good at finding overlooked talent...Benardrick McKinney, Chris Jones being just two of several.

While Mullen isn't perfect, as most coaches aren't, I still like our overall direction as a program. I'm drifting back into the camp of those who think we should keep him. I said initially that next year would tell the tale, and I'm back to believing that. I know people don't want to hear it, but we are young this year. Some of that falls on Mullen's shoulders, but it is a reality, and next year should be a better judge of what he will be going forward.

[Maroonthirteen]

top 25, a slight exaggeration but I believe even though a few SEC teams are not officially ranked, they are as good as some other schools ranked.

Yep, having grown up in the GTR, it is a pipe dream.......but I wish the GTR could be like NWArk is for the UofArk. Everybody......I mean like 90% of the people in NWA are Razorback fans and eat, sleep and breathe Arkansas athletics. Damn Bama being so close and successful is a big distraction for the GTR. The GTR would be extremely pro-Bulldog if not for them. If I had the money....I would buy WCBI and turned it into our own propoganda machine.

[ShotgunDawg]

top 25, a slight exaggeration but I believe even though a few SEC teams are not officially ranked, they are as good as some other schools ranked.

I believe we are very close to being one of those teams, and very likely could be by the end of the season.

Threads like this are good for MSU and ultimately show why Ole Miss being good at football is good for MSU. It changes our attitude and forces us to progress.

I think the same thing holds true for Auburn. The only reason Auburn is good at football is because of how much pressure they continuously receive from Bama fans to improve.

MSU fans have got to be optimists, have higher self esteem, and go for it.

[Goat Holder]

Yep, having grown up in the GTR, it is a pipe dream.......Damn Bama being so close and successful is a big distraction for the GTR. The GTR would be extremely pro-Bulldog if not for them. If I had the money....I would buy WCBI and turned it into our own propoganda machine.

Don't think that way, man. We HAVE to change this. If Bama is going to have their fans in Columbus, then we need to have a sizable amount of MSU fans in Birmingham. And we're working on that. We already own the whole BHM metro area in regards to baseball recruiting.

[Behrdawg]

I agree with Goats original post in this thread. The problem is, these things aren't leveraged nor are they beaten into the media/publics eye. And why aren't there signs everywhere about our baseball team playing for the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP? I don't get our marketing folks these days. They came out with a swing and now they are shittin the bed. We should still be hearing about that World Series run. I don't give a shit if it is football season.

[Bothrops]

The way I see the football program, is that we have a good program, good team, good potential, but a few key cogs or 'eyesores' holding us back from realizing that potential. Just a few blunders here and there. We're taking care of one of them with the stadium. The others are just some coaching blunders at times, or a playmaker here or there, or fan negativity. Get rid of those things, we likely achieve.

That can be applied to our campus. Have you ever noticed that we really do have a beautiful and awesome campus - except for Dorman and the Hump, maybe a few other places. Starkville is actually a very nice town - except for the eyesores at 12 and Spring, a centralized bar district and transportation access. But slowly and surely these things are being taken care of. But damn if they don't stand out and make the rest look bad, just like our football program.

We've got 2 four lane roads into Starkville now. And expanded stadium. Bar districts in Starkville. A great airport at GTR.

I don't know, I guess that's just how I see it all, football program and town. Great ability/potential but masked to the outside by a few ugly obstructions.

Having an airport that has commercial service is very important. GTR sets us apart regionally. The folks in Tuscaloosa, Oxford, and Auburn don't have that luxury. If you want to fly in or out of those towns you have to drive somewhere else, unless you fly via private plane. I agree that the Golden Triangle description should be emphasized more in promoting MSU.

[maroonmania]

The way I see the football program, is that we have a good program, good team, good potential, but a few key cogs or 'eyesores' holding us back from realizing that potential. Just a few blunders here and there. We're taking care of one of them with the stadium. The others are just some coaching blunders at times, or a playmaker here or there, or fan negativity. Get rid of those things, we likely achieve.

That can be applied to our campus. Have you ever noticed that we really do have a beautiful and awesome campus - except for Dorman and the Hump, maybe a few other places. Starkville is actually a very nice town - except for the eyesores at 12 and Spring, a centralized bar district and transportation access. But slowly and surely these things are being taken care of. But damn if they don't stand out and make the rest look bad, just like our football program.

We've got 2 four lane roads into Starkville now. And expanded stadium. Bar districts in Starkville. A great airport at GTR.

I don't know, I guess that's just how I see it all, football program and town. Great ability/potential but masked to the outside by a few ugly obstructions.

We never sieze the moment. We had all kind of great things going AND fan positivity essentially 2009-2011 and into the first part of 2012 and did very little with it. I still can't believe our recruiting in 2010 and 2011 sucked so bad given all the positives we had going at that time. Should have had Top 20-25 classes both of those years. If we had kept up the positive momentum with WINS against reasonably good teams alot of these other issues start taking care of themselves.

[Goat Holder]

Tell me about it.

1) We screwed up Cam Newton
2) We screwed up with Flip-gate 2011, especially with C.J. Johnson
2) We screwed up Auburn 2013 to swing momentum for the whole year

Now, in saying that, we are expanding the stadium, and we're doing it the smart way. I won't complain too much about the 2010 class, especially considering that they held together the 2009 class and added some talent as well. We still probably won the MS battle in 2010. 2012 and 2013 were obvious successes too outside a few battles we lost. Still got good talent.

2011 is when we got our clocks cleaned, even with all that momentum we had. I think that was one of Mullen's rookie moments. But those three listed above I think were our biggest blunders. All things considered I think we're in decent shape.

[Barking 13]

top 25, a slight exaggeration but I believe even though a few SEC teams are not officially ranked, they are as good as some other schools ranked.

Yep, having grown up in the GTR, it is a pipe dream.......but I wish the GTR could be like NWArk is for the UofArk. Everybody......I mean like 90% of the people in NWA are Razorback fans and eat, sleep and breathe Arkansas athletics. Damn Bama being so close and successful is a big distraction for the GTR. The GTR would be extremely pro-Bulldog if not for them. If I had the money....I would buy WCBI and turned it into our own propoganda machine.

Me too.. there's just too many bammers running around possum town....

[maroonmania]

Me too.. there's just too many bammers running around possum town....

Proximity to Bama is an issue no doubt but still would have been an issue even if MSU had been located in say Meridian. Would have loved to have seen MSU located close to Jackson but not in Jackson. Maybe Clinton or Pearl or something like that.

[Goat Holder]

But, Meridian also gets us closer to the Coast and Mobile/Pensacola. And really a direct interstate route to New Orleans. Southern likely wouldn't even exist. But it's true we'd still likely have the same problem with Bammer. And they'd still be a barrier to Birmingham.

Damn it really pisses me off thinking about what a huge blunder it was not locating in Meridian. But the reality says we are now in Starkville, so we have to make it work for us.

[HunterDawg]

Every school in the SEC is now worried about filling up their stadiums. HDTV for every game will do that. We get millions and millions in TV money, but it comes at a price. It makes it possible for our fans to sit at home and watch on the 60 inch big screen.

Expanding our stadium is nice, but now we have to fill those seats. Ticket prices, including minimum donations, has fallen everywhere. At some SEC schools it is down by more than 50%.

I just hope we can fill an even larger stadium. As usual, we seem to be a bit behind the curve. Who else is adding seats? No one.

Hope it works out, but more seats could just make it harder to have a full stadium. I hope no one bitches about empty seats.

[Schultzy]

I believe the next time we make a run for a few years in football we will be able to hold on to the momentum. In years past When it looked like we were making a move (Tyler and Sherrill) others with more political power stepped in and had the NCAA knock us back down.
Those days are over with commissioners wanting no one on probation, tv dollars and clean conference reputation.