Leach & Dan Have the Same Record, 6-7

[confucius say]

Both started their stints here with a 6-7 record through their first 13 games. Interesting.

[ShotgunDawg]

It interesting but the expectations of the program are infinitely higher now than when Dan took over. Too Leach's excuse though, Mullen wouldn't have had a 6-7 record if he had 10 SEC games in his 1st season

[Johnson85]

It interesting but the expectations of the program are infinitely higher now than when Dan took over. Too Leach's excuse though, Mullen wouldn't have had a 6-7 record if he had 10 SEC games in his 1st season

Mullen went 3-5 against an 8 game SEC schedule and played probably the top 4 SEC teams that year. If he had added two more SEC teams, he would have gotten two out of UGA, UT, and USCe. If he gets USCe, then he probably goes 4-6 and neither UT nor UGA were so good that 5-5 would have been out of the question (although it probably would have been if he had gotten both of them and not USCe).

ETA: But if he went 4-6, he would have still ended up 5-8 through 13 games, if you assume the 2010 results would have been the same, so possibly still right.

[Captain Falcon]

The same comparison can be made for Moorhead. He went 14-12 in two seasons here, Mullen was 14-11 in his first two years. The context is probably the most important thing with it all.

I myself do not have just a ton of issues with Leach at this stage. Yeah the offense needs to get going pretty soon, but 4-7 last year with our roster situation was not just some unexplainable thing. And we are 2-0 this season with wins over a couple of teams that should be in a bowl game at year end, one of them from a Power 5 league.

It will be a constant evaluation as the year goes on, but so far I am not one of those who has strong opinions one way or another about how this is going to go long term. But in the short term I think we are in an OK spot, at least record-wise.

[OLJWales]

Here we go. Why CL Sux thread.

[R2Dawg]

Joe did major damage to the program but Mullen took over a bad situation. Leach did take over in a Covid year but he also coached against other coaches dealing with Covid year too and other 1st year HC.

This is another one of those stat comparison things. The eye test tells a totally different story. Mullen adapted and got the most out of his talent. He lost that first year to a ranked Houston and GT that we should have won (refs really screwed us those two games) but we were in it to win it. He did that with Tyson Lee at QB too. So if you apply Gun's QB stuff, Dan way out performed Leach thru 13.

[Commercecomet24]

Joe did major damage to the program but Mullen took over a bad situation. Leach did take over in a Covid year but he also coached against other coaches dealing with Covid year too and other 1st year HC.

This is another one of those stat comparison things. The eye test tells a totally different story. Mullen adapted and got the most out of his talent. He lost that first year to a ranked Houston and GT that we should have won (refs really screwed us those two games) but we were in it to win it. He did that with Tyson Lee at QB too. So if you apply Gun's QB stuff, Dan way out performed Leach thru 13.

Accept Mullen also inherited a bus load of future NFL players as well.

[OLJWales]

Accept Mullen also inherited a bus load of future NFL players as well.

******* first year was the biggest turnaround I'd ever seen with STATE.

[Johnson85]

Joe did major damage to the program but Mullen took over a bad situation. Leach did take over in a Covid year but he also coached against other coaches dealing with Covid year too and other 1st year HC.

This is another one of those stat comparison things. The eye test tells a totally different story. Mullen adapted and got the most out of his talent. He lost that first year to a ranked Houston and GT that we should have won (refs really screwed us those two games) but we were in it to win it. He did that with Tyson Lee at QB too. So if you apply Gun's QB stuff, Dan way out performed Leach thru 13.


I don't think there's any argument that Mullen didn't outperform Leach his first year. That was probably his best coaching job of his entire tenure. If he had hired a better DC than Torbush and just challenged the awful call against Houston, we probably go 7-5 that year against a ridiculous schedule.

That said, we can't really complain about Leach's performance so far. This is what we should have expected so far with the culture/talent he inherited. We are looking more or less like his other two stops. We'll have a good idea at the end of the year whether his system is working or not. I just hope he gets his offense rolling in year three and that we still have arnett to pair with a good offense. And by "rolling", I mean producing yards every game except for the top one or two defenses we play, which would be basically the peak of what Mullen did.

[Commercecomet24]

******* first year was the biggest turnaround I'd ever seen with STATE.

******* definitely changed the culture but he also inherited 14 nfl draft picks that were on that 2009(mostly on the defensive side of the ball). It's really hard to compare the 2 and it's really just to subjective to even consider. Makes for interesting discussion though because there's really no way to decide which is right.

[Commercecomet24]

Also Danny boy outsmarted himself against LSU at the goal line in 2009. If he had given the ball to Boobie 4 straight times, Boobie would've for sure scored and we would've beat lsu, but instead he tried that dang jump pass and then tyson lee kept the ball on 4th down. So we would've had 6 wins and a bowl game that first year but for those crucial calls on the goal line.

[confucius say]

******* definitely changed the culture but he also inherited 14 nfl draft picks that were on that 2009(mostly on the defensive side of the ball). It's really hard to compare the 2 and it's really just to subjective to even consider. Makes for interesting discussion though because there's really no way to decide which is right.

Dan also had an easier scheme transition. Going from a power run team to his power spread run-first scheme is easier than going from an rpo run-first based scheme to the air raid.

I think their records here will be similar.

[Commercecomet24]

Dan also had an easier scheme transition. Going from a power run team to his power spread run-first scheme is easier than going from an rpo run-first based scheme to the air raid.

I think their records here will be similar.

I'm hopeful.

[OLJWales]

Also Danny boy outsmarted himself against LSU at the goal line in 2009. If he had given the ball to Boobie 4 straight times, Boobie would've for sure scored and we would've beat lsu, but instead he tried that dang jump pass and then tyson lee kept the ball on 4th down. So we would've had 6 wins and a bowl game that first year but for those crucial calls on the goal line.

I hate remembering that game. I hadn't seen us blow them off the line since John bond

[confucius say]

I'm hopeful.

Dan didn't play a noncon P5 five out of his 9 seasons here so that helps. And he didn't have an all sec schedule with only 10 games his first year. So he has a little bit of a head start schedule wise.

But I still think it will be similar.

[Commercecomet24]

Dan didn't play a noncon P5 five out of his 9 seasons here so that helps. And he didn't have an all sec schedule with only 10 games his first year. So he has a little bit of a head start schedule wise.

But I still think it will be similar.

I sure hope so. I'm optimistic because I like Leach and I love the fact he has reinstilled toughness into the team. We were undisciplined, soft, out of control and quit on moorhead to many times.