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Originally Posted by
CadaverDawg
I agree with everything you said EXCEPT for that it is "short sighted and narrow minded". If you know sports as well as I think you do, then you know that it is hard to break a mentality.
It's REALLY easy to quit on a coach that has quit on you or you feel is sabotaging your success. Ultimately that's what happened. Our offense never gave up I don't think -- they just weren't very good(still statistically the best we've had in a bunch of metrics -- just couldn't get it done when it counted against better teams). Our defense QUIT -- and I already went into detail of why I think that was and why, in hindsight, I think a change was ABSOLUTELY necessary(I took up for Wilson for the first few screw ups(Troy, Bama)-- but I was wrong).
I had a VERY hard time playing with relentless effort my second year of college for a ton of (strictly on field) reasons -- and I'm as relentless of competitor in all walks of life as you will ever meet. Hell, that is probably obvious from my posting style. That said, I'm speaking from personal experience. It was VERY hard to keep competing when my coach had not only quit on me, but done things(even unintentionally) that hurt my future in the game... Catching 18 innings twice/week was brutal -- those mistakes made in the 17th or 18th still went in the books and on my statline. F'ing with my swing DURING the season(after not saying a single word to me in individual workouts in the preseason -- I hit every single day by myself off a tee during the offseason without ANY instruction) and killing 100% of my power numbers. Blaming me for bombs that got hit when pitchers shook my pitch calls. I could go on...
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ANd we lost the relentless effort mentality last year. Sometimes it is not just as easy as flipping a switch to get it back.
Again -- IF Mullen "is who we think he is" -- this is an ABSOLUTE MUST. I think it's a non-issue. It's expected. IF that ain't back, then he's done at MSU. And he'll be done THIS year with a spectacular Houston Nutt type of collapse. It's that simple. Our fans will quit on that team and Mullen SO fast it'll blow people's minds -- and Hud is going to win the Sun Belt this year and probably win 10 games.
Freeze took a team that had lost 17 of 18 SEC games and been embarrassed and beaten down repeatedly -- and he managed to get them to play hard 13 times in a row, even while getting blown out. Like I say -- if Mullen can't do that with us this year, he's done at MSU. But he will. Relentless effort and being reenergized from this team is OBVIOUS in every practice report we've seen thusfar. Collins + Deshea = one HIGH energy defense with swag.
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Trust me, I THINK we can. And I THINK Collins will bring a whole new life to our D. And I THINK everything will turn out great. But until I KNOW that we have trashed that shitty mentality we had last year, I cannot sit here and predict 7-8 wins or more. I just can't.
The hard part is definitely being able to see this stuff in advance... I just don't see the point in questioning effort based on what happened last year -- while ignoring the first 3 years? It's either there -- we're better -- and Mullen is who I think he is(just like Cohen has proven to be who I thought he was) -- or he's not -- and we start the Hud era. It's really that simple in my mind. Not much inbetween or margin for error in this...
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Does that mean I won't be supporting them? Hell no that's not at all what Im saying....Hell, I think this is our most talented team since Sherrill's best. BUT, I guess I am just cautious until I see that last year was not contagious. If we have gotten back to the 2009 and 2010 mentality then we will be a VERY good team this year that can win 7, 8, or even 9 games.
Agreed
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There is no doubting the talent. It's whether or not the coaches can get that talent to reach it's potential and play for 4 quarters. We know it's possible because it was happening until last year. But will we do it? That's the big question.
True. We do it -- or we make a change. Again -- really going to be a non-issue IMO
I think people are going to look at our defense against Ok State and see a deeper version of our 2010 Diaz defense...
