You mean like being #1?
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Yeah, a meaningless midseason ranking should take precedence on coaching decision making. That makes perfect sense.** who cares about you're body of work, what did idiots rank you after playing teams early that those same idiots overrated? THAT'S what matters. **
And that was mainly because of politics as much as anything. I'll never forget Jackie being interviewed by Spencer Tillman and Tillman said something to Jackie about us "not playing anyone"- and Jackie goes- "well, you should know about that since Oklahoma didn't play anyone when you were there either". The other two football hosts started laughing at a shocked Tillman. It was awesome.
Anyway- Jackie raised our ceiling when he was the coach because he beat some really good Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Tennessee teams during his tenure. That tells me that a good coach can do the same here at MSU- and I don't know why some of our fans want to be stuck in 1986 and not believe it. We need a coach that wins all of the games he is "supposed to" like Dan- but at the same time pulls off a major win every other year or so like Jackie. Based on our program history (Jackie and Dan) our resources and the current state of the SEC, I don't see why those expectations are unreasonable. Heck- even Croom managed to beat some decent teams time to time and he practically insisted that we play with one arm and a leg tied behind our back.
Because those have been the top 3 teams in the West the last 4 years. Anyway you slice it- Mullen has the worst record in the West other than Bert. And even Bert finished ahead of him this season.
Mullen has lost 3 of 4 vs Ole Missus
Mullen is 3-4 vs Auburn
Why does it bother you that I show Mullen's record against those 3 teams? There is literally no way to dress up his SEC West record
I agree with you about that- or at least that you would think it would occur more often because honestly I would consider beating Ole Miss in 2009 to be in the "good team" category- with the caveat that we now know in hindsight that they were on the decline but no one realized it until they lost to Jacksonville State the next year.
We've got MSU fans trying to favorably compare CROOM's tenure to Mullen's...
Bowl-eligible teams Croom beat:
2004 Florida: 7-5
2006 Alabama: 6-7
2007 Auburn: 9-4 and #15
2007 Kentucky: 8-5
2007 Alabama: 7-6
2007 UCF: 10-4
2008 Vanderbilt: 7-6
Bowl-eligible teams Mullen beat:
2009 Middle Tennessee: 10-3
2009 Kentucky: 7-6
2009 Ole Miss: 9-4 and #20
2010 Georgia: 6-7
2010 Florida: 8-5
2010 Michigan: 7-6
2011 Louisiana Tech: 8-5
2011 Wake Forest: 6-7
2012 Middle Tennessee: 8-4
2013 Troy: 6-6
2013 Bowling Green: 10-4
2013 Ole Miss: 8-5
2013 Rice: 10-4
2014 UAB: 6-6
2014 South Alabama: 6-7
2014 LSU: 8-5
2014 Texas A&M: 8-5
2014 Auburn: 8-5 and #22
2014 Arkansas: 7-6
2015 Southern Miss: 9-5
2015 Auburn: 6-6 (still 1 to play)
2015 Louisiana Tech: 9-4
2015 Arkansas 7-5 (still 1 to play)
One thing Mullen is great at is taking advantage of a train wreck program. If you are down. He steps on your throat.
2010 & 2011 - bears were awful
2012 & 2015 - AU were awful
2012 - Upig, john l smith year
2010-2015 - UK, just bad.
Mullen handled his business against these teams.
SEC wins the last 4 years Bama - 20, LSU - 14, Miss - 13, A & M - 12, State - 10, Auburn - 8, Ark - 6. That's each team's West record the last 4 years. Also been better than Auburn as well as Ark. Clearly Bama has been the class of the West as we know. A & M, LSU, UNM, and Us have each finished second in the west once the last 4 years. It's been pretty close back and forth between who finishes 2nd-5th the last 4 years.
For the record- I am NOT saying that Croom is better than Dan in any way, shape, or form. Just saying that if a coach as bad as Croom can win some big games from time to time- then pretty much any coach we hire should do the same- for the people that think that Dan is the absolute best that we can possibly do.