LSU 0-1
Auburn 1-0
aTm 1-0
Not sure what Mullen's record has to do with it. So far, Moorhead is 2-1 vs that group... hopefully he can keep it up
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Seems like this thread is getting off track again.
We are beating Auburn, LSU, and A&M on a regular basis right now without doing what I mentioned. Alabama is the problem and to beat them you need what I just mentioned and some luck. We aren’t ever recruiting in the top 12 consistently so that plan can be thrown out the window. You have to find a different way and get lucky. Go all in on the most important positions.
Two reasons - it goes to the overall state of the program, and 5 years encompasses the eligibility window for most of the players currently on the roster. But, hey, if you want to just focus on Moorhead fine - he's 2-2 against the teams we apparently can't compete with. Still doesn't help your argument.
So back to a question I asked before we got off topic. How concerned should we be about J. Brown going to the Ole Miss cookout last weekend instead of ours when he's committed to MSU?
None of those teams are head and shoulders better than us except Bama. And that one is at home. So even you analytics guys have to say that helps us in that game. Other teams have problems too. LSU cant throw, A&M is a constant underachiever and Auburn is a wild card with a bad OL.
I'm just kind of confused-is the question "can we be competitive with the top schools in the division with our current recruiting profile"-that answer is yes outside of Bama, but to win the West you have to beat all or all but 1(sometimes) and we haven't shown we can do that. If y'all wanna talk about how recruiting rankings can overrate traditional powers, have at it. There's a plethora of examples of that happening every year. Recruiting at an elite level isn't a sure fire ticket to winning your league, but it does get you in the room. It's prerequisite. We can't get in the room bc of where we recruit, which is part of the reason we are always underrated.
BTW-early average spread projections for the games mentioned(per S&P+ & Massey Composite)
Aub -3.85
LSU -1.95
A&M -1.9
Bama -11.25
On average you'd expect to win 1.45 of these 4 games which means there's a 45% chance of going 2-2. I'd probably bet on 1-3.
I agree and I also agree that a NY6 bowl is the ceiling of the program right now, but I don't think you can hope/assume for a Bama dropoff when Saban leaves. Last 30 seasons they've lost 2 or fewer games 13 times. The 30 seasons before that it happened 20 times. 33 of their last 60 seasons have ended with 2 or fewer losses. They're going to be a national title contending team AT LEAST every other year. That spans 8 different coaches for them. It's just who they are. They've been remarkably consistent under Saban, but I don't think they're going to drop back to being A&M or Auburn when he leaves.
It took Dabo Swinney years to build Clemson. In his first several years, they were near the bottom of ACC recruiting. Then he had a couple of good seasons and recruiting picked up. Then he had a couple of great seasons and recruiting followed so that now they compete with Alabama.
Mullen was following a similar trajectory and could have succeeded except for 1) his constant job seeking and 2) his loyalty to the "country club" coaches. If JoeMo picks up where he left off as a recruiter and if he is a great coach, we could follow Clemson's progression and be competitive for the SEC.
BTW: I don't have the figures for Clemson's athletic budget, but they were not listed in the top 25 in a 247 sports article. We were number 32, so there is not that big a difference in financial resources. Also, they are a similarly sized school in a better, but not that much better, location.
The biggest problem with the Clemson model for MSU is that we're fighting 4 Top 12 recruiters in our division & 6 Top 15 recruiters in our conference. Clemson only have 2 other Top 20 recruiters in their entire conference. That makes it a lot easier to slow climb up the recruiting rankings while still being able to win big on the field. What clemson did to offset the lack of top 5-10 recruiting was hit on elite college QB's the last decade. They went from Tahj Boyd to Desean Watson to Trevor Lawrence & will have DJ Uiagalelei waiting in the wings after him.