If Dan's ego is the problem, how long do you give him before you fire him?

Do his assistants ever attempt to make in game suggestions regarding offensive playcalling? Since last year, Dan continues to do stupid shit. Poor play calls on third and fourth and short, poor decisions in general continue to kill us.

We have given him everything he wants, but he insists on being completely stubborn and predictable. We run the same shit as we have for two years. There's no creativity in our offense....nothing. We have more talent offensively that we have ever had under Dan, but yet he doesn't seem to want to use it.

Lack of creativity is surprising and appalling

That's a tough question. We're going to have to wait and see how the year plays out. What if we lose to Auburn, Arkansas, and Ole Miss? And as far fetched as this may sound, what if we lose to Troy and or Bowling Green? All of that will factor in.

Personally, I feel like we are where we are in large part because of Dan's recruiting and roster management which have been poor IMO and I think that kind of goes back to Dan's stubbornness to a degree. And it's not really so much about stars and recruiting rankings, but the fact that we only have eleven seniors this year, the fact that we have a QB with a really good arm and the ability to distribute the ball around, but a very average o-line and very few experienced WR's and then we continue to use our top running back incorrectly for the most part. It's not like Dan hasn't known for five years who our QB was going to be this year. And I feel like you have to build around your QB no matter what style he is on offense. Our o-line evaluation has been very sub par especially when you consider our best guy was recruited by Croom.

Plus, I have a fear that even with Dak as our QB nothing much is going to change on offense with regards to play-calling.

Why does MSU always have to hire the most stubborn ass coaches? Why can't we hire someone like Spurrier, who changed his entire style of play at South Carolina, or someone like Belichick who changes offensive styles most every year?

Why do we always have to hire the one trick pony? For goodness sakes, whenever it is time to hire a new coach, whether that is 2 years from now or 10 years from now, I hope we hire someone that has the ability and lack of ego to make changes.

We're in a tough spot. No big time program wants Mullen at this point. He missed his window using us as a stepping stool. Problem is even if we have a terrible yr this yr, our schedule next yr has us bowling.

He'll be forced to make a change at OC after this season regardless. Maybe he'll hire someone young like the rest of the staff and let them have some influence on the offense. I can name 20 right now that would love the opportunity. Keonning simply doesn't fit and hasn't for yrs, he's a bankrupt mans Randy Sanders/David Cutcliff.

Been a problem for the past 3 yrs.

Dan is stubborn, here's some video after his team goes ahead in the game.

This needs correcting: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8fRSSOMZA_M

If I am the AD, he has this year to straighten things out on his own. If things aren't working out, we come to an agreement on assistant changes. If that isn't working after that, we should probably part ways.

I happen to think he's going to work it out one way or another by the start of next year. We'll see what happens this year. I just want to see effort this year.

Post Auburn game.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Why does MSU always have to hire the most stubborn ass coaches? Why can't we hire someone like Spurrier, who changed his entire style of play at South Carolina, or someone like Belichick who changes offensive styles most every year?

Why do we always have to hire the one trick pony? For goodness sakes, whenever it is time to hire a new coach, whether that is 2 years from now or 10 years from now, I hope we hire someone that has the ability and lack of ego to make changes.

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I think there is a variety of reasons. We are not Florida, Alabama, LSU, etc. so we have to take a chance on a guy that isn't proven in most cases. When you hire a coordinator- you could be getting the next Nick Saban. You could be getting the next Sylvester Croom. And yes, we may have elevated our status to the point where we can get a proven coach from a Sun Belt or C-USA school possibly. I'm not saying that it would be a slam dunk, but it's possible. Jackie Sherrill was probably the most qualified head coach we have ever hired, and we see how that turned out- which was good for the most part.

I think money for assistants is a BIG issue right now for us. You simply get what you pay for in this league. If you want to scrape the bottom of the barrel, you are going to get Woody McCorvey and Les Koenning. Or you are going to get Manny Diaz for a year. Why we do not pay our assistants better- I do not know, and that is honestly up there with any facility that we build for football in my opinion. If we paid league average or better- we would get good assistants and good recruiters. We can pay a head coach well as we are doing with Dan, but any coach is going to need good assistants as well.

In the past facilities were an issue as well, but that is being corrected as we all know. At least there's that. We're not running through butcher paper anymore like 1996.

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Originally Posted by codeDawg

If I am the AD, he has this year to straighten things out on his own. If things aren't working out, we come to an agreement on assistant changes. If that isn't working after that, we should probably part ways.

I happen to think he's going to work it out one way or another by the start of next year. We'll see what happens this year. I just want to see effort this year.

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In my opinion last year was his year to change assistants. He only did it on the defensive side of the ball. Interestingly enough some of the ones that came back that should have been cut loose are also his closest friends on the staff. If I'm an athletic director, that tells me all I need to know.

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Originally Posted by bocfarm

We're in a tough spot. No big time program wants Mullen at this point. He missed his window using us as a stepping stool. Problem is even if we have a terrible yr this yr, our schedule next yr has us bowling.

He'll be forced to make a change at OC after this season regardless. Maybe he'll hire someone young like the rest of the staff and let them have some influence on the offense. I can name 20 right now that would love the opportunity. Keonning simply doesn't fit and hasn't for yrs, he's a bankrupt mans Randy Sanders/David Cutcliff.

Been a problem for the past 3 yrs.

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More like Dan is in a tough spot. We're not obligated to keep him because no one else wants him. If that were the case, we would still have Croom.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

More like Dan is in a tough spot. We're not obligated to keep him because no one else wants him. If that were the case, we would still have Croom.

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History tells me if we go bowling next yr, which is probable...we'll have him for another couple of yrs at a minimum, which means probably missing out on a Petrino, Leach, Kingsbury (wishful thinking) and maybe even HUD.

Hopefully we hire a young and up and coming OC and he saves Dans ass and turns the offense around.

History tells me - after 5 years of losing seasons.

Dan's record will get a slight pass from me due to his ability to fill the stands and create facility upgrades. He has done a tremendous job in both those areas. The MSU football program is in much better shape than when he found it. However his on-field antics have become tiresome. Mullen fails consistently at making in-game adjustments. Mullen owned Gundy for the first 25 minutes but then, just like always, Mullen's opponent makes adjustments and Mullen never counter-acts. Gundy runs a diamond formation and Mullen does nothing. Game over. Let's face it. Mullen SUCKS during the game. He is a little pouty faced ..... who constantly gets his brains beat in by other coaches. He might be better for this program outside the game but when it comes game time he is near the bottom in the SEC.

IMO he will get a pass this year if we have a losing record. Three straight bowl appearances gives him that. But a losing season next year and he should be gone. And Strickland should have a serious talk with him at the end of this season about coaching changes if this year ends as sour as last.

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Originally Posted by Dawgface

IMO he will get a pass this year if we have a losing record. Three straight bowl appearances gives him that. But a losing season next year and he should be gone. And Strickland should have a serious talk with him at the end of this season about coaching changes if this year ends as sour as last.

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Is it Dan's ego our the MSU fan base ego. We lost to a good team last Saturday and yes the offensive call playing was bad. This program will never succeed if we continue the fruit basket turn over type plan. There are solid recruits on the horizon. Let's hope that the crap posted over the past several days does not start to sway them. Lastly, I have several TSUN friends who live in real vile. They are not to optimistic in the long run and sense much trouble down the road. Let's get our heads up.

I honestly dont think strickland has the balls to have a serious talk with him. I just get a vibe from radio interviews and things that him and Dan are buddy buddy and we will have mullen as long as he wants to be here. Which I hope isnt too much longer after what I saw saturday

ironic how he raised our expectations and now is becoming a victim of that very expectation .... change doesn't come from buzz words and catch phrases like - juice, swag, relentless effort, ect.... Shmuly said it best on sps - more offense, less Koening

Fans have a right to be disappointed. I am disappointed. But he has turned us from a dumpster fire of a program that went 21-38 the previous 5 years to winning 29 of their next 51 and 2 bowl wins out of 3 appearances. Under Croom, MSU never ranked in the Top 100 in Total Offense. In the first 4 years, our offense averages 66th in Total Offense. Is our offense where it should be? No. I think he sees the writing on the wall. It's not right right to want him out yet.

What happens if we only win 2 or 3 games this year? If defense keeps us from getting blown out but the offense looks the same all year. That would be 2 years of inept offense.