Let's prove them wrong

Just watch Greg McElroy totally dog us on how bad we are and going to be on SEC Now. The message was that we are so awful, that it seemed like we are going to lose every game. I get tired of this no respect from the talking heads. They talked only defense and never mentioned our offense. Nor was our ranking of recruiting class or recruits acknowledged. If we were so bad last year, how did we get to be ranked number 1 for 5 weeks, and play in a NYD 6 bowl? Also, in my opinion, we got rid of some of our issues when Collins left.

What a crappy way to start the day with that douche.

At least Paul Finebaum as turned the page on his outlook and perspective of MSU.

My best advice would be stop watching secn except for games. I would rather was replays of old Oprah shows that the programming on secn.

I think this season is probably the most important season in the history of our football program. This past one was pretty important because of how well we did, but we were expected to do well. But now the expectations are low. Many think we have no shot at anything and that's going to be the message and we better get used to it until September gets here. Team lost a lot of leaders, lot of seniors, lot of minutes played. But there are still a lot of experienced veterans on this team.

How do we respond? Do we come out with a chip on their shoulder and play lights out like last year? Do we roll over and let the pressure and the negativity get to us? This might be Dan Mullen's toughest coaching job next year. We did lose a lot and we have our schedule that is typically not so favorable for our record. If he gets us to 8 or 9 wins in a year where people think it's going to be tough for us to make a bowl, then I think the respect will finally come.

As long as we can find a QB to replace Dak, I don't ever see us being a 6 or 7 win team again. We've got too much talent here, so to me if we can overcome the odds this year and get to 8 or 9 wins, we won't ever really be down again.

There will always be ups and downs to fall back to 6-7 wins. We just play in too tough of a conference. But considering only half of the SEC has gone bowling 5 straight years like we have- we just have to avoid the 5 or less season.

We we have too much talent right now to fall to 5 or less

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

I think this season is probably the most important season in the history of our football program. This past one was pretty important because of how well we did, but we were expected to do well. But now the expectations are low. Many think we have no shot at anything and that's going to be the message and we better get used to it until September gets here. Team lost a lot of leaders, lot of seniors, lot of minutes played. But there are still a lot of experienced veterans on this team.

How do we respond? Do we come out with a chip on their shoulder and play lights out like last year? Do we roll over and let the pressure and the negativity get to us? This might be Dan Mullen's toughest coaching job next year. We did lose a lot and we have our schedule that is typically not so favorable for our record. If he gets us to 8 or 9 wins in a year where people think it's going to be tough for us to make a bowl, then I think the respect will finally come.

As long as we can find a QB to replace Dak, I don't ever see us being a 6 or 7 win team again. We've got too much talent here, so to me if we can overcome the odds this year and get to 8 or 9 wins, we won't ever really be down again.

---

You nailed it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Coach34

There will always be ups and downs to fall back to 6-7 wins. We just play in too tough of a conference. But considering only half of the SEC has gone bowling 5 straight years like we have- we just have to avoid the 5 or less season.

We we have too much talent right now to fall to 5 or less

---

I agree that we have too much talent. And I know it ebbs and flows, but if we can get a viable replacement for Dak, I just don't think over the next 4-5 years we will drop below 7 total wins. I think this is the year Mullen either shows MSU is a program to be taken very seriously right now, or that we still have a little work left to do in terms of consistency to be a top program.

I've always thought we could be an SEC powerhouse, but I said when Mullen was hired that it would take 10 years at MSU to build the program correctly to get to and sustain that top level status. This year is year 7 and I feel that if we can get there this year and find a Dak replacement for the year after that we will be there. People will have to take us seriously as a legit power if we get to 9 or 10 wins again this year. There aren't many in the past 5 years in the SEC (except Alabama) who have put together back to back 9 win regular seasons because you are right. The ebb and flow can be too much. But I think Mullen has built the base enough to sustain it and next year is the test of if we are there or if we still have a little ways to go.

I watch the SECN when? When there is a game I want to watch. And this is why.

We have Dak Prescott. That solves a LOT of your leadership concerns. Having a guy like that at QB can cause your whole team to be more confident than perhaps they even should be, which pays dividends on the field.

We'll still have leaders step up; that's what our coaches look for in recruits. Beniquez and Richie Brown, Taveze Calhoun, Ryan Brown, AJ Jefferson; even guys like Shumpert can step up to become leaders now.

It's hard for anyone to think that MSU can lose so many important, talented guys and be able to reload with the recruiting "rankings" we get. We get the chance to show it wasn't a fluke this year. Hopefully, 1B wasn't all for naught.

..and we thought we hung alot of hopes on Dak last year. The 2015 season he will have more hopes hung on him. He is the definitive leader of this team, and while we lost many leaders on the defensive side of the ball, we'll need someone to step up there. Until someone does, Dak will have to lead the entire team. But this post is not all doom and gloom, because I feel during the Spring and the unofficial player sponsored summer workouts, leaders will emerge. I'm even more excited about 2015 than last season. Expectations will be higher and the team must learn to deal with those. Last year, they exceeded expectations and when they got to the top of the mountain, they didn't handle it well. That has to be addressed for us to get over the hump. We get Bama at home, and if we go into that game with 2 or less losses, we need to rip them a new one. Have no mercy and hold nothing back. If we pummel Bama, that will put us in the driver's seat for a playoff berth.

Is it September yet?

If the media wasnt so lazy they would see that yes we lost some seniors but a lot of those guys are not as good as the players replacing them. Dont get me wrong I love Day, Beckwith, Clausell as much as anyone but they got dominated the last half of the season. Kentucky and Arkansas made them look bad not to mention Bama and TSUN. Desper, Clayborne, and Rankin are more talented and will be better players by the end of the year. Not to mention Damien Robinson coming back. Losing JRob hurts but Shump was running the ball harder than him down the stretch anyway. Shump will do fine. Losing Preston Smith, Eulls, PJ Jones on the DL but Jefferson, Ryan Brown, Chris Jones, Adams, James, and all the younger guys will be fine. I wish BMac would have stayed but Beni and Richie Brown are more than capable of filling his shoes. Throw in Jung or Gerri Green and youve got a helluva LB corp. Jamerson Love left but he had a bad year in my opinion, Will Redmond, Calhoun, Jiles, Cleveland, Irvin Sills will do fine. The safeties will be improved by default. Find a kicker and we will be fine. I expect nothing less than contending possibly winning the west.

Remember, too, that this time last year, we thought Preston Smith was just pretty good, we didn't think Beckwith was an answer, and we even had people questioning Redmond.

New guys will emerge and be better than expected.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GTHOM

If the media wasnt so lazy they would see that yes we lost some seniors but a lot of those guys are not as good as the players replacing them. Dont get me wrong I love Day, Beckwith, Clausell as much as anyone but they got dominated the last half of the season. Kentucky and Arkansas made them look bad not to mention Bama and TSUN. Desper, Clayborne, and Rankin are more talented and will be better players by the end of the year. Not to mention Damien Robinson coming back. Losing JRob hurts but Shump was running the ball harder than him down the stretch anyway. Shump will do fine. Losing Preston Smith, Eulls, PJ Jones on the DL but Jefferson, Ryan Brown, Chris Jones, Adams, James, and all the younger guys will be fine. I wish BMac would have stayed but Beni and Richie Brown are more than capable of filling his shoes. Throw in Jung or Gerri Green and youve got a helluva LB corp. Jamerson Love left but he had a bad year in my opinion, Will Redmond, Calhoun, Jiles, Cleveland, Irvin Sills will do fine. The safeties will be improved by default. Find a kicker and we will be fine. I expect nothing less than contending possibly winning the west.

---

You have more faith in that group than I do. After Redmond and Calhoun I think CB is a glaring weakness. Jiles is a total unknown at this point. Irvin Sills was beyond terrible in mop up duty against bad teams. And Cleveland might not even play CB.

As to the other statement, I have no idea how you could say that. So you are saying we need 10 or 11 wins next year or it's a disappointment because if you expect nothing less then that means next season would be a failure if we win 9 games? Considering we just had our first 10 win season ever, that's a bit short sighted to me to expect contend or win the West and if we don't it's not good enough.

You have to be objective about what's going on next year. Bama, LSU, OM, UK at home. @Auburn, @TAMU, @Arkansas, @Mizzou. That's a rough schedule that is not in our favor. That's also while potentially losing 2 potential 1st round draft picks on defense along with 5 other seniors. I'm as wooly as the next guy, but I just don't see how we can put contend for the West or bust on this upcoming season. A 9 win regular season would be a solid year that a lot of us would be proud of, but it's neither going to win us the West or allow us to really contend for the West. But if you gave me 9 regular season wins right now or play it out next year I would take the 9 wins.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

You have more faith in that group than I do. After Redmond and Calhoun I think CB is a glaring weakness.

---

That's still not a bad place to be. How many schools don't have concern after their starters at any position group, especially when the starters are as good as ours will be? Even after that, we have guys who have experience. We know Jiles is at least good when healthy. All we lost there is Love.

I do agree, though, that we definitely shouldn't expect to compete for the West. We have potential but the odd years are usually more difficult for us, and we won't fully know what we have until we start playing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

You have more faith in that group than I do. After Redmond and Calhoun I think CB is a glaring weakness. Jiles is a total unknown at this point. Irvin Sills was beyond terrible in mop up duty against bad teams. And Cleveland might not even play CB.

As to the other statement, I have no idea how you could say that. So you are saying we need 10 or 11 wins next year or it's a disappointment because if you expect nothing less then that means next season would be a failure if we win 9 games? Considering we just had our first 10 win season ever, that's a bit short sighted to me to expect contend or win the West and if we don't it's not good enough.

You have to be objective about what's going on next year. Bama, LSU, OM, UK at home. @Auburn, @TAMU, @Arkansas, @Mizzou. That's a rough schedule that is not in our favor. That's also while potentially losing 2 potential 1st round draft picks on defense along with 5 other seniors. I'm as wooly as the next guy, but I just don't see how we can put contend for the West or bust on this upcoming season. A 9 win regular season would be a solid year that a lot of us would be proud of, but it's neither going to win us the West or allow us to really contend for the West. But if you gave me 9 regular season wins right now or play it out next year I would take the 9 wins.

---

We should go unbeaten at home again, i dont think that is too wooly for anyone to expect. Irvin Sills was pretty bad I'll give you that but given a year to develop he can improve. Calhoun could start anywhere in the SEC, Redmond will be drafted, Jiles will be a solid nickel corner, wherever Cleveland plays he will do fine ( I hope it is at CB because we need him there more than we do at S).

If we win 9 games and win the Egg Bowl i will be okay

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GTHOM

We should go unbeaten at home again, i dont think that is too wooly for anyone to expect. Irvin Sills was pretty bad I'll give you that but given a year to develop he can improve. Calhoun could start anywhere in the SEC, Redmond will be drafted, Jiles will be a solid nickel corner, wherever Cleveland plays he will do fine ( I hope it is at CB because we need him there more than we do at S).

If we win 9 games and win the Egg Bowl i will be okay

---

If we go unbeaten at home I will claim you king of all message boards (not sure I have that authority but what the hell). If we sweep UK, LSU, Bama, and OM at home I would lose my mind.

And I don't question Redmond and Calhoun. Those are 2 NFL CBs for sure. But we will probably play a lot of 3 DBs again next year and that scares me. That means we either play Zack Jack in the slot or another DB. I don't know who it is but I still think we will have to rely on either Smitherman or Stamps to play.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MetEdDawg

If we go unbeaten at home I will claim you king of all message boards (not sure I have that authority but what the hell). If we sweep UK, LSU, Bama, and OM at home I would lose my mind.

And I don't question Redmond and Calhoun. Those are 2 NFL CBs for sure. But we will probably play a lot of 3 DBs again next year and that scares me. That means we either play Zack Jack in the slot or another DB. I don't know who it is but I still think we will have to rely on either Smitherman or Stamps to play.

---

UK? Not nearly as good as we are. LSU? At home? We should expect to win that one. OM? At home? Same case. Bama will be a fight but historically we are better at home against them than over there. If we had them at home this past year we win.

If Zach Jackson is covering anyone man to man next year I will throw something at Diaz or Mullen. (Hopefully he moves to Safety or plays LB but not put 1 on 1 with evan engram) Jiles will be a good nickel corner, Chris Stamps is gonna be another of the ''diamond in the rough guys'' Mullen talks about. Smitherman looked good in the MS AL game. thats about all i know about him.

Some of these talking heads still don't get how the Landscape has changed in College Football. We don't have to rebuild anymore due to the talent that wants to play in the SEC. We grab 15 great players from MS and 10 split between Bama and Louisiana. As long as us and even Ole Miss has good Coaching we're going to be in the hunt every year from here on out.

I definitely think we go undefeated at home again.

@ A&M, @Auburn, @ Mizzou and @ Arkansas is a tall task.

We need to win 3 of those somehow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GTHOM

UK? Not nearly as good as we are. LSU? At home? We should expect to win that one. OM? At home? Same case. Bama will be a fight but historically we are better at home against them than over there. If we had them at home this past year we win.

If Zach Jackson is covering anyone man to man next year I will throw something at Diaz or Mullen. (Hopefully he moves to Safety or plays LB but not put 1 on 1 with evan engram) Jiles will be a good nickel corner, Chris Stamps is gonna be another of the ''diamond in the rough guys'' Mullen talks about. Smitherman looked good in the MS AL game. thats about all i know about him.

---

Beating both LSU and Alabama in the same year, regardless, is not something we can really expect, and that's what you said. I agree that we have a great chance in all of our home games, but to expect to win them all? That's probably stretching it. We've still only beaten LSU twice in the last two centuries, basically.

If we do sweep at home, we'll be right in the thick of it because I still think we'll be a better team than A&M, Missouri, and Arkansas. Do we win all of those? I don't know, they'll definitely be tough on the road, but I think we'll be better. Auburn, who knows.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GTHOM

We should go unbeaten at home again, i dont think that is too wooly for anyone to expect. Irvin Sills was pretty bad I'll give you that but given a year to develop he can improve. Calhoun could start anywhere in the SEC, Redmond will be drafted, Jiles will be a solid nickel corner, wherever Cleveland plays he will do fine ( I hope it is at CB because we need him there more than we do at S).

If we win 9 games and win the Egg Bowl i will be okay

---

I agree we should leave Cleveland at CB because we lose Redmond and Calhoun as SRs this year. We need somebody with experience available for 2016.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GTHOM

UK? Not nearly as good as we are. LSU? At home? We should expect to win that one. OM? At home? Same case. Bama will be a fight but historically we are better at home against them than over there. If we had them at home this past year we win.

If Zach Jackson is covering anyone man to man next year I will throw something at Diaz or Mullen. (Hopefully he moves to Safety or plays LB but not put 1 on 1 with evan engram) Jiles will be a good nickel corner, Chris Stamps is gonna be another of the ''diamond in the rough guys'' Mullen talks about. Smitherman looked good in the MS AL game. thats about all i know about him.

---

You don't want Zach Jackson covering anyone 1 on 1, but want him to play safety where he'll be in coverage more?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SaltyDawg

You don't want Zach Jackson covering anyone 1 on 1, but want him to play safety where he'll be in coverage more?

---

not 1 on 1 he wont be, safeties generally play more zone than man if you didnt know

Beniquez and Richie Brown will be leaders. I guarantee it. Redmond will also step up. Chris Jones will lead as well on the DL. Don't worry. Mullen will always find and challenge the leadership on the team.

We will be able to reload because of Mullen's redshirt program. Plus we have MS JUCO to cherry pick quality players. If we can continue to sign 70% of the best players in MS, and take quality player out of AL. And LA, then we will be a force in the SeC. Our skill players today are better than I can ever remember. Our staff is doing the best job of any staff in coaching up our talent. If Dan can tune up his play calling and Diaz can attack on defense I believe the Bulldogs will become a team that nobody will want to play.

I agree that losing the 3 OL will not hurt us that bad. I feel we have adequate replacements that have the potential to be just as good or better. Losing Preston Smith and Eulls will hurt , but we have good talent replacing them also. McKinney was very good, but I don't feel that we utilized his skills as much as we should have. I think we will be fine at all LB positions with the talent we have coming back and incoming talent. The DB's must learn to tackle better-not just shoving the guy OOB (Kentucky), bouncing off tackles (Ole Miss and GA Tech), and obviously better pass coverage (in all games).

As good as Dak is, and he is out best qb ever ( IMHO ), I am really excited to see which of of the understudies emerges as his replacement. I think both of the redshirts and the new signee have higher potential ceilings and all three have said or shown things in their backgrounds that say that they will be charismatic leaders and will get the job done. Who ever comes out of the pack of three is going to be a player to behold. They will also be surrounded with skill set talent that Dak didn't or doesn't have now. I am down right woolly about the future of our offense and our defense is just getting more and more loaded with speed, skill and strength each year. If we don't emerge as one of the SEC's elite in the next few years, I will be extremely disappointed in Coach Mullen and the staff in their development of folks and the development department seems to be their biggest strength so far.

what do yall think about the 4 OL we signed this year? I've made a lot of negative comments regarding hevesy and his crootin' but we did land 2 guys who had one of those "could go anywhere" list of offers. they were Rankin and Williams. then you got the Moon kid who had an offer from GT. some say that Story is a diamond in the rough.

is this the best OL class of Mullen's tenure here at state? what about pre-Mullen. has it been a while since we've signed 2 OL that had those types of offer sheets?