http://maroonmagazine.com/2013/12/yo...he-mullen-era/
Number one is the obvious. I agree with him about our fans.
Number two is what really pisses me off about our fans. Note this section:
Why do people continue to trumpet this nonsense? First of all 78-82 didn't see probation, that was 75-77. And those wins counted, I don't give a f*ck what Ole Miss fans tell you. We were 35-20 on the field from 1974-1978, good for a 64% win percentage, equaling Jackie's run.Since the inception of Bulldog football, there have only been five times, you can take a five year window and call it ?success?.
The 1954 to 1958 Bulldog teams went 25-21-1, having mild success, winning 53% of their games.
1970-74 saw a 47% winning trend, good years mixed with bad ? to generate a 25-29-2 run.
1978-82, the Bulldogs went 31-26 but several of those games were forfeited due to rules violations and such.
Then there?s the 1996-2000 run that saw the Bulldogs go 38-21, winning three bowls, the west and 64% of their games.
Mullen, to his own credit is now 35-28 over a five year stretch, with a winning percentage of 56%, four straight bowls and beaten his rival four out of five.
Bottom line, what this tells me is that Mullen has done VERY well and we should be appreciative. The fans who want to fire Mullen are stupid, period. But also, the potential is here to take another step, since two other guys have done it in Tyler and Sherrill.
Very good points, especially the 74-78 record we had. And those forfeits are total BS and we should petition to get those victories back on the official record.
Forfeiting seventeen games because someone got a student discount at a clothing store (no kidding that is the extent of what the NCAA found) is bizarre.
But we won those games on the field and should recognize them as wins as a university.
Not only that, but we also have the following records:
14-12-2 vs. USM thus a winning record
20-20 vs. Kentucky
45-59-6 vs. Ole Miss
Other records improve, but they don't really matter that much as they are still very lopsided.
I mean, why are we the only team that accepts this shit?
My problem with the people that dont appreciate Mullen and try to tear down what he has done always say- "It's easy to go to a bowl" or "there are 50 coaches out there that can do what Mullen is doing"Originally Posted by Goat Holder
It is once- maybe twice...but at Mississippi State, going to 4 straight bowls is an amazing feat. Florida couldnt do it the last 4 years. Mississippi has done it once since Integration with 2 different coaches getting it done with Tubby and Cut- but lost their streak at 5
People arent doing it at Missouri, Florida, Tennessee right now- but 50 coaches could do it at State???? Bullshit
Walk like the King or walk like you don't care who the King is
Some will say, "well it's easier to win 6 now that we have 12 games instead of 11". That's a valid point, but it's not like we're playing a bunch of lollypops on the schedules every year like everyone thinks. Since they introduced the 12 game sked (2002-2003, 2006-present ie 10 years), we played a BCS OOC opponent in 7 of them. In the other 3 years, we played ON THE ROAD at CUSA and Sunbelt schools, which are notoriously frustrating things to do.
The only year people may legitimately have a complaint about Mullen is 2011, when we played 4 lolly pops and the road game was UAB. Can't bitch about 2012, we won 8 freaking games. This year we played a BCS OOC opponent and still got 6 wins.
What do you mean by this? Why do we accept that we don't have a good record historically against pretty much anybody? Is that what you're asking?
There are people out there who honestly believe that if you don't win more games each successive season, you are a failure.
Anybody who assumes those who feel Mullen may not be our best option going forward is stupid, is, well, stupid!
You gotta love it when a poster thinks his position is so undeniable that for anyone to have an opposing opinion is "stupid".
Personally, I was as pro-Mullen as a fan could get, and defended him rigorously to OM fans for the first 3.5 years. And I'm not one of those who is frustrated with him simply because we've not had as good a record as I'd hoped.
My frustration, one that is shared by many MSU fans is the way we have stumbled the past season and 1/2. It's the insistence on playing TR with just Perk in the backfield, and running Perk over & over between the tackles for little-to-no-gain, or alternatively TR keeping and running for little-to-no-gain. It's the consistently horrible ST play, of which Mullen is the coach. It's the failed-Bell-FG attempt after failed-Bell-FG-attempt, after failed-Bell-FG attempt, after failed Bell-FG attempt before he finally realized, as everybody else had done weeks earlier, that Bell is a choker, plain & simple.
When we looked our best this year, it was with DP at QB and JR or Shumpert in the backfield to run between the tackles. I wish I could credit Mullen for making the wise decision to do that, but the reality is, he was forced to do it due to injuries to TR & Perk. Even after DP & JRob showed us what they could do, Mullen still insisted on giving the bulk of the carries to Perk, not using him much the way we all know he should be used, receiving the ball in space, not running between the tackles.
As much as it is great that we've had a relatively good run the past 4 seasons (by MSU standards), I am still frustrated that DM did not, IMO consistently put the best players in the best position to succeed. He made far too many crucial bad decisions, in personnel and play-calling that cost is in close losses or kept an opponent closer than perhaps they should have been in close wins.
I'll tell you what seems silly to me, and that's fans who see 2 overtime wins over the 2 last-place teams in the West as some kind of validation that they were right to criticize those of us who've become disenchanted with Dan.
And as far as the bowl streak goes, I'm very happy we have it, and as long as Dan is our coach, I'll go into every season rooting for him and our team to succeed. But let's not ignore the fact that it's much easier to get into a bowl these days, and the recent rush of money we get from our SEC association helps us to beat most of those teams that are getting us bowl eligible.
We should beat Alcorn State, Troy, BGSU, UK, a really bad Arky and a vastly overrated OM. That shouldn't be viewed as some great accomplishment, given our resource advantage over all but Arky & OM. And do not sell short the impact Arky's woes have had on our ability to qualify for a bowl.
We should beat JSU, USA, Troy, Middle Tenn, a WAY down Tenn, a WAY down Auburn and a WAY down Arky. But we often looked like shit doing it last year, and continued to do the same things on offense this year that made us look like shit last year. The exception was mostly what we saw when DP came in after TR got injured and when JRob (and to a lessor degree" Shumpert) came in when Perk got hurt.
What scares me about Dan going forward is his apparent inability to see who is better personnel-wise, his at times mind-boggling gameday play-calling decisions and the horrific condition of our ST, of which he is the coach.
Am I supposed to forget all of that frustration simply because he narrowly beat a really bad Arky in OT and squeeked by an overrated OM at home in OT to get to .500 when added to wins over out-gunned Alcorn State, Troy, BGSU, & UK? Am I supposed to forget that his play-calling late in the Auburn game cost us our best chance at beating a top team, one that will now play for the NC?
I'm not saying it's all bad. I'm not even saying it's not mostly good. He's been good at developing our players, good at identifying talent in the recruiting process, great at sparking interest in our program, great at increasing expectations, etc. But if he's going to be successful in the SEC West, he's got to get MUCH, MUCH better at putting the right guys in, and in the best position to win.
Auburn is really good again. Arky is on their way back, they will not stay down. Even UK seems to be doing well on the recruiting trail, so they may soon be more than competitive. If we're going to continue to make bowl games, if we're going to consistently be more than a .500 team that beats up on the softer part of our schedule, we have to find a way to beat really good SEC teams.
What about the past 2 games makes you so sure Dan is the guy to accomplish that?
Last edited by blacklistedbully; 12-12-2013 at 04:10 PM.
So many straw men in this thread
So because we have sucked historically so we should be happy to be 6-6? Our last big win came 3 years ago vs Michigan. I thought the line was "Compete for championships", but apparently it should be "Suck Less".
No. I meant, why do we accept probation forfeits and such as gospel and nobody else does.
We are all more all-in than most of us realize. We all see that Mullen has done well by historical standards. We also all see that he could do even better - and that's what's frustrating at times...that we haven't done as well as we think we can do damn the historical records.
Nothing in sports is more frustrating than underachieving. Its one thing to get beat by another team that is a lot better than you. But it kills morale to know what we could have done better and didn't.
Chin up, ye who cheer for the maroon & white. Despite what another message board says, don't abandon all hope.
We are getting better. Our team is a lot better now than it was to start the season. Or at any point last season. Patience.
Perfectly said.
Nope. But we should be willing to give the man time to build a program. Sure, you can build Alabama in 3 years but you can't build MSU overnight.
No doubt we are in better shape going into next season. We have QBs that match the system and lots of returning starters. That should get us a couple more wins. Lets hope Dan can learn and make the adjustments needed so that we can "Compete for Championships".
Only thing I can tell you is that Mullen is the coach, he sees these guys in practice. I bet if we knew all the details, we'll discover that the best players actually DID play. Who was he going to put out there to kick FGs? Sobiesk? DID YOU SEE THE EGG BOWL???????????????????? WHAT OTHER OPTION DID HE HAVE YOU BRAINDEAD MFERS????????????
I question some play calling too. But I question ALL coaches play calling. None of it matters when you win, but it's shit-total-terrible when you lose.
Those were HUGE wins! We don't have any entitlement to beating Arkansas and Ole Miss, pal.
I'd much rather beat them than lose to them. And it's not like we've always beaten these teams. The article CLEARLY outlines this but people like you CLEARLY ignore it and continue to say we SHOULD beat people. IGNORANCE IS YOURS.
I
HATE
OUR
FANS
rant over
and here we go again- blacklistedbully with the "its easier to make bowl games now" rhetoric. Yet that doesnt explain Missouri, Florida, or Tennessee not being able to do it. At some point the the light bulb has to come on for some of you to realize that "my God, if these much better programs have trouble doing- maybe Mullen really is doing something abnormal- or special"
Who do you want Mullen to trot out there to kick FG's other than Bell? He sent Sobeisk out there and the results were the same. You do know it wasnt Bell that missed the chip shot in the Egg Bowl right? We all want ST to get better- hopefully that will get taken care of.
Mullen didnt "continue to trot TR out there" time after time. He basically used Russell's concussion as his chance to change QB's. He used Russell some the rest of there year- and as a Sr- Russell had earned some playing time. But Mullen made Dakota the starting QB effectively beginning with the Auburn game- and there wasnt any doubt after that point.
Perkins played because he is a leader, a Sr, and someone that is a model player in our football program. Mullen is not an idiot- he knows JRob is a better player now, but apparently JRob still wasnt doing some of the things necessary to take over the job. Much like we didnt know the whole situation with Whitley at F/S - I'm pretty sure we dont know the whole situation at RB. Especially when you consider JRob was suspended for the 1st half of the UPig game.
Bottom line- people have been saying we SHOULD do this and we SHOULD do that at State since the 1940's- but few have been able to do it. We dominate our rival, we have been to 4 straight bowls, we have raised the floor at State, and we have an outstanding team returning for 2014. We are also building momentum in the program for recruiting in 2015.
I have more confidence Mullen is the man for the job now than I ever have.
Walk like the King or walk like you don't care who the King is
Well, I'm just tired of the historical arguments. I don't care what our historical records are against Ole Miss or anyone else. I don't care how many games we had to forfeit in the 70s. The game is so much different now. If we looked at records since the introduction of the divisional format, we stack up well.
Its worth noting, just for the record, that this Maroon Magazine thing is owned by a Rebel who doesn't tolerate much in critical opinion-writing about Ole Miss.
Some of us are reading elitedawgs because there is too much Rebel influence on another popular message board. Safe to say, pass on Maroon Magazine. A rebel-owned MSU magazine? Screw that.
This is correct.Much like we didnt know the whole situation with Whitley at F/S - I'm pretty sure we dont know the whole situation at RB.
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