The crossroads we are at

[MetEdDawg]

The final straw broke for me tonight in terms of the direction of this program. Not in regards to Mullen leaving, but the plan for this university to be successful in football long term.

Mullen was brought here to build a winner. No one can question he has done that and he's done so at the best rate in the modern era of football ever by our HC and it's not even close. But we are now exiting year 7 and there have to be some changes about the mentality of this program and the image we project. Here is what I see:

1) We have reached our maximum potential as a RS and develop program. That's a great plan for someone that had 5 years to rebuild and change the image. That has now been done. I understand the success we have had during the Dak era, but we will win 18 regular season games with one of the greatest QBs to ever play in the SEC. That's pretty damn good. But we cannot pray the stars align like that again in order for us to find this type of success. The days of RS and developing need to now be over. If we are going to play freshmen, then they need to play. Malik Dear should have had 70 more touches this year than he did. It’s ridiculous that he didn’t and Mullen is 100% at fault for that. If we are going to play Peters and McLaurin, they need to play. We give guys 3-5 snaps a game and build them up. I don’t get it. If they are going to play and impact games, get them into a rhythm and let their ass play. Don’t muddy the waters and yank them in and out. Let them go and be impactful. Same with RS freshmen. Bryant should have played day 1. Green needed more reps. Cory Thomas needed more reps. Jenkins needed more reps. Lee and Williams needed more reps. If these are your guys that you will count on next year, their asses need to be playing right now. Not 3-5 plays a game. 10-15. Get them in and let them get experience. This leads me to my next point.

2) We must now make a commitment to recruiting that this university will not settle for classes that continue to finish in the bottom of the conference. Great class last year. But what are we going to follow it up with? We don't bring in elite, instant impact guys at any position. I don't typically look at stars. I look at who offered the kid. We get very few of those high caliber, impressive offer sheets in our program. Peters, Lewis, and Adams were 3 pretty big ones last year. But where else on our roster to you see those guys? Chris Jones, Richie Brown, Fred Ross and.......... exactly. There really isn't anyone else. So we've got about 5-7 guys on our roster that were truly coveted by some of the elite teams in the nation and 2 of them RS this year. Until we make a commitment here that we will be a bigger player regionally and nationally for more elite talent, we will have to pray that the stars align in order for us to be legitimate contenders.

3) We have to make a commitment to having a top notch staff. I like Diaz, but we lost to Kirby Smart, John Chavis, Kevin Steele, and Dave Wommack. Pretty damn good line up of coaches there. We should have been able to do better. Hevesy is a joke. We recruit no impact offensive lineman. I know they are tough to evaluate. But a RS Freshman with no other division 1 offers got playing time over our converted TE at LT. That series of events is partly on recruiting, but a lot of staff. How does that happen to an SEC program? Malone regressed significantly. I blame Hevesy. Senior regressed. Desper was bad. The whole thing was awful. Only person I see to blame is Hevesy. He needs to go. I'm also done with Townsend. Our CBs look awful. I know we lost Redmond. But how is Tolando Cleveland our 3rd best CB??? How do we not have one single CB better than that? Partly recruiting, but a lot on coaching again. I hate our CB scheme between the 20s. Soft cushion, on our heels, no aggression in the passing game, very reactive not proactive. Been less than impressed with our CBs since he came on board. Scott Sallach needs to go to a desk and Mullen needs to hire an OC to call plays. Or promote Gonzales and hire a new WR coach. We need about 2-4 million more to spread around to assistants. Make it happen Stricklin. Make it happen Mullen. We have to be on par with the elite in terms of staff if we want to win.

I see this as a major crossroads for our program. The next 12 months is going to say a lot about us. How to we finish in recruiting? How do we do in replacing the best QB in our history and one of the best ever in the SEC? What staff changes do we make? We are at a severe crossroads gentlemen. This next 12 months is a big time nut check for our program. A game like this and a season like this with the struggles we had should ignite a fire under Mullen to not ever stop, to press forward even harder, and to figure out a way to do the things necessary to be an elite program. I will be interested to see what happens in the 3 areas I laid out. If we don't see much change there, I would be a bit concerned about our future. We need to shake up the status quo and it needs to be done right now. What we had worked up until tonight when the culmination of this season revealed that the teams we lost to were ones that did points 1,2, and 3 better than us. Make a commitment to fix those and we've got a chance to be elite. Continue on with what we are doing and we will not see much difference from this year in our future.

[missouridawg]

If you give us LSUs OL, we win 10 games this year. We need to address the OL very, very quickly.

[Boya]

Larry Fedora then Tim Herman

[Barkman Turner Overdrive]

Larry Fedora then Tim Herman

Fedora ain't coming here. No way. No how.

[klc90]

Well said. Agree on all points.

[Coursesuper]

If you give us LSUs OL, we win 10 games this year. We need to address the OL very, very quickly.

Boom. Nail on head. 80 no 90% of our issues tonight are on the oline. If we had LSUs oline we win it all last year.

[BrunswickDawg]

A game like this and a season like this with the struggles we had should ignite a fire under Mullen to not ever stop, to press forward even harder, and to figure out a way to do the things necessary to be an elite program
.

That's the thing. I have given the benefit of the doubt to Dan. But, I am beginning to believe that Mullen doesn't want that. Just like his mentor "Achy Heart" Urban, he wants SEC money and glory but not the 24/7/365 that it takes to win it. You can almost get by with that at MSU, because of our history. I'm not upset about 8-4, I'm upset about how we got there and the opportunities missed over the last 2 years because it has been damned obvious that "Relentless" is not his approach. It's nice marketing, but it sure isn't what we see from our leader. He can go to Maryland or UVa and win 8-9 like Cutcliffe, and go to his lake house, and play with his kids, and take a month off in summer, and if that's what he wants and needs, then fine(and I'm not knocking that as a choice - I've made that choice in my life too). But, if you want to win championships in the SEC, that ain't going to cut it.