Another look at strength of schedule thru week 6

['Merica Dawg]

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/201...ugh-six-weeks/

[CadaverDawg]

How can anybody look at this and think we, of all teams, should be scheduling anything other than cupcakes out of conference?

[Political Hack]

that's not hard enough. we should add Oregon too.

[FlabLoser]

I know it wasn't wise to add OSU. But I put that loss more on Mullen than Stricklin. That game was winnable. Collins gave us everything we needed to handle that fearful OSU offense. We shit the bead on offense and that ain't Strick's fault (unless you consider....Bracky).

[Political Hack]

I know it wasn't wise to add OSU. But I put that loss more on Mullen than Stricklin. That game was winnable. Collins gave us everything we needed to handle that fearful OSU offense. We shit the bead on offense and that ain't Strick's fault (unless you consider....Bracky).

Strick robbed us of a tune up game. He cost Jay Hughes he season. Cost TR 2.5 games of his Sr season. He had us banged up headed into the first quarter of the season.

he made CDM's job this season exponentially more difficult. Was the game winnable? Yes. Was Jackson State winnable and better for the program. Absolutely.

[CadaverDawg]

Strick robbed us of a tune up game. He cost Jay Hughes he season. Cost TR 2.5 games of his Sr season. He had us banged up headed into the first quarter of the season.

he made CDM's job this season exponentially more difficult. Was the game winnable? Yes. Was Jackson State winnable and better for the program. Absolutely.

Couldn't agree more, except for the injury parts. That could have happened in any game. But the overall point of your post I agree with. We needed a confidence building tune up game to start the season. And we damn sure didn't need an OOC game that we could potentially, and likely, lose. Our defense was just ahead of their Offense because it was week 1, and vice versa for them. So yes, could we have won? Possibly. But does that change the fact that it was a terrible decision? No.

The reason Gundy complained about it before hand, was not because he was scared....it was because winning or losing didn't change the fact that it was a dumb move to schedule a game like that to start the year. And we had an even bigger argument than Gundy because we play in the toughest Division in college football AND were not supposed to be a highly ranked team. It was dumb if we had won it, and it is REALLY dumb now that we lost it. But dumb either way.

[Johnson85]

In hindsight, that was a perfect game to schedule. Big name team on a down year. We should have won and started off the year with a bang. It's not Strickland's fault that Mullen didn't have the team ready.

But that just helps prove how stupid it is to make our OOC schedule any harder than it needs to be. Instead of being a way to generate some excitement early in the year, we took the opportunity to make getting to a bowl as hard as possible. And it also looks like no SEC West team is bad. UM, MSU, Arkansas, and Auburn obviously aren't great, but there are no pushover teams in the West this year.

[cheewgumm]

Good lord, talk about stretches.

"Cost Jay Hughes his season"?

"Cost TR 2.5 games of his Sr season"?

Good lord, Oklahoma State is not Alabama...they are not top 12...they are probably not top 20. Ask West Virginia.

to attirbute these injuries to the oppponent, expecially Hughes' is comical.

Strick robbed us of a tune up game. He cost Jay Hughes he season. Cost TR 2.5 games of his Sr season. He had us banged up headed into the first quarter of the season.

he made CDM's job this season exponentially more difficult. Was the game winnable? Yes. Was Jackson State winnable and better for the program. Absolutely.

[Todd4State]

Good lord, talk about stretches.

"Cost Jay Hughes his season"?

"Cost TR 2.5 games of his Sr season"?

Good lord, Oklahoma State is not Alabama...they are not top 12...they are probably not top 20. Ask West Virginia.

to attirbute these injuries to the oppponent, expecially Hughes' is comical.

You're right- they're 21st.

[Todd4State]

I know it wasn't wise to add OSU. But I put that loss more on Mullen than Stricklin. That game was winnable. Collins gave us everything we needed to handle that fearful OSU offense. We shit the bead on offense and that ain't Strick's fault (unless you consider....Bracky).

Apparently it wasn't THAT winnable. We lost by three scores. Bear in mind that OSU had to figure out who their QB was as well. We stopped the crappy one. The good one did pretty well.

[maroonmania]

Apparently it wasn't THAT winnable. We lost by three scores. Bear in mind that OSU had to figure out who their QB was as well. We stopped the crappy one. The good one did pretty well.

And I really don't care is it was technically "winnable" or not. The point is that OSU is a good team AND when is the last time under Mullen you actually saw us come out the first game of the year firing on all cylinders. It hasn't happened and I doubt will happen. Until I see something different we need to start off every year with a creampuff.

[Todd4State]

And I really don't care is it was technically "winnable" or not. The point is that OSU is a good team AND when is the last time under Mullen you actually saw us come out the first game of the year firing on all cylinders. It hasn't happened and I doubt will happen. Until I see something different we need to start off every year with a creampuff.

I agree. Starting the year off with a SWAC team allows us to see everyone play and gives us a chance to work out the kinks early.

[Jack Lambert]

You remember when Bobby Boucher show up at half time and the mud dogs won the bourbon bowl?

[RougeDawg]

Not sure how it happened but I opened the site and it took me back to a bunch of 2013/14 threads. This one seemed interesting.

[Todd4State]

Not sure how it happened but I opened the site and it took me back to a bunch of 2013/14 threads. This one seemed interesting.

This is from the year where LT talked Stricklin into scheduling the Kickoff Classic and in exchange we were supposed to play Vanderbilt. And then we got an I think top 25 South Carolina team on the road instead.

Actually it was a fun 7-6 season with Dak's comeback against Ole Miss and the Liberty Bowl thrashing. Good times.

The Kickoff Classic was and is still not popular among our fans. The thing about it is with the mandatory power 5 rule I wonder if it may be easier and better for us to play in Kickoff Classics than do home and homes with people like K-State, Arizona, and NC State. If Ole Miss on probation can get into one playing 6-6 Texas Tech I don't know why we couldn't.

On a sort of related note- I do like how we are playing Louisiana Lafayette in the Superdome in 2019. That's definitely preferable to playing La Tech in Ruston or Troy in Troy. I'm not sure why we couldn't have played La Tech in Shreveport or even New Orleans for that matter. There are other options out there too like Middle Tennessee State at the Titans home stadium in Nashville would be cool and I think playing Arkansas State in Memphis would be popular. I think a lot of us would rather play some of these "road game" Sun Belt teams in Jackson as opposed to going to their place. Jackson location wise would be good to play Louisiana-Monroe geographically as would New Orleans for that matter. I just wish playing in Jackson wasn't such a cluster because using Veteran's Memorial Stadium to play a game like how Arkansas uses Little Rock to play Sun Belt teams could essentially add another "home game" for us without taking away from the seven home games we currently play and should still play in Starkville.

I'd also like to play a series with UAB again soon out of principle after the way Alabama shut their program down- that was incredibly wrong IMO. Glad to see them go 8-5 this year and make it to a bowl.

[TUSK]

This is from the year where LT talked Stricklin into scheduling the Kickoff Classic and in exchange we were supposed to play Vanderbilt. And then we got an I think top 25 South Carolina team on the road instead.

Actually it was a fun 7-6 season with Dak's comeback against Ole Miss and the Liberty Bowl thrashing. Good times.

The Kickoff Classic was and is still not popular among our fans. The thing about it is with the mandatory power 5 rule I wonder if it may be easier and better for us to play in Kickoff Classics than do home and homes with people like K-State, Arizona, and NC State. If Ole Miss on probation can get into one playing 6-6 Texas Tech I don't know why we couldn't.

On a sort of related note- I do like how we are playing Louisiana Lafayette in the Superdome in 2019. That's definitely preferable to playing La Tech in Ruston or Troy in Troy. I'm not sure why we couldn't have played La Tech in Shreveport or even New Orleans for that matter. There are other options out there too like Middle Tennessee State at the Titans home stadium in Nashville would be cool and I think playing Arkansas State in Memphis would be popular. I think a lot of us would rather play some of these "road game" Sun Belt teams in Jackson as opposed to going to their place. Jackson location wise would be good to play Louisiana-Monroe geographically as would New Orleans for that matter. I just wish playing in Jackson wasn't such a cluster because using Veteran's Memorial Stadium to play a game like how Arkansas uses Little Rock to play Sun Belt teams could essentially add another "home game" for us without taking away from the seven home games we currently play and should still play in Starkville.

I'd also like to play a series with UAB again soon out of principle after the way Alabama shut their program down- that was incredibly wrong IMO. Glad to see them go 8-5 this year and make it to a bowl.

I'll swap you UAB & Auburn for Mississippi and Mississippi Southern.