Luginbill: Leach will have to run the ball more

[Todd4State]

I'm kinda amazed at how you dog Mullen for how 2014 ended but give Jackie a pass for the end of '99 which was almost identical. Both teams lost in Tuscaloosa to Bama teams that won the SEC and then both had a road loss to a 4-loss team where we just played really poorly. People argue that our best wins in 2014 were against overrated teams, and while that is true, they were still solid wins in games that we dominated. And it's not like we beat a bunch of powerhouses in '99. Our best win was against an 8-4 Ole Miss team and we got to play a 6-6 Clemson team in our bowl game. The Georgia Tech team that beat us in the Orange Bowl was an 11 win team that finished in the Top 10. And in '99 we also had eek out wins against 3-8 LSU, 5-6 Memphis, 5-6 Auburn, and 6-6 Kentucky.

You say people are too young to remember, I say that nostalgia may have you misremembering what the situation actually was. We had some memorable teams in that era that were definitely good. But the run that Mullen put together as a whole was better than Jackie's run. And since we are bashing Mullen for missing an opportunity to win the West in 2014, let us not forget that in addition to '99, Jackie had teams in '97 and 2000 that were very much in the hunt to win the West and both years we proceeded to go 0-2 in our final two games against Arkansas and Ole Miss teams we should have beaten.

The difference is 1999 was not almost identical at all to 2014. We beat Ole Miss and won our bowl game.

The other difference is while yes, Jackie whiffed a couple of times on championships he actually won the West which is more than Dan did. And at least when Jackie whiffed he wasn't looking around for another job in the process.

So yes, again- give me a two year run where we win the SEC West and a 10 win season where we win the Peach Bowl over a really good three game run that ends in a complete letdown mostly due to the head coach.

[SheltonChoked]

The difference is 1999 was not almost identical at all to 2014. We beat Ole Miss and won our bowl game.

The other difference is while yes, Jackie whiffed a couple of times on championships he actually won the West which is more than Dan did. And at least when Jackie whiffed he wasn't looking around for another job in the process.

So yes, again- give me a two year run where we win the SEC West and a 10 win season where we win the Peach Bowl over a really good three game run that ends in a complete letdown mostly due to the head coach.

Give Dan the Alabama and LSU teams of 1999, and then let's talk.

In 1998, we got killed 42-23 by a 5-6 big 12 team and destroyed 42-6 by a 17ing 4-7 LSU team (whose other wins were Arkansas State and Idaho). We also lost to a 7-5 Air Raid Kentucky team. We played one good team that year, Arkansas. But we were never ranked higher than 23 in 1998, Being number 1 for weeks in 2014 beats that.

In 1999, we played 3 teams with a pulse, and lost to 2 of them.

2014? We played 6 teams in the top 20, and went 3-3. Oh and were #1 for 5 weeks.

IMO, 2014 hurts because we really had a chance. We never really did in 1998 or 1999.

[Captain Falcon]

The difference is 1999 was not almost identical at all to 2014. We beat Ole Miss and won our bowl game.

The other difference is while yes, Jackie whiffed a couple of times on championships he actually won the West which is more than Dan did. And at least when Jackie whiffed he wasn't looking around for another job in the process.

So yes, again- give me a two year run where we win the SEC West and a 10 win season where we win the Peach Bowl over a really good three game run that ends in a complete letdown mostly due to the head coach.

Just don't think the comparisons you are making are even at all. The division championship we won in 1998 was against a much weaker SEC West than Mullen ever had to deal with, and touting that "we beat Ole Miss and won our bowl game" in 1999 is different from 2014 in that you're comparing an Ole Miss team that played in the Independence Bowl to an Ole Miss team that played in a New Year's Six game, and you're comparing a 6-6 Clemson team to an 11 win Georgia Tech team. Not to mention the '99 Egg Bowl was at home and the '14 Egg Bowl was on the road.

[Homedawg]

The difference is 1999 was not almost identical at all to 2014. We beat Ole Miss and won our bowl game.

The other difference is while yes, Jackie whiffed a couple of times on championships he actually won the West which is more than Dan did. And at least when Jackie whiffed he wasn't looking around for another job in the process.

So yes, again- give me a two year run where we win the SEC West and a 10 win season where we win the Peach Bowl over a really good three game run that ends in a complete letdown mostly due to the head coach.

Jackie wanted the bama job badly and it was Common knowledge. Media wasn't as big then. Only difference. And no social media....