Some reminders about Dan Mullen

[Commercecomet24]

Despite the wheels coming off the last couple of years Jackie will always be my favorite MSU coach, until someone else carries back to Atlanta. He is a Bulldog and made us believe we could win and we often did in the beginning and middle of his MSU years. Hail Jackie! Hail State!

Yeah Jackie and Peggy are all Dawg. Shame what the ncaa allowed om to do to him. Jackie was the one who showed us we could compete and win and he built the foundation and why we are a much better program over the last 30 years than the 80+ years before.

[Goldendawg]

Yeah Jackie and Peggy are all Dawg. Shame what the ncaa allowed om to do to him. Jackie was the one who showed us we could compete and win and he built the foundation and why we are a much better program over the last 30 years than the 80+ years before.

Yeah, remember the last couple of years with NCAA cloud over him? Could only get JC guys as HS players feared to commit long term. Staff was made up mainly of over the hill, ex-head coaches. Ever realize the pattern? We get pretty good, NCAA shows up, Bob Tyler, Jackie and ever Dan to a degree (see Will Redmond and a couple of other "infractions" that we give ourselves a hard labor plea deal). SEC and NCAA gotta keep us in our place over the years.

[dawgday166]

Maybe it is not the coach that is, "a," 7 - 5 but the program that is, "a," 7 - 5.

Well, that sums it up about as well as any single sentence could.

This right here. Our fanbase does one thing very consistently each year. Think we're better than we are and think other teams are much worse than they are. How folks have thought we'd win 10 with 2 auto losses in GA & Bama on our schedule still makes me scratch my head.

LSU has some talent ... more than we do. Last 4 years in recruiting starting in 2019 they're 5, 4, 3, 12 (12 was in 2022). With NIL and such ... not sure how many are left out of those classes but I imagine there's a decent amount left.

ETA: And why some folks always think that in 3 years for any new coach at MSU we should be 9-3 or 10-2 and playing in a NY 6 bowl also puzzles me. Of course I don't expect a new coach to inherit a legitimate 10-2 or 11-1 roster and go 8-4 either. Leach didn't inherit a roster like that.

[Commercecomet24]

Yeah, remember the last couple of years with NCAA cloud over him? Could only get JC guys as HS players feared to commit long term. Staff was made up mainly of over the hill, ex-head coaches. Ever realize the pattern? We get pretty good, NCAA shows up, Bob Tyler, Jackie and ever Dan to a degree (see Will Redmond and a couple of other "infractions" that we give ourselves a hard labor plea deal). SEC and NCAA gotta keep us in our place over the years.

Yep exactly.

[Commercecomet24]

Maybe it is not the coach that is, "a," 7 - 5 but the program that is, "a," 7 - 5.

This. The one thing that keeps me sane is I realize we are 6-8 win team pretty much every year with a chance to win 9-10 every so often no matter who the coach is. My prediction was 7 wins and a chance at 8 with a bowl win
and last night didn't change my expectations. It doesn't make me a "poor ol State we should know our place person" it makes me a realist who understands the way college football is setup. We've been to a bowl 12 years in a row and if you think it's that easy only 4 other sec teams have done that over the same time. If you'd told me when I was a kid we'd go to a bowl 12 years in a row and more id called you crazy. I want to win a championships as bad as anyone but college football is setup for only about 4-5 teams to have a real shot. Expanding the playoffs will help some.

[dawgday166]

This. The one thing that keeps me sane is I realize we are 6-8 win team pretty much every year with a chance to win 9-10 every so often no matter who the coach is. My prediction was 7 wins and a chance at 8 with a bowl win
and last night didn't change my expectations. It doesn't make me a "poor ol State we should know our place person" it makes me a realist who understands the way college football is setup. We've been to a bowl 12 years in a row and if you think it's that easy only 4 other sec teams have done that over the same time. If you'd told me when I was a kid we'd go to a bowl 12 years in a row and more id called you crazy. I want to win a championships as bad as anyone but college football is setup for only about 4-5 teams to have a real shot. Expanding the playoffs will help some.

Good post CC.

[Bdawg]

We need to figure out how to double the population of Mississippi, with sports fans who are unaffiliated in college football fandom, preferably people with money and high school age kids who want to stay close to home.

Combining colleges would be the only way for a MS school to become a power house. Too much talent divided in a poor, small population state.

[Commercecomet24]

Combining colleges would be the only way for a MS school to become a power house. Too much talent divided in a poor, small population state.

No doubt it's the only way any school in Mississippi could ever compete for a championship. To much splitting of talent

[dawgday166]

Combining colleges would be the only way for a MS school to become a power house. Too much talent divided in a poor, small population state.

No doubt it's the only way any school in Mississippi could ever compete for a championship. To much splitting of talent

Tru dat. Since that won't happen tho IMO the #1 thing we have to do is lock down the stud Dlinemen MS produces and/or find guys like Preston Smith and develop them. When we have our really good teams we have some studs on the Dline. And we don't have that this year.

[Bdawg]

No doubt it's the only way any school in Mississippi could ever compete for a championship. To much splitting of talent

It’s why LSU is LSU!

[Bdawg]

Tru dat. Since that won't happen tho IMO the #1 thing we have to do is lock down the stud Dlinemen MS produces and/or find guys like Preston Smith and develop them. When we have our really good teams we have some studs on the Dline. And we don't have that this year.

I know we try, and we get some every now and then. But Bama gets theirs, maybe LSU, and we fight with OM. NIL is about to kill us unless they hurry up and change the rules.

[Commercecomet24]

It’s why LSU is LSU!

Yep.

[R2Dawg]

Maybe it is not the coach that is, "a," 7 - 5 but the program that is, "a," 7 - 5.

I'd say program wise that is us as well as many others in the SECW. However, Leach is not a 7-5 performing coach yet.

Really when you look at it, winning 5 games a year is only winning what 1 SEC game. 6-6 is only winning 2 games. It ain't really rocket science if you just use the talent right here in the state of Miss and leverage your strengths.

But we are not really doing that and we will see less than our potential until we do.

[dawgday166]

I know we try, and we get some every now and then. But Bama gets theirs, maybe LSU, and we fight with OM. NIL is about to kill us unless they hurry up and change the rules.

Mullen had some strengths and weaknesses. When he wants to coach he can really coach, but he also takes games or parts of seasons off at times IMO. And of course he doesn't recruit well although he can make up for it with development of players. At FL he got too complacent and then slacked on development too.

But one of his strengths at MSU was he was able to get the top Dlinemen to come to State and they were better than even the couple we lost to Bama.

But I believe you're right about NIL ... that's most likely gonna severely hurt our ability to do that. But if I'm paying players at MSU ... my priority is Dline over all other positions.

[RiverCityDawg]

Maybe it is not the coach that is, "a," 7 - 5 but the program that is, "a," 7 - 5.

Bingo

[basedog]

This. The one thing that keeps me sane is I realize we are 6-8 win team pretty much every year with a chance to win 9-10 every so often no matter who the coach is. My prediction was 7 wins and a chance at 8 with a bowl win
and last night didn't change my expectations. It doesn't make me a "poor ol State we should know our place person" it makes me a realist who understands the way college football is setup. We've been to a bowl 12 years in a row and if you think it's that easy only 4 other sec teams have done that over the same time. If you'd told me when I was a kid we'd go to a bowl 12 years in a row and more id called you crazy. I want to win a championships as bad as anyone but college football is setup for only about 4-5 teams to have a real shot. Expanding the playoffs will help some.

Yep.