Quote Originally Posted by HoopsDawg View Post
Mullen inherited 12 nfl players from Croom. Mullen has signed 1 nfl player on his own, Vick Ballard.

False. Starting with the 2009 class, those players may have "committed" to Croom, but they signed on the dotted line, and were thusly coached their entire careers, by Mullen and Co.

Johnthan Banks
Fletcher Cox
Chris White (scout)
Pernell McPhee
Cam Lawrence (scout)
Darius Slay (twice
Gabe Jackson (will be)

They had every opportunity to jump ship after our coaching change, yet Mullen must have convinced them to stick around. Not only that, McPhee, Bump and Slay committed after the coaching change. These guys didn't as much step on a practice field with Croom, so please quit attributing their successes to him. It's not a good argument in your favor.

Future NFL players recruited by Mullen

Dillon Day (possibly)
Malcolm Johnson (possibly)
Jameon Lewis (possibly)
Bernardrick McKinney (High pick possibly)
Preston Smith (possibly)

Thats not even looking at the 2012 and 2013 classes that have barely had time to produce, yet were more talented than 2010 and 2011 for us.


Look, I'm firmly off the Mullen train unless he completely "wow's" us and turns it around. However, I'm also a realist. As a positive, he has recruited over-looked guys extremely well. He is undoubtedly a good eye for talent. As with our on the field play, his biggest positive that he has provided us is this: He has raised our floor. Our "base" or "foundation" of role players is much better than it was before. We've gotten a few five starts and several four stars thrown in, especially last year. Now, this seasons class is more akin to the 2010 class as it stands today. Also, a negative is that outside maybe Shumpert or Fred Ross, he hasn't recruited a single player that I'd consider "elite offensive talent" which is not good for an offensive coach. If you look at our recruiting, most of our stars have been on the defensive side.

Plain and simple fact is that our rival's successes on the recruiting trail have complicated the matter.

Mullen is not a terrible recruiter if you look at his classes from an unbiased perspective. However, he isn't what I'd consider "good" either. He's decent, at best. The big negative is that decent is good for bottom 3 in our conference, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters. We've got to find someone, whether it be new HC or an awesome assistant, or both, that can help us climb the ladder and land elite offensive talent to match the rest of our peers in the SEC. It's just the sad truth of playing in such a powerhouse conference. If we were to average a class in the 20s or 30s in a lesser conference we'd be looking at this from the other side.