Bo Bounds: Would Hud Be 5-0 Right Now?

[Really Clark?]

QB - not great but we sat a 4 star Tyler Russell on the bench

Anthony Dixon led the SEC in rushing and played awhile in the NFL.
Christian Ducre

WR
Brandon McRae - 51 receptions 518 yards 3 TDs in previous year
Leon Berry
Chad Bumphis
Brandon Heavens
Chris Smith
Ricco Sanders

OL
Experienced Oline returning from previous year - similar to this year

1st Round LT - Derek Sherrod
JC Brigone - Junior
Craig Jenkins - Senior
Addison Lawrence - Sophomore
Quentin Saulsberry - played in NFL - Sophomore

Defense had a shit load of talent.

Kyle Love - Long time NFL starter at DT
Pernell McPhee - Long time NFL starter at DE
Josh Boyd - Freshman - Long time NFL starter
Fletcher Cox - Freshman - One of top DT in NFL
Jamar Chaney - NFL LB
Chris White - NFL LB - won Conerly Trophy
KJ Wright - One of top OLB Coverage in NFL
Charles Mitchell - played a little NFL
Jon Banks - Freshman year - played a good bit
Corey Broomfield - Freshman year - played a good bit

The program was still a dumpster fire, personnel wise you had some players but not necessarily players for the system, including at QB. And several of those players were true freshman and JUCO transfers. Talented but still very inexperienced and unknown how they would perform at the time.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I agree. He loses to Kentucky- a 5-0 Kentucky with wins over us, Florida, and South Carolina- and our fans have just totally left the bandwagon. It's odd.

It's because we didn't expect Kentucky and Florida to be as good as they are. We had counted on those wins without doubt.

[Tbonewannabe]

The program was still a dumpster fire, personnel wise you had some players but not necessarily players for the system, including at QB. And several of those players were true freshman and JUCO transfers. Talented but still very inexperienced and unknown how they would perform at the time.

And most of those guys were on the 9 win team in 2010.

[Really Clark?]

And most of those guys were on the 9 win team in 2010.

But they were not as good in 2009. You do have development in a year. Even if we had national caliber talent on the team in 2009 wouldn’t change the fact the program was in shambles before Mullen was hired. And I argue it makes the performance that Croom turned in even worse than how bad it was in 2008. It’s not just personnel

[Tbonewannabe]

But they were not as good in 2009. You do have development in a year. Even if we had national caliber talent on the team in 2009 wouldn’t change the fact the program was in shambles before Mullen was hired. And I argue it makes the performance that Croom turned in even worse than how bad it was in 2008. It’s not just personnel

According to everyone on the message boards, we should have won 10 games minimum with the personnel from 2017. I am just saying Mullen inherited a lot of talent that went 5-7. People want to act like Mullen started from scratch but he didn't. As inept as Croom was in running an offense, he did a good job fixing a lot of the problems that Jackie left.

As far as development, all of those guys except Boyd, Cox, Banks, and Broomfield were older players. It wasn't like all of the NFL talent was freshmen. Charles Mitchell was the only one out of that list that was a sophomore on defense so 2 Dline that was a Jr and Sr along with a Sr and 2 Jrs at LB. So Mullen inherited top half of the league in defensive talent because the average SEC defense in 2009 doesn't have that level of NFL talent.

Mullen also inherited an Oline that had starting experience along with one of the top LT in college football at the most important position on the Oline. Anyone think Eiland will be a 1st round pick?

[Really Clark?]

According to everyone on the message boards, we should have won 10 games minimum with the personnel from 2017. I am just saying Mullen inherited a lot of talent that went 5-7. People want to act like Mullen started from scratch but he didn't. As inept as Croom was in running an offense, he did a good job fixing a lot of the problems that Jackie left.

As far as development, all of those guys except Boyd, Cox, Banks, and Broomfield were older players. It wasn't like all of the NFL talent was freshmen. Charles Mitchell was the only one out of that list that was a sophomore on defense so 2 Dline that was a Jr and Sr along with a Sr and 2 Jrs at LB. So Mullen inherited top half of the league in defensive talent because the average SEC defense in 2009 doesn't have that level of NFL talent.

Mullen also inherited an Oline that had starting experience along with one of the top LT in college football at the most important position on the Oline. Anyone think Eiland will be a 1st round pick?

A dumpster fire program is a lot more than just the players. Changing the culture and mentality was more than what a lot of them ended up being talent wise. Whole lot more to it than that and Croom cleaned some things but the program as a whole was in bad shape. And we completely changed offensive philosophy 180 degrees from the previous staff. Even with that, a QB that fit better (or who pitches to Dixon) vs LSU and a horrendous bad call vs Houston away from 7-5 in his first year anyway

[Tbonewannabe]

A dumpster fire program is a lot more than just the players. Changing the culture and mentality was more than what a lot of them ended up being talent wise. Whole lot more to it than that and Croom cleaned some things but the program as a whole was in bad shape. And we completely changed offensive philosophy 180 degrees from the previous staff. Even with that, a QB that fit better (or who pitches to Dixon) vs LSU and a horrendous bad call vs Houston away from 7-5 in his first year anyway

I agree but I don't think Mullen had to change that much with the culture and mentality. Other than the team giving up against UM, they played hard but it was hard to win as bad as the offensive system was.

[msstate7]

they played hard but it was hard to win as bad as the offensive system was.

Sounds familiar lol

[Tbonewannabe]

Sounds familiar lol

Unfortunately it does sound familiar although I think the offensive failures are different. Croom's offense just wasn't effective in college. He tried to run a NFL offense and couldn't adapt it to college kids. We know JoeMo's offense works but we are not executing (according to coaches).

If your offense gives you wide open running lanes but the RB chooses the wrong hole or WR running wide open that drop the ball or the QB airmails it, that offense is working but not being executed. Is this the case and if so is JoMo asking too much of the players to be able to execute his offense at this learning stage? Fitz said that Key would understand it a lot better this time next year. It makes it sound like he is still having problems processing the offense. Hopefully Joe does something to help rather than let Fitz beat his head against a wall.

[Johnson85]

According to everyone on the message boards, we should have won 10 games minimum with the personnel from 2017. I am just saying Mullen inherited a lot of talent that went 5-7. People want to act like Mullen started from scratch but he didn't. As inept as Croom was in running an offense, he did a good job fixing a lot of the problems that Jackie left.

As far as development, all of those guys except Boyd, Cox, Banks, and Broomfield were older players. It wasn't like all of the NFL talent was freshmen. Charles Mitchell was the only one out of that list that was a sophomore on defense so 2 Dline that was a Jr and Sr along with a Sr and 2 Jrs at LB. So Mullen inherited top half of the league in defensive talent because the average SEC defense in 2009 doesn't have that level of NFL talent.

Mullen also inherited an Oline that had starting experience along with one of the top LT in college football at the most important position on the Oline. Anyone think Eiland will be a 1st round pick?

Mullen inherited a team that was poorly coached but that had some really good individual pieces but also massive holes at important positions.

That's not entirely different from what Crooms inherited either. The difference is that Mullen came in and could coach. Jamar Chaney made a comment to a reporter about how great it was to have a real coach. If a good coach had come in after Sherrill, how many of the culture problems could have been fixed without destroying the roster? It might not have made a lot of difference, but a lot of Crooms problem players might have resopnded to good coaching if they had gotten it.

Mullen also played a ridiculously tough schedule in 2009 without an SEC QB or free safety. And went 5-7 and was only a pair of stilts away from going 6-6.

[gravedigger]

The consensus with Bo and his producers was yes. He runs a power spread similar to Mullen. This team would be the most talented he's ever coached. He would run AW and KH hard. He wouldn't be asking Fitz to be Joe Montana.

They also thought Nutt, Miles, Freeze and Mullen would be 5-0 right now with this level of talent.

Can't say that I really disagreed with anything they said. It was about adapting to what you have. Bo doesn't understand the stubbornness coming out of Moorhead. Good coaches adapt and do it quickly.

Dear God make it stop

[DownwardDawg]

There is a difference in criticism and concern about production, and raving like loons about firing a guy 5 games into the season.
And throw Nutt and Freeze out of this conversation completely. Nutt has been out of the game 10 years and what he would have done with this type team is irrelevant .
Freeze never ran the ball with any real success. So what would he do with an offense that couldn't pass and had no top end WR talent?

And Hud. A guy that couldn't win at U La La would have us at 5-0? The Hud myth will never die. And Bobby Wallace should have replaced The Kang in '96.

Now Mullen, he probably does have us at 5-0, 4-1 at worst. Personally, I don't think he beats Kentucky - but that is arguable. What I do know, is that Dan would likely lose 1 of AU or LSU plus Bama, and possibly all 3. He couldn't beat teams with elite defenses, and he wouldn't do it with this team for the same reason that Moorhead has failed so far - elite defenses shut down our running game and force us to pass the ball and we don't have the talent on the OL, the QB or at WR to do that against top line defenses.

Has ULL ever had a better coach than Hud? You know, the guy that took them to 5 bowl games in a row and won 4 of those.
They had never been to a bowl game before Hud since becoming D1 in 1978. Some of you just don?t like Hud for whatever reason. And every time someone brings him up, some of you act like they are saying he?s the next Nick Saban. People just mention him as a candidate and realize that it would be awesome if he really did turn out to be a great coach because he would recruit well at State and he would never leave.

[Really Clark?]

Has ULL ever had a better coach than Hud? You know, the guy that took them to 5 bowl games in a row and won 4 of those.
They had never been to a bowl game before Hud since becoming D1 in 1978. Some of you just don?t like Hud for whatever reason. And every time someone brings him up, some of you act like they are saying he?s the next Nick Saban. People just mention him as a candidate and realize that it would be awesome if he really did turn out to be a great coach because he would recruit well at State and he would never leave.

The biggest problem with Hud is when the NCAA shut down Saunders (and Hud knew exactly what Saunders was about prior to hiring him) his program, the wins and talent level bottomed very quickly. It’s ludicrous to think about giving a failed Sunbelt coach with a stained rep the keys to a SEC program without him significantly rehabbing his profile for at least 3-4 years

[bulldawg28]

He deserves every bit of criticism he's gotten. I think he can be good here m, but at very least he completely monkey 17ed the evaluation of this team and it's players.

Feels like the new staff was extremely arrogant and didn't quite respect what Mullen did here

This. Totally disrespect to what Mullen has done. I realized in an interview when Fitz made a point to mention the Qb coach was correcting errors Mullen taught.

[TrapGame]

This. Totally disrespect to what Mullen has done. I realized in an interview when Fitz made a point to mention the Qb coach was correcting errors Mullen taught.

We can file this under: If it ain't broke...

[bulldawg28]

QB - not great but we sat a 4 star Tyler Russell on the bench

Anthony Dixon led the SEC in rushing and played awhile in the NFL.
Christian Ducre

WR
Brandon McRae - 51 receptions 518 yards 3 TDs in previous year
Leon Berry
Chad Bumphis
Brandon Heavens
Chris Smith
Ricco Sanders

OL
Experienced Oline returning from previous year - similar to this year

1st Round LT - Derek Sherrod
JC Brigone - Junior
Craig Jenkins - Senior
Addison Lawrence - Sophomore
Quentin Saulsberry - played in NFL - Sophomore

Defense had a shit load of talent.

Kyle Love - Long time NFL starter at DT
Pernell McPhee - Long time NFL starter at DE
Josh Boyd - Freshman - Long time NFL starter
Fletcher Cox - Freshman - One of top DT in NFL
Jamar Chaney - NFL LB
Chris White - NFL LB - won Conerly Trophy
KJ Wright - One of top OLB Coverage in NFL
Charles Mitchell - played a little NFL
Jon Banks - Freshman year - played a good bit
Corey Broomfield - Freshman year - played a good bit

You do know Mullen recruited and signed about 75% of those guys listed, right? He didn't inherit the majority of them.

[DownwardDawg]

The biggest problem with Hud is when the NCAA shut down Saunders (and Hud knew exactly what Saunders was about prior to hiring him) his program, the wins and talent level bottomed very quickly. It’s ludicrous to think about giving a failed Sunbelt coach with a stained rep the keys to a SEC program without him significantly rehabbing his profile for at least 3-4 years

I totally agree that Hud has a lot to prove before he should be hired as head coach of an SEC program.

[bulldawg28]

We can file this under: If it ain't broke...

Build on it!

[BuckyIsAB****]

The consensus with Bo and his producers was yes. He runs a power spread similar to Mullen. This team would be the most talented he's ever coached. He would run AW and KH hard. He wouldn't be asking Fitz to be Joe Montana.

They also thought Nutt, Miles, Freeze and Mullen would be 5-0 right now with this level of talent.

Can't say that I really disagreed with anything they said. It was about adapting to what you have. Bo doesn't understand the stubbornness coming out of Moorhead. Good coaches adapt and do it quickly.

I would probably have to agree. Hud maybe. Miles no and Nutt no. Freeze maybe. Mullen would be 5-0 right now for sure.

[Tbonewannabe]

You do know Mullen recruited and signed about 75% of those guys listed, right? He didn't inherit the majority of them.

You do know almost every recruit he signed was committed to Croom first right? The only person we signed that Mullen had recruited was Chad Bumphis, I believe, could be wrong.