#16 in CFP poll

[Todd4State]

He's also missing the big picture that the SEC - despite all the teams who beat us being "trash" and the teams we beat being "paper tigers" - is hands down recognized as the most difficult league with the most talent. And that talent spreads pretty deep throughout the league. Any one of Bama, UGA, LSU, KY, UF, MSU, Auburn, or A&M would be at worst a 1 loss team in any other conference in the country right now. And the CFP committee realizes that.

What that depth of talent leads to is that right now - outside of Bama - on any given Saturday, any SEC team can lose in conference play. It's why LSU can look like "trash" against UF (and to a degree against MSU) and then blow the doors off of UGA. It's why you can't walk into Lexington and just think you are going to win because you beat Kentucky by 30 last year. It's why I wouldn't be shocked at all to see LSU lose to Arkansas this weekend, or see Ole Miss beat A&M this weekend and then lose to Vandy the next.

And, yes, I'm disappointed that we lost those 3 games that were winnable games. I'm disappointed that we got caught in transition year unexpectedly. I'm disappointed that the known deficiencies that we have (QB consistency, OL pass blocking, WR talent) had to take a step back in learning an entirely new system, instead of being able to progress in a system they knew.

But, the fact that after all of this the people who define football respect in this country through their poll still have us at #16 helps me understand that we have climbed a huge, HUGE, hurdle in public perception about where MSU is as a program and where we are in the pecking order of the SEC. Has there ever been a 3 loss MSU team given this much respect at this point in the season? Have we ever been able to say "after we take that 4th loss at Bama we will probably still be ranked"? No. Even with out best player in history, they dropped us like a bad habit after 2 losses and wrote us off as "same old MSU". We take care of business the rest of this season, and we will be set up to begin to take the next step.

Well said and great point about how MSU is perceived now. Of course, back in the 1990's I think Jackie hurt our perception a little bit because the media and NCAA did not like him. I remember 1999 and it almost seemed like the media hated that we kept winning. The perception aspect is where the bowl streak has helped us immensely. People in the CFB industry are now used to us being in not only bowls- but NYD bowls in Florida. And now we are doing it with multiple different coaches- which means it isn't a situation where we have to have an elite coach to win 6-8 games a year.

Maybe, maybe not. You predicted the future is just wrong with a new coach. Time will tell as Joe and his staff may be much better next year.

This. There is a reason why they play the games. Sometimes it works out- personally I remember expecting 1998 and 2014 to be great seasons and they were. Sometimes it doesn't- this year. And sometimes we get surprised- I remember expecting 1999 to be a down year and we actually won more games than we did in 1998 with a team that IMO was less talented than the 1998 team.

Dan never did anything like this year. We were more talented than 10 teams on our schedule and we as talented as an 11th.

Had we had "normal" growing pains, we'd be ten win team this year just because our schedule set up so perfectly. Instead we shit the bed. Even if it was more do to the shortcomings of our players rather than their coaching, it was still a failure on their part to not get a more simplified plan in place, which is all that would have been necessary to beat UK or UF.

That said, it's past and no sense in not enjoying a still pretty good season. And the bedshitting doesn't mean Moorhead won't be good long term. But there's also no sense in pretending it wasn't a bedshitting. We shit the bed in a season where the stars were aligned for us (other than the coaching change) in a way that they probably won't be again until after Saban is gone. It is what it is.

I disagree. 2015 with our best player in school history immediately comes to mind. Should have beaten LSU that year, lost on the road to A&M without Manziel, had the deer in a headlights special against Alabama including running Holloway up the middle against Saban, and the Egg Bowl where Dan checked out and even after the other three losses had the chance to go to the Sugar Bowl and pretty much blew it. Went from the Sugar Bowl to the Belk Bowl. You could say the same thing about last year too. 2011 was a step back from 2010 and we actually had to win the Egg Bowl that year to go to a bowl.

The biggest difference is the reason for bedshitting this year is mainly due to transition from one staff to another plus some glaring deficiencies on offense that appear to have taken about half the season to correct. And the fact that we have improved at QB, OL, and WR is something I view as a positive. Whereas with Dan the bedshitting was due to his selfishness and being hardheaded. And if things play out the way they are projected both will end up with 8 win seasons and a nice bowl.