Quote Originally Posted by BB30 View Post
I think you are letting nostalgia get in the way a bit. Jackie did some great things for us and 98-2000 was an awesome run. But, the SEC west was down significantly from where it was during Dan's time here. LSU was a tick above average and Bama was in a funk as well for the most part.

Realistically we should have won the west a couple of times during that time but we would drop a game here and there that we shouldn't have.

Mullen's teams played with much more discipline in a much tougher SEC west.
The West wasn't down in 2014? LSU, Texas A&M, and Auburn all finished 8-5. Arkansas went 7-6.

Remember when Jackie was our coach during the late 1990's teams played an 11 game schedule with the 12th becoming an OOC game against a FCS team or a lower level D-I team so we can assume one more win for each of these teams to make it an apples to apples comparison.

1998- Lost on the road to a 7 win Kentucky team which would be the equivalent of an 8 win team today. OSU finished 5-6 and probably makes a bowl in this era, and LSU finished 4-7 the equivalent of 5-7. We beat a 7-5 Alabama team which with Shaun Alexander which would be equivalent of the teams we beat in 2014. Arkansas won 9 games that year with the SEC West on the line. Dan never did that. Ever. Then beat a 7 win Ole Miss team on the road which again was the equivalent of beating an 8 win SEC West team in 2014.

1999- It's not Jackie's fault that our league schedule was down. We for the most part won against the teams we played. Beating an 8 win Ole Miss team would have been like beating a 9 win team in 2014- making it better than any of our wins in 2014. We also had to play our two most difficult teams on the road that year. Dan did the same in 2014 with the same results. Except that Jackie finished the year much better and didn't try to leave. Also three of our opponents that year- Memphis, Oklahoma State, and Auburn would be bowl teams in this era and Kentucky did make a bowl that year.

2000- I'm only bringing this up because you brought it up. We beat both the SEC East and West champion this year. Dan never did. This era doesn't even include the other times Jackie beat the SEC East or West champ either- 1992 Florida, 1996 Alabama, and 1997 Auburn.

Dan's entire career at MSU was beating people he was supposed to beat and very rarely getting upset. Yes, Jackie had a few bad losses but in that era there was not as big of a gap between the SEC and other conferences like there is now. He also won the SEC West and had more great wins throughout his career than Dan did.

Neither coach was perfect- Jackie's QB development was pitiful and the on the field personal fouls drove me nuts. He used the exact same excuse to start Dontae Walker over Justin Griffith as Dan did to start Holloway over Aeris. Between the two- I'm picking Jackie. If for no other reason he never neglected coaching our team while trying to find a "better" situation.

I hope I like Leach better than both of them.