WMD's State of MSU Football Address

[TrapGame]

1. I appreciate Dan now more than I did by the end. While I'd take him over what we have right now, I think it's generally a bad idea to go back. So no to Dan, too much water under that bridge.

2. Definitely could be a tough cycle on the coaching carousel this year. That said, we likely won't be after the same candidates as TAMU and certainly not Bama. They'll back up the Brinks for Dabo or someone like that. Wouldn't put it past them to try to poach Riley from USC for that matter. If we can't beat Arkansas to our coaching candidates, we need to agree that we don't have the stomach for semi-pro athletics and leave the SEC, probably the P4/5. The most important thing I said above was we have to start getting our hands dirty and treating this like big business, because it absolutely is. The money and the stakes are so big now we can't afford to do anything else.

#1: Yeah, I doubt Dan wants to come back to Starkville anyway.

#2: Prime to Bama. You heard it here first. This season at Colorado is his interview.

[Quaoarsking]

But when we hired Leach, we could've hired Prime. Let that sink in. Where would we be now if we were the ones to give Prime his first chance instead of Jackson State? But Cohen didn't have the vision or the stones to make that decision.

Can you imagine the meltdown if we had hired a high school OC to be our head coach?

[Quaoarsking]

Also, Rogers has 1 more year of eligibility left after this year, and theoretically he could have 2 more if he redshirts this season by playing in no more than 4 games.

If I didn't have any rooting interest in Mississippi State and was just his personal advisor, I'd recommend that he step away from the starting role (being available to fill in in 1 more game if we need him for whatever reason), and transfer to Tulsa or Western Kentucky and try to chase down all of Case Keenum's NCAA reccords in 2024 and 2025.

[Ranchdawg]

My philosophy and general ideas
#4 actually it?s been big business for a long time. What IMO has been a problem for as long as I have been following MSU 40yrs+ is that we try so dead gum to be squeaking clean in atheletics. This is a dirty business and morals kindness doesn?t get you crap. Bama has been cheating for a very long time, Auburn has been cheating for a long time, Ole Miss been doing it for a long time, LSU had a guy embezzling money from a children?s hospital and funneling it to the football team to gain wins on Saturday. Yes I?m not nieve enough to not believe we haven?t paid players.

It also runs deep in our fan base. A Andy of Mayberry belief. I was supposed to be all hospitality to that stupid LSU fan that sat in front of me and ruined my game day experience. The whole time I was sitting there looking at the back of his fat ass head I was remembering how god awful I was treated at the LSU stadium.

[Mjoelner34]

My philosophy and general ideas
#4 actually it?s been big business for a long time. What IMO has been a problem for as long as I have been following MSU 40yrs+ is that we try so dead gum to be squeaking clean in atheletics. This is a dirty business and morals kindness doesn?t get you crap. Bama has been cheating for a very long time, Auburn has been cheating for a long time, Ole Miss been doing it for a long time, LSU had a guy embezzling money from a children?s hospital and funneling it to the football team to gain wins on Saturday. Yes I?m not nieve enough to not believe we haven?t paid players.

It also runs deep in our fan base. A Andy of Mayberry belief. I was supposed to be all hospitality to that stupid LSU fan that sat in front of me and ruined my game day experience. The whole time I was sitting there looking at the back of his fat ass head I was remembering how god awful I was treated at the LSU stadium.

My first year at MSU was Felker's first year as coach. Speaking of going overboard, WAAAYY overboard with the hospitality, pregame our band used to stand in front of the visitor's section and play THEIR fight song for THEIR fans to get fired up at OUR HOME games. Somebody deserved a swift kick in the nuts for that decision but it was probably applauded in-house.

[DownwardDawg]

#1: Yeah, I doubt Dan wants to come back to Starkville anyway.

#2: Prime to Bama. You heard it here first. This season at Colorado is his interview.

I don't think Bama boosters would allow that to happen.

[THE Bruce Dickinson]

Arnett wasn't an up and coming hot name for any head coaching position. No power 5 team would have ever even considered him as HC and probably not many other D1 teams would have either.

[vindastra]

Am I off the line, if I say some big-time boosters want Will to start come hell or high-water?

[TrapGame]

I don't think Bama boosters would allow that to happen.

Winning makes strange bedfellows.

[Pancho]

The best players in the country will want to play for Deion. I'm watching to see if and when the QB son departs the college game. Deion might be up for bid at that point.

[Cowbell]

I would add, if Tulu, Creed, and JRob don?t get 8 touches each this next game, it is a total failure.

8 touches each? No way in **** is Will going to complete 24 passes that don't include running backs. Funniest thing I've read all day

[Coach34]

Also, Rogers has 1 more year of eligibility left after this year, and theoretically he could have 2 more if he redshirts this season by playing in no more than 4 games.

Rogers is going to be advised to go get some graduate courses at another University

[Coach34]

I don't think Bama boosters would allow that to happen.

I dont think Bama is ready to hire a black HC just yet. I may be wrong but I will certainly be surprised

[DownwardDawg]

I dont think Bama is ready to hire a black HC just yet. I may be wrong but I will certainly be surprised

Yeah. I would be very surprised.

[War Machine Dawg]

#1: Yeah, I doubt Dan wants to come back to Starkville anyway.

#2: Prime to Bama. You heard it here first. This season at Colorado is his interview.

The more I think about this, the more I think there's a good chance it happens. Say what you will about Bama, they want to win. They want it more than air to breathe. If they thought hiring Satan was the best chance at winning, they'd hire him and make sure the contract for their souls was ironclad.

[War Machine Dawg]

My philosophy and general ideas
#4 actually it?s been big business for a long time. What IMO has been a problem for as long as I have been following MSU 40yrs+ is that we try so dead gum to be squeaking clean in atheletics. This is a dirty business and morals kindness doesn?t get you crap. Bama has been cheating for a very long time, Auburn has been cheating for a long time, Ole Miss been doing it for a long time, LSU had a guy embezzling money from a children?s hospital and funneling it to the football team to gain wins on Saturday. Yes I?m not nieve enough to not believe we haven?t paid players.

It also runs deep in our fan base. A Andy of Mayberry belief. I was supposed to be all hospitality to that stupid LSU fan that sat in front of me and ruined my game day experience. The whole time I was sitting there looking at the back of his fat ass head I was remembering how god awful I was treated at the LSU stadium.

Don't get me wrong, I'm well aware CFB has been big business for a long time. That train left the station when TV started to become a bigger and bigger thing in the 90s. My point was that as long as there was the farcical fig leaf of amateurism as cover, a segment of our alumni/fans and a significant portion of our administration could delude themselves into thinking "It's just amateur athletics. We can do things 'the right way' and win. We can be the good guys. Eventually those mean cheaters like Bama and Northern Miss will pay. Look at SMU."

Now that NIL is here and players are getting checks, the fig leaf is gone. Between player payroll, benefits and the ever increasing coaching salaries and ridiculous buyouts where you have to pay losers to go, decision time is here for us and many other programs of our size and resources. Do we want to stay on the gravy train? If so, time to go all in and get dirty with the rest of the hogs. If not, have the guts to tell us, the alumni and fans who support all this, and pull out of the SEC at the very least. Probably need to pull out of the P4/5 altogether if we're not willing to get in the slop. But this half in, half out stuff isn't going to work. Realignment isn't going to care if you're a charter member of the conference or not if you're not pulling your weight.

[War Machine Dawg]

Am I off the line, if I say some big-time boosters want Will to start come hell or high-water?

Considering the way they meddle in every other aspect of our program, I'd be surprised if there WEREN'T Cigar Boyz who are in the Cult of Will and insisting he start.

[Mjoelner34]

Considering the way they meddle in every other aspect of our program, I'd be surprised if there WEREN'T Cigar Boyz who are in the Cult of Will and insisting he start.

Tying this to NIL, what is going to happen when someone who donates enough NIL to support several players steps in and starts dictating starting lineups or else they take their NIL money and go home? I've heard that supposedly already happened at Texas A&M.

[War Machine Dawg]

Tying this to NIL, what is going to happen when someone who donates enough NIL to support several players steps in and starts dictating starting lineups or else they take their NIL money and go home? I've heard that supposedly already happened at Texas A&M.

That's why NIL regulation is absolutely necessary. The money needs to be a donation to a general fund and from there blindly distributed. NIL contributors need zero knowledge of who gets their money to ensure they can't meddle that directly. But right now we've got the Wild West. Repeat: I'd be surprised if the Cigar Boyz of every big school weren't doing significant meddling thanks to unregulated NIL.

As for the hypothetical, that's a tough call. You need the booster and the NIL money, but you also need the coaches to have enough autonomy to tell the Cigar Boyz to go F themselves if they start meddling to the degree of attempting to dictate who gets PT and who doesn't. I'd lean towards telling the NIL booster to go away, because if you win, he'll be happy. It's when you're not winning that the meddling and such is a problem. But it takes serious stones to make that call. And it's really easy for me to say from behind my keyboard.

[maroonmania]

Our fans, including myself are just not dedicated enough to give the money needed to elevate our program.

That says it all.....and has been true as long as I began as MSU in 1961.

Not sure we have the money in our fanbase to keep up even if they were more dedicated. But the whole thing is totally broken. The same boosters who give Bulldog Club donations, buy season tickets and travel multiple weekends to see games and pay gas and large hotel bills shouldn't also be put upon to fund a player payroll to keep and get players when bidding against fanbases with exponentially more booster money to work with. Even IF NIL worked in reality like it was theoretically supposed to we would be behind the 8 ball but the fact that it is pure pay for play leaves us in a really bad way. I give to the Bulldog Initiative to try and help but I don't like it and never will. I really wish football and basketball had true minor leagues like baseball so that guys that have no interest in education and just need a way to get to the league and make money could do so without it having to run through an institution of higher learning for that to happen.