How can fans feel optimistic about our Athletic Department?

[Goldendawg]

I agree w this. Our fans remember the one good year or good stretch of history in All sports and use it as a baseline. Which is nuts. Our most consistent sport on the men's side has been........ tennis and it's not even close. Matt Roberts has done an amazing job. And fact is, he would have left us, except he had a buyout that made it impossible for Arkansas to steal him from us.

Where does tennis rank in popularity and $ made, if any?*****. BTW, unless it has changed the last two years college hockey is #3 in revenue and baseball is #4 nationally.

[Todd4State]

Yeah we in a lull right now. Selmon just seems like the most unexciting AD hire in a long time. We need some positive energy at MSU right now. Baseball host for one and football to at least be competitive and go bowling next year.

I don't really get this. I don't want the AD to be exciting. I just want them to do a good job. I think Selmon is a major upgrade over Cohen and I like that he has a football background. To me, with football it's just a matter of time. Our schedule flips in 2026 where we have Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and South Carolina which are all comparable programs to us. And who knows what is going to happen and Alabama and Auburn in 2026 and 2027? It's very possible that both could be going through coaching changes at some point the next two years. Ole Miss is a toss up and as awful as we have been the past two years neither game was a blowout. LSU is starting to lose patience with Kelly as well.

To me, the biggest thing we need to do this year is improve and show some stability. We have a whole new team basically and if the defense improves we could very easily win 5-6 games. If it doesn't improve Lebby is going to have to get rid of Hutzler.

Basketball is basically a lock for the Big Dance and baseball so far looks promising. And we have other minor sports like women's soccer, tennis, and women's basketball which seem to be doing pretty well.

[Gypsy_RoadDawg]

Being an early '70's State alum and fan for longer, I couldn't agree more!! Being a Bulldog fan is not for the faint of heart!!

Isn't that the truth. I've been a Bulldog fan since the early 60's.

[R2Dawg]

I don't really get this. I don't want the AD to be exciting. I just want them to do a good job. I think Selmon is a major upgrade over Cohen and I like that he has a football background. To me, with football it's just a matter of time. Our schedule flips in 2026 where we have Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and South Carolina which are all comparable programs to us. And who knows what is going to happen and Alabama and Auburn in 2026 and 2027? It's very possible that both could be going through coaching changes at some point the next two years. Ole Miss is a toss up and as awful as we have been the past two years neither game was a blowout. LSU is starting to lose patience with Kelly as well.

To me, the biggest thing we need to do this year is improve and show some stability. We have a whole new team basically and if the defense improves we could very easily win 5-6 games. If it doesn't improve Lebby is going to have to get rid of Hutzler.

Basketball is basically a lock for the Big Dance and baseball so far looks promising. And we have other minor sports like women's soccer, tennis, and women's basketball which seem to be doing pretty well.

By exciting I mean, you see a commitment that he is going to get us winning. He is willing to challenge and take action to get you there. Greg Byrne for example. Exciting don't mean he entertains us with BS marketing stuff all the time. Give us some action to give fan base some hope. I just see nothing, ever. That is what I mean.

Baseball is holding its on but like last year. I'd like to seen more from Selmon lobbying for us to host as we should have. Instead I didn't see anything.

We lose our women's soccer coach, bout to lose our WBB coach, football is a circus right now, and probably bout to lose Jans. I know two of these haven't happened yet. Agree Cohen never should have been AD. I just haven't seen Selmon deliver much so far. Still waiting.

[Todd4State]

By exciting I mean, you see a commitment that he is going to get us winning. He is willing to challenge and take action to get you there. Greg Byrne for example. Exciting don't mean he entertains us with BS marketing stuff all the time. Give us some action to give fan base some hope. I just see nothing, ever. That is what I mean.

Baseball is holding its on but like last year. I'd like to seen more from Selmon lobbying for us to host as we should have. Instead I didn't see anything.

We lose our women's soccer coach, bout to lose our WBB coach, football is a circus right now, and probably bout to lose Jans. I know two of these haven't happened yet. Agree Cohen never should have been AD. I just haven't seen Selmon deliver much so far. Still waiting.

I'm not sure that Byrne was really normal for an AD. I know he had a lot of connections to people on SixPack back in the day so that caused things to get out from time to time whether Byrne wanted it to or not.

With football and Dan I don't think things really took off as far as promotion goes until we beat Ole Miss in 2009.

A lot of baseball people and fans questioned hiring Cohen as baseball coach. Especially the first two years and especially given how it went down with Polk trying to force Raffo in at head coach.

[Dawgface]

Football died with NIL
Basketball is making their 3rd straight NCAA Tourney. Its literally is as good a place as any time in our history
Baseball finally won a Natty in 2021 and recruiting has leveled out now after all the coaching turnover. We probably have the best collection of Freshmen pitchers in the country and will be in another Regional come June.

It's not a bad time to be a State fan at all.

For many and probably most football is the engine that drives the fan base. Yeah you have diehard basketball and baseball fans. But a sucking football program hurts the enthusiasm of any fan base. I don?t disagree that NIL has killed it.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Also we got a late start in the NIL game but we're catching up there. Add in Leach passing away, our boosters being idiots and putting their friends on the staff, and unfavorable scheduling from the SEC and we get what we get.

This was the killer. Cohen and his crony Van Horn decided that they were going to funnel NIL money to the baseball team and then Van Horn had a mental breakdown so we were 6-8 months into NIL being a thing and we had no plan. Thankfully Charlie Winfield stepped to the plate and got us rowing in the right direction.

I have actually come around on Leach in regards to NIL. I don't necessarily know that he hated it, I just don't think Cohen ever explained it to him because he thought Leach's system could take table scraps and go 8-4. I think had it been explained to him and how we could use it, he would've been all for it. And it seems like he was there at the end.

[StarkVegasSteve]

By exciting I mean, you see a commitment that he is going to get us winning. He is willing to challenge and take action to get you there. Greg Byrne for example. Exciting don't mean he entertains us with BS marketing stuff all the time. Give us some action to give fan base some hope. I just see nothing, ever. That is what I mean.

Baseball is holding its on but like last year. I'd like to seen more from Selmon lobbying for us to host as we should have. Instead I didn't see anything.

We lose our women's soccer coach, bout to lose our WBB coach, football is a circus right now, and probably bout to lose Jans. I know two of these haven't happened yet. Agree Cohen never should have been AD. I just haven't seen Selmon deliver much so far. Still waiting.

1. Selmon literally released a University master plan and gave everyone the LED lights they had been clamoring for. I think that's taking action.

2. Selmon doesn't have the baseball contacts that Cohen did. He was lobbying though, it just didn't matter. The committee made up their mind before the SECT that we were not hosting, no matter what happened. We could've won it and still wouldn't have hosted.

3. If we lose Purcell, I think half the fanbase would celebrate honestly. Football is a circus because a terrible hire was pushed by a rogue group of Madison Co. boosters during an unheard of tragedy. We're not losing Jans. Jans and Selmon are actually pretty close.

[MoreCowbell]

Meh that is your opinion. Theres really nothing factual backing that up. We have enough money to be a perennial 7-5 to 9-3 team if we have the right staff in place.

We have way more than just money working against us

[Coursesuper]

We have way more than just money working against us

You will never open their eyes to this fact.

[Coach34]

We have way more than just money working against us

This is very true. We have had numerous recruits/portals take less money than we offered in every sport to go to other schools.