Quote Originally Posted by Todd4State View Post
No one is saying that Croom was a good coach. But he did leave Dan a team with good talent for when he took over. Also, in 2010 our administration wised up and for the first time in MSU history scheduled four winnable opponents rather than Georgia Tech and West Virginia in the same season plus Houston with Art Briles. That schedule affected the performance of both Croom and it affected Dan in 2009 as well. No question in my mind we go bowling with an easier OOC schedule.

I do think it is debatable that Dan was our best ever. Jackie is definitely in the debate. He had more top 25 wins, more wins over teams that won the East/West, and won a SEC Championship Game. His 1999 team finished basically with the same rankings as Dan's 2014 team. His last three years were awful but LT let that get out of hand and should have stepped in earlier.

Bob Tyler should be in the discussion as well. Two 9 win seasons on the field and built the 1980 team basically.
Thats just insane. It's not even debatable. And Jackie is my favorite State coach. Jackie coached in an easier SEC than Mullen and still didnt do as well.

Under Jackie- we lost to schools like Memphis and Kentucky regularly. Mullen made that rare and unexpected. Thats the difference.