Why do people think we are going to suck this year?

[The Croom Diaries]

Putting my biases aside, if I was to take an objective look at our team as the magazine writers are trying to do - we are a team that will win 4-6 games unless we figure out a way to do something we haven't done under Mullen - beat really good teams. That's how hard our schedule looks RIGHT NOW. But things can change quick. Take a look at this time last year. We all had A&M marked down as a win and UPig as a loss. That changed quick. Ole Miss was a sure fire win and Tennessee and Auburn who swing games. Aubie and UT were awful last year and OM turned out to be good. Things will probably look a lot differently by the end of Sept. than they do now.

I agree with Shotgun, Mullen will make necessary changes. He got rid of Wilson like he needed to. I think he probably didn't get rid of Les because he's going to be calling the plays himself. Mullen isn't stupid.

Maybe the biggest intangible that is being created right now is leadership. We haven't had good leadership on this team in a while. Our best players have been quiet guys. We need Russell to step into his leadership role and guide this team. Coaches can set the tone, but we need leaders on the team to make it happen. That was the biggest problem the last month of the season last year. If you get 11 guys pulling in one direction instead of just one (see: A&M game) you stand a lot better chance.

[BHildreth3]

I'm saying that if Mullen goes 5-7 with:

5 starters returning on the OL- one a likely 1st rounder
A potential draft pick at QB
A potential draft pick at RB
A draft pick at DE- with 2 more future draft picks in the 2 deep
A 5-star and three 4-star DT's
A future draft pick at MLB
A likely draft pick at F/S

Then we need to figure out something- because our talent level will almost never be any higher than it will be in 2013

H U D S P E T H

[Westdawg]

biggest reason that so many are in the realm of thought that MSU will not be good this year is due to the "EGG" that we dropped the last few games of the year. terrible line of thought, but that is how it goes. I think that the key cog to last year's team was Fletcher Cox, and sadly, he left a year early. He was the vocal and physical leader, for the most part, of that group of seniors. Hope we have better leaders this year. .........along with the fact that our team caught on to the issues between Wilson and Mullen.

[Todd4State]

I think the feelings would be better if we didn't have Oklahoma State on the schedule and if we had gotten rid of Les.

It's cool for State fans on the Internet to be "rational" and of course that means showing a lack of optimism towards a game that we could possibly lose. I have heard rumors about Dan calling the plays as well as everyone else has- but the truth is we really don't know if that's the case until September. I certainly hope it's true because the rare occasions where Dan has called the plays, we moved the ball pretty well. I think it was Auburn 2011 when the head sets went out Dan called the plays and we almost erased a huge deficit.

[War Machine Dawg]

I'm in the camp that thinks we could absolutely be - and should be - a better team than last season, although I'm not sure the record will reflect that improvement.

Okie State in the opener is an absolute nightmare. Passing team vs a talented but relatively inexperienced secondary. And they're FAST at the skill positions. Granted, we should put up points on their D. But if Vegas has us as a 14-point dog, there's a reason. They're usually pretty good at the lines.

Bowling Green and Troy are teams that are more than capable of beating us if we try to sleepwalk through those games. We've beaten the teams we're supposed to beat under Mullen, and I look for that to continue, but it isn't outside the realm of possibility we could drop one of those.

We also play in the toughest division in football. Bama is a damn monster. LSU beats our ass every year. Auburn didn't lose all their talent overnight, and I look to see a big improvement for them with Malzahn running the show. We've never won in the state of Arkansas. aTm kept more guys than we thought and is on the way to becoming a juggernaut.

Freeze may be a snake oil salesman, but make no mistake, he's gotten the Bearz to buy into what he's selling. They play hard and with fire in the belly. We're still a better team, and we have them at home. Plus, I guaran-damn-tee Mullen is chomping at the bit to take them down a peg after dropping the last one. Nothing fires up a coach like losing to your rival. But you've also got to admit anything can, and usually does, happen in that game.

Another concern is whether or not Mullen will continue to beat the square peg into the round hole on offense. We've discussed it ad nauseum, and my opinion is well documented. I'm not looking for a big offensive improvement this season, for multiple reasons. On the flip side, I think the D has a chance to be special. A lot depends on how quickly our DBs develop and how our baby DLs play. But all indications coming out of spring look promising and give me reason for hope.

All in all, I think 8 wins is our absolute ceiling this season, but 6-7 is much more likely.

[maroonmania]

Look, I'm usually quite optimistic and this year even my optimism is waning. Its pretty simple, we lost 4 of our last 5 regular season games last year by an average of over 23 POINTS (17 points at OM was actually the closest). So its not just that we lost to the better competition we played last year it was that we weren't even competitive. Now we did replace Wilson and Smith with Turner and Townshend and we have Collins moving to DC but I really don't know what effect that will have until I see some games. And getting Gonzales for Brewster I am taking as a break even at this point.

And our schedule this year is a killer with OSU and SC replacing fairly easy wins last year that we had in South Alabama and TN. Then, I hear about all this talent we've amassed from some of you. Well yes, we've recruited decent over the last 4 years but the vast majority of our team are MS 3 stars. Other than maybe KY, every team in the SEC has recruited on paper as well are better than that on average. And we all know that the last 2 classes have been signficantly better than the 2 before that but those guys from the last 2 are still VERY young. I'm trying to be very cautiously optimistic but we are really going to have to step it up pretty good from how we played last year just to get to the 6 to 7 win type season. Much of it depends on how good Auburn and Arkansas are. I personally don't know how good either will be but I can assure you that BOTH will be better than last year when they were train wrecks.

[gravedigger]

I have a pretty simple answer for this. People are imagining we are playing this season starting the week after last season ended.

Now, could we play as poorly? sure. Could the difficulty in our opponents create a lower win total? sure. But other teams have changed from last season and so have we.

Ok State is going to be a challenge and a bigger one than Jackson State. But having good competition can help or hurt you based on how a team responds to adversity.

If we want to be an also ran for the rest of our lives in mediocre bowls we have the opportunity to choose that. I'd rather challenge it and risk the 5-7 season on the presumption that if we rise to a couple of those greater challenges, we have a shot at bigger things than we've ever known.

**** the pussified attitude of wanting decent bowls and considering the gator bowl our 'celing'. I want a shot at the big prize.

[Coach34]

Its pretty simple, we lost 4 of our last 5 regular season games last year by an average of over 23 POINTS (17 points at OM was actually the closest).

Then, I hear about all this talent we've amassed from some of you. Well yes, we've recruited decent over the last 4 years but the vast majority of our team are MS 3 stars.

1st comment response- what happened last year rarely means the same thing will happen the next season

2nd comment response:


From our 2-deep

Quay Evans, Denico Autry, Chris Jones (3)- 5 star

Tyler Russell, Robert Johnson, Damien Robinson, Micheal Carr, Dee Arrington, PJ Jones, Nick James, Caleb Eulls, AJ Jefferson, Richie Brown, Bennie Brown, Justin Cox, Will Redmond (13)- 4 star

We're playing with a little more than 3-star talent

[maroonmania]

1st comment response- what happened last year rarely means the same thing will happen the next season

2nd comment response:


From our 2-deep

Quay Evans, Denico Autry, Chris Jones (3)- 5 star

Tyler Russell, Robert Johnson, Damien Robinson, Micheal Carr, Dee Arrington, PJ Jones, Nick James, Caleb Eulls, AJ Jefferson, Richie Brown, Bennie Brown, Justin Cox, Will Redmond (13)- 4 star

We're playing with a little more than 3-star talent

Hey, nothing would make me happier than if we turn out to be significantly better than I think but I will just need to see it first. And maybe its a majority of 3 star talent and not vast majority but like I was saying most of the guys you listed that are above that level were recruited in the last 2 classes and several of the ones you listed that weren't and are older (Robinson, Eulls, Arrington) haven't really produced like 4 star talent at least so far.

[Coach34]

Hey, nothing would make me happier than if we turn out to be significantly better than I think but I will just need to see it first. And maybe its a majority of 3 star talent and not vast majority but like I was saying most of the guys you listed that are above that level were recruited in the last 2 classes and several of the ones you listed that weren't and are older (Robinson, Eulls, Arrington) haven't really produced like 4 star talent at least so far.

Well, there is always a trade-off. Gabe Jackson is listed as the 2nd best guard in the nation but only a 3-star...Bernadrick McKinney is a 2-star nobody from the Delta that is NFL bound. We can do this all day- but bottom line is we have good talent and shouldnt end up 5-7 this year

[HancockCountyDog]

2nd comment response:

From our 2-deep

Quay Evans, Denico Autry, Chris Jones (3)- 5 star

Tyler Russell, Robert Johnson, Damien Robinson, Micheal Carr, Dee Arrington, PJ Jones, Nick James, Caleb Eulls, AJ Jefferson, Richie Brown, Bennie Brown, Justin Cox, Will Redmond (13)- 4 star

We're playing with a little more than 3-star talent

Couldn't have said it better myself, this team is way more talented then it is being given credit for.

[ShotgunDawg]

1st comment response- what happened last year rarely means the same thing will happen the next season

2nd comment response:


From our 2-deep

Quay Evans, Denico Autry, Chris Jones (3)- 5 star

Tyler Russell, Robert Johnson, Damien Robinson, Micheal Carr, Dee Arrington, PJ Jones, Nick James, Caleb Eulls, AJ Jefferson, Richie Brown, Bennie Brown, Justin Cox, Will Redmond (13)- 4 star

We're playing with a little more than 3-star talent

Morrow was 4 star as well. (14 4 stars) I know he hasn't played like, but Alabama has 4 & 5 stars that don't play like it either. They just have more, and thus we don't ever hear about it.

[Political Hack]

we play five teams that could make a national title run. It's not how good we are, it's how hard our schedule is that has people thinking between 5-7 wins. Vegas has our win total at 5.5 and 14 point dog to Okie State. Scheduling them was stupid given how difficult the rest of our schedule is.

[mic]

Yeah Vegas is usually pretty close when it comes to making the lines.. But the best time to get Vegas and win money is the first 2 weeks of the football season. Not saying we win the game against OSU and I think we have a great shot, but that line to me is way too high
Like Coach said earlier this is a OSU team that got their ASS handed to them by Zona last year.. This isn't ur SEC type powerhouse team.. When is the last time a Bama , Lsu, Fla, USCe, UGA, went outside the conference and got hammered like that.. Yeah they score a shit load of points against very bad defenses but they gave up 20+ points on a weekly basis. So maybe that offense isn't in mid season form (see texas am) and we get out of there with a HUGE W...

[codeDawg]

Then we need to figure out something- because our talent level will almost never be any higher than it will be in 2013

I think a point that needs to be added is that not only do we have way more talent than we have had in the past, a majority of our Juniors would have been Seniors in the past years.

Let me restate this, we actually have a HUGE Sr. class playing as Jr.'s this year. There is a lot of experience on this team. We will really see the

On top of that, there is a lot of talent we did not see on the field last year because they were RS. The Browns are impact examples of that.

[Coach34]

Yeah Vegas is usually pretty close when it comes to making the lines

In 9 of our 13 games last year, the Vegas line was off by 8 or more points- 10 or more points in 6 of them. Vegas did a shitty job on us last season

[Raytoraid83]

Speaking of people that think we're gonna suck, ESPN rated our d-line as 10th best in the SEC (doesn't even mention the signing of Chris Jones) and has Ole Miss line that is basically one deep at every spot on the line ranked 5th (and of course praises the signing of nkemdichie)

[Coach34]

Speaking of people that think we're gonna suck, ESPN rated our d-line as 10th best in the SEC (doesn't even mention the signing of Chris Jones) and has Ole Miss line that is basically one deep at every spot on the line ranked 5th (and of course praises the signing of nkemdichie)

Our DL has to prove itself- and I'm confident it will

With Ward, Goss, Johnson, Kimdeechy, Hooks...their DL should be pretty good too

[ShotgunDawg]

Speaking of people that think we're gonna suck, ESPN rated our d-line as 10th best in the SEC (doesn't even mention the signing of Chris Jones) and has Ole Miss line that is basically one deep at every spot on the line ranked 5th (and of course praises the signing of nkemdichie)

Ive noticed this as well for the media. For some reason NK and Carl Lawson at Auburn get all this love from the media about how they are going to be so good this year, yet Jones was ranked right there with him, and he is already forgotten about. It blows my mind, they have already forgotten about him.

[Political Hack]

Yeah Vegas is usually pretty close when it comes to making the lines.. But the best time to get Vegas and win money is the first 2 weeks of the football season. Not saying we win the game against OSU and I think we have a great shot, but that line to me is way too high
Like Coach said earlier this is a OSU team that got their ASS handed to them by Zona last year.. This isn't ur SEC type powerhouse team.. When is the last time a Bama , Lsu, Fla, USCe, UGA, went outside the conference and got hammered like that.. Yeah they score a shit load of points against very bad defenses but they gave up 20+ points on a weekly basis. So maybe that offense isn't in mid season form (see texas am) and we get out of there with a HUGE W...

This is how I felt going into the NorthWestern game last year. I'm not saying I agree with it, but I can understand why other people can see 5-6 wins being our ceiling. The press always under estimates us and when they do it drastically is usually when we step up and punch people in the mouth. If we open 3-0, we'll set the world on fire. If we open 1-2, we're screwed and I'll be placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the grasshopper.

The underlying politics to all of this is enough to make someone sick. There's still some people with heavy sway that don't want a Yankee running the show and Strick has been made well aware of that. He pissed a lot of people off with the basketball moves and knows he's going to have to do something to keep the $ happy now. In my opinion CDM is being set up for failure so we can go hire the golden child... who I love to death... but there's no excuse for sending this staff on mission impossible. Basically Dan is being told "be the best" because we can go hire a Mississippi guy who can win at least 6-7 games a year. Some people may think that's ok. However, I think we've been a coaching graveyard for decades and move like this would only reconstitute that legacy.