Considering our fans (hating on players), and Farmdog's post on outside perception...

[J-Dawg]

Another perspective slash perception moment.

If you never believe/trust/have faith in/etc. yourself, then no one else will either. Outsiders and smartasses will say you are a sunshine pumper, but there is a difference. It IS possible to have pride/optimism while still maintaining rationalization.

Pride isn't always predicting 12-0 for your team. Pride IS never backing down when outsiders and smartasses start ribbing you/your school.

While on this subject, we have way too many OM apologists in our fanbase. I understand alot of what we do, ESPECIALLY in recruiting, is directly tied to them being our biggest rival, but a large majority of our fanbase always uses the "OM Caveat" when discussing MSU. A good buddy of mine and I were talking recruiting this past January. Our class, in particular. We had no intention of discussing any other school, so I start talking about a few of our recruits. His response "Yeah, they are good, but did you see that class OM has?" Sure, it seems innocent enough, but to me, that shows that a faction of our fanbase is always worried about them and is always comparing MSU to them. I understand discussing your rival when the conversation calls for it, but sometimes its obvious that we have man fans who are self-conscious about comparing us to OM.... basically always worrying how we stack up against them. It's like we are always trying to compare to THEM. They should be comparing to us. We have the better overall athletics program, historically. Educationally, the schools are about par. Literally everything else (town, campus, student body) is STRICTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. That's why I never put any stock into publications ranking opinionated things.

Sorry for the rant. Hope it makes sense. And before anyone refutes me, I realize that we have to keep tabs on them because we battle for everything, but there is a not-so-fine line between being aware and being self-conscious.

[Pollodawg]

Another perspective slash perception moment.

If you never believe/trust/have faith in/etc. yourself, then no one else will either. Outsiders and smartasses will say you are a sunshine pumper, but there is a difference. It IS possible to have pride/optimism while still maintaining rationalization.

Pride isn't always predicting 12-0 for your team. Pride IS never backing down when outsiders and smartasses start ribbing you/your school.

While on this subject, we have way too many OM apologists in our fanbase. I understand alot of what we do, ESPECIALLY in recruiting, is directly tied to them being our biggest rival, but a large majority of our fanbase always uses the "OM Caveat" when discussing MSU. A good buddy of mine and I were talking recruiting this past January. Our class, in particular. We had no intention of discussing any other school, so I start talking about a few of our recruits. His response "Yeah, they are good, but did you see that class OM has?" Sure, it seems innocent enough, but to me, that shows that a faction of our fanbase is always worried about them and is always comparing MSU to them. I understand discussing your rival when the conversation calls for it, but sometimes its obvious that we have man fans who are self-conscious about comparing us to OM.... basically always worrying how we stack up against them. It's like we are always trying to compare to THEM. They should be comparing to us. We have the better overall athletics program, historically. Educationally, the schools are about par. Literally everything else (town, campus, student body) is STRICTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. That's why I never put any stock into publications ranking opinionated things.

Sorry for the rant. Hope it makes sense. And before anyone refutes me, I realize that we have to keep tabs on them because we battle for everything, but there is a not-so-fine line between being aware and being self-conscious.

This. We needs some serious duct tape for our, "The sky is falling" fans every time OM lands a good recruit or wins a game. I know they're our rivals, but talking them more than we talk about our own damned team does us no good. We've got to plug MSU. If we don't, you can be damned sure no one else will.

[J-Dawg]

It's a shame that in Columbus, there are Crimson and "A's" everyfreakin' where....

THIS too. East MS is littered with Alabama "A"s just like South Mississippi from Vicksburg down the river and the coast are littered with LSU stickers. In which I'd say confidently that 85% of those fans couldn't give you directions to the respective stadiums without looking at Google Maps.

We've got to win our own state first. We've made some progress in Dan's tenure. Not enough, though. We blast Bama for their sidewalk fans, but in reality, we need them too.

[Farmdawg]

I definitely used to have the same feeling about sidewalk fans....but I'm starting to change my mind and realize that they are the ones that help make the popular schools popular nationally.

[Goat Holder]

Another perspective slash perception moment.

If you never believe/trust/have faith in/etc. yourself, then no one else will either. Outsiders and smartasses will say you are a sunshine pumper, but there is a difference. It IS possible to have pride/optimism while still maintaining rationalization.

Pride isn't always predicting 12-0 for your team. Pride IS never backing down when outsiders and smartasses start ribbing you/your school.

While on this subject, we have way too many OM apologists in our fanbase. I understand alot of what we do, ESPECIALLY in recruiting, is directly tied to them being our biggest rival, but a large majority of our fanbase always uses the "OM Caveat" when discussing MSU. A good buddy of mine and I were talking recruiting this past January. Our class, in particular. We had no intention of discussing any other school, so I start talking about a few of our recruits. His response "Yeah, they are good, but did you see that class OM has?" Sure, it seems innocent enough, but to me, that shows that a faction of our fanbase is always worried about them and is always comparing MSU to them. I understand discussing your rival when the conversation calls for it, but sometimes its obvious that we have man fans who are self-conscious about comparing us to OM.... basically always worrying how we stack up against them. It's like we are always trying to compare to THEM. They should be comparing to us. We have the better overall athletics program, historically. Educationally, the schools are about par. Literally everything else (town, campus, student body) is STRICTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. That's why I never put any stock into publications ranking opinionated things.

Sorry for the rant. Hope it makes sense. And before anyone refutes me, I realize that we have to keep tabs on them because we battle for everything, but there is a not-so-fine line between being aware and being self-conscious.

+100000000

[Jack Lambert]

I agree with this. I mean everyone knows the differences between North Carolina and North Carolina State. It's because NC has a great Basketball traditions. I get asked all the time in my travels which school is Ole Miss.

[Barking 13]

Another perspective slash perception moment.

If you never believe/trust/have faith in/etc. yourself, then no one else will either. Outsiders and smartasses will say you are a sunshine pumper, but there is a difference. It IS possible to have pride/optimism while still maintaining rationalization.

Pride isn't always predicting 12-0 for your team. Pride IS never backing down when outsiders and smartasses start ribbing you/your school.

While on this subject, we have way too many OM apologists in our fanbase. I understand alot of what we do, ESPECIALLY in recruiting, is directly tied to them being our biggest rival, but a large majority of our fanbase always uses the "OM Caveat" when discussing MSU. A good buddy of mine and I were talking recruiting this past January. Our class, in particular. We had no intention of discussing any other school, so I start talking about a few of our recruits. His response "Yeah, they are good, but did you see that class OM has?" Sure, it seems innocent enough, but to me, that shows that a faction of our fanbase is always worried about them and is always comparing MSU to them. I understand discussing your rival when the conversation calls for it, but sometimes its obvious that we have man fans who are self-conscious about comparing us to OM.... basically always worrying how we stack up against them. It's like we are always trying to compare to THEM. They should be comparing to us. We have the better overall athletics program, historically. Educationally, the schools are about par. Literally everything else (town, campus, student body) is STRICTLY PERSONAL PREFERENCE. That's why I never put any stock into publications ranking opinionated things.

Sorry for the rant. Hope it makes sense. And before anyone refutes me, I realize that we have to keep tabs on them because we battle for everything, but there is a not-so-fine line between being aware and being self-conscious.

As for recruiting day, when the OM folks start cackling about they got this and that, top 10 yada yada, and ask WHAT we got.. My response is, we got who we wanted to fit OUR needs... it's not a beauty pageant

[SnakePlissken]

It is funny how here in SC most everybody wears burgundy or orange. Sadly most of them don't know anything about the team or even who they are playing week to week, they just wear it proudly day in and day out cause its the cool thing to do. I feel we are just way behind in the "coolness" factor of wearing our colors and supporting our school. It's improving, just not fast enough.

One of the side effects of having 15 different uniforms is that we are diluting the school's colors and can't really wear just maroon any longer. We're grey now, gold now, black now, silver now, etc. Yes, that is an exaggeration but the point is that those folks know their school color is burgundy (SC) and orange (Clemson). They don't have to worry if their colors of the week are silver, gold, grey, or some new color someone with photoshop skillz has created as a a new uniform and color of the week.