Is SECN TRying to Get Bielema Fired?

[lamont]

UPig returns 20/22 on their defensive 2 deep. They were young last year and will be improved on D. Offensively, the thought is that Bert has recruited pretty well on the OL and that Little Brother will be a decent QB. They will play physical and not ask him to sling it all night- even though they return all their top WR's.

I don't think they can win 9- but they could be a solid football team

[Johnson85]

6-6 will be a good year for them. They are going to be awful in conference. They have a brutal schedule and they recruit the same as we do with a coach that isn't as good as ours. I don't understand why they get the benefit of the doubt with the media and Mullen gets completely overlooked. Why in the world would Arkansas be ranked ahead of state? They return a bunch of starters off of a horrible defense and lose a ton on offense. It makes zero sense.

I think they're just following the trend. He was won 3, 6, and 7 regular season wins in his first three seasons. That certainly looks like somebody on the upswing before you get into the specifics of who they are losing and what their replacements look like. They were also a lot better team at the end of last year than at the beginning, so that's another thing that looks promising, as that usually happens because younger players figure things out over the course of the season and presumably will be back the next year.

Most members of the media just don't go particularly in depth with how they think. They see Beliema has made improvements over the last two seasons and think it will continue for another season. Mullen, on the other hand, already has a long enough track record that he has had some peaks and valleys. He went 5, 8, 6, 8, 6, 10, 8. Much harder to just stupidly pick a trend line and assume that's what's coming next. Although if you were going to pick a trend, you would assume this year will be up, as he's never won less than 8 regular season games in an even numbered year.


I do think Beliema is a good coach, but it's a huge step in the SECW to go from a 7 win season to a 9 win season. 4-0 OOC and usually one or two weak teams in the West and hopefully one weak opponent in the East and you can get to seven wins with a top 25-30 team. But to get to 9 wins, you pretty much have to be a top 15 team or you have to get extremely lucky with scheduling. I think it's much more likely the Beliema's trajectory follows Mullen's, and that he has to spend a few years in the 6-8 regular season win range before breaking through.

[DownwardDawg]

There is just something about the Pigs that give NM a fit... Its just one of those games where I feel NM will shit the bed and UPig will take care of business... Paper gets thrown out the window when the boys step onto the field...

It's called being physical. Ole miss hates playing a physical team. You beat them by playing physical smash mouth offense. They don't like defending against a strong run team.

Arkansas is a 6-7 win team.

[BrunswickDawg]

I think they win 7-8 this year. It will be tough to replace the guys they lost on offense. Their style of play will keep them in a lot of games and if you can stay in those games long enough you give yourself a chance to win. But, it is absurd to think they win 9 and beat bama. As to why they get the benefit of the doubt and we do not it is all perception, for some reason nobody in the media really likes us. I also think a lot of people are seeing how well Dak is doing and are assuming that he was the only reason we have been relevant the last two seasons. And, honestly if our O line ( which from what we are hearing they have improved) hasn't improved we will be hard pressed to win 7-8 games this year. If our line is as bad as they were last year we are going to be in for an extremely long season.

That same media who picked us to finish last or next to last in the SEC West with Dak as a Senior?? Yeah, I'll follow what they predict.

[lamont]

That same media who picked
us to finish last or next to last in the SEC West with Dak as a Senior?? Yeah, I'll follow what they predict.

We did finish next to last

[BrunswickDawg]

We did finish next to last

That's true - I'll go back to sleep now....

But, most of those had us at 6-6 and 2-6 in the SEC, which was just ridiculous.

[Jarius]

Arkansas is way More likely to go 5-7 than they are 9-3. 9-3 is about 2 games above their best case scenario (I'm including a win over state and auburn in their best case scenario). Arkansas, along with MSU is the least talented team in the west and they have to play the SEC east champion along with TCU. If we played that schedule we would be predicted to go 4-8.

[TrapGame]

They replace almost the same players we have to replace but we're predicted to be 6-6 and they're 9-3 beating Bama.

No. Just no.