A couple responses.

Yes, the regular season used to be 11 game but you can't just reduce Mullen's win total to make a comparison because that was also another chance that he could lose another game but he didn't. This is esp true since aTm has been in the west.

I hear everyone blaming LT for Croom and I agree LT was basically working against our program. I was in undergrad and I realized that it was not to our advantage to schedule P5 teams OOC. (What the heck were we trying to prove? Win the west and we get respect. If not make a bowl game.)

But you can't totally blame LT for Croom. It's one thing to find someone to coach MSU in the early 2000s but it's another thing to find someone to coach MSU on probation, with a depleted roster, and discipline issues. There weren't too many up and coming hotshot coaches that would want to tie their name and fate to MSU back then. If you know someone who was interested let me know but I don't see it.

It sounds like Mullen has already addressed the OL recruiting issue. From everything that's been said Mullen has tBuck on that so we shall see how that progresses.