Another "Perspective" thread, but broken down in a different way:

[redbird4state]

Below is a short 4 part explanation of why Dan Mullen's tenure has been a major success at MSU, and why paranoid people should chill out. I'm not breaking down any fundamentals; instead I'll focus on the evolution of MSU football under Mullen. I think the best way to do this is to break Dan's success down by his four seasons as Coach:

Season 1: Expecations are low. Sure, everyone is excited about having a new coach and a new offensive scheme. However, the Croom years have sucked much of the life out of the MSU faithful. Oh, and just for ***** and gigs we have the toughest schedule in the nation. What do we end up getting:

• More effort than we have seen in years of MSU football.
• Close games with very good teams (Georgia Tech, Florida, Houston) and one almost huge upset (LSU)
• Beating the **** out of our rival who beat the **** out of us just the previous year
• Recruiting is not spectacular, but Dan starts pulling in some good athletes to help us compete in the SEC

Season 2: Excitement is back in the hearts of MSU fans. We expect a bowl season but expect nothing major. We lost a "recruiting" battle to the Plainsman, and there are doubts that Chris Relf can be an effective QB in the SEC. What do we get?

• An absolutely sick, mean defense.
• 8-4 regular season
• Chris Relf runs an effective spread option offense
• Regular season wins over Georgia and Florida (In the swamp with Florida ranked).
• A 52-14 (Bowl win) *** raping over traditional powerhouse Michigan in our first new year's bowl in over a decade.
• A top 15 finish

Season 3: MSU fans are beginning to believe. Coming off a big bowl win with a top 25 preseason ranking, MSU starts to get some respect. Fans really want revenge for the Newton saga and feel that an Auburn win will spring MSU into competition with the big boys of the SEC West. What do we get?

• Depressing loss to Auburn
• Close win over what would prove to be a well coached La Tech team.
• Medium recruiting success
• Bowl win in Nashville in front of a Maroon packed stadium.
• Losses to teams we were not favored against (except for Auburn)

Season 4: Dan Mullen is still King in Starkville. However, fans believe that he still needs that signature SEC win (and an SECw win). Most expect a 7 win season with a best case scenario of 8 to 10 regular season wins. What did we get?

• 7-0 start (Best start since 1999)
• Big Auburn win, no matter how bad they are
• The "Big SEC Win" against Tennessee (The close win that has eluded us for years)
• Losses to three top ten teams, two of them arguably the best in the nation (Bama and aTm)
• A loss on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium
• Real possibility of going 9-3 in the regular season.
• A Bowl Game

Conclusion: If you can't look at this narrative and see that what Dan Mullen has done and IS DOING in Starkville is Perfect-FOR MSU. The Greg Byrne plan is working out and we are closing the gap on other SEC schools. We will eventually compete AND WIN against the big boys. Rome was not built in a day (neither was Virginia Tech).

HAILSTATE,

redbird

 

[Hump4Hoops]

Can I please get this in PowerPoint format?

Everything you said was spot on, and for some reason the professional format of it all made me laugh.

 

[redbird4state]

I spend way too many hours in the office

Life of a 24 year old analyst I guess.

 

[missouridawg]

Good summary. The whole "sky is falling" crowd is probably the same people who yell "holding" every play, as if the referee is listening for their cue.

Mullen is doing fine. It sucks that he's played in an SEC that has been littered with great teams each year.. but it is what it is.

My only complaint is probably recruiting elite talent. We got Quay last year and it appears that Kailo and C. Jones are coming this way this year.... I'd like to see 4 or 5 of those type of guys come in every year, with most of them being linemen. That's where we'll win games, in my opinion.

 

[Hump4Hoops]

What messed our fans up so bad is our schedule

If we won 2 games, lost to Bama, won 2 more games, lost to aTm, won 3 more games, lost to LSU, the anger level would be much lower. Lots of people expected us to be on Bama's level after we went 7-0 without beating anybody. Interestingly enough, we can get to 9-3 and not have a single good win (or bad loss).

Unless we lose one of our last 2 games, we won't have any clue how good we are till our bowl game (Potentially 5 SEC wins against teams with losing records).

 

[diddog]

It is all about the players. Mullen has recruited very poorly until last year, and the verdict is still out on the few JC players that made that class highly ranked. Our best two lineman are still Croom recruits, Jackson and Smith. Let's see what happens with Mullen's own guys.

 

[RocketDawg]

I think you are precisely correct in your first paragraph. It wasn't so much the schedule, but the relative ease with which we beat Auburn not knowing they were terrible this year (yes, I know they were ahead at the half but we dominated the 2nd half), and beating Tennessee at all made us feel somewhat unstoppable. Ordinarily the 4 cupcakes would not be interspersed with SEC wins over those two. Kentucky we expected.

 

[RocketDawg]

Great format and easy to read. Wish everybody did that ... makes me feel right at home.

 

[Coach34]

It is all about the players. Mullen has recruited very poorly until last year, and the verdict is still out on the few JC players that made that class highly ranked. Our best two lineman are still Croom recruits, Jackson and Smith. Let's see what happens with Mullen's own guys.

Vick Ballard, Dak Prescott, Benardrick McKinney, and numerous others severely disagree with you

 

[msu4life07]

Agree completely. It's sad that we have so many fans who seem to have forgotten the many, many years of awful football. We were the team that average teams expected to crush. On Saturday I sat in Tiger Stadium with my large amount of whiskey and watched as my team played better than we've played there in a long time. If we take care of business and finish 9-3, no State fan should be anything but thrilled.

 

[missouridawg]

Auburn was not winning at the half. It was 7-3 us. They ran the opening kickoff back to go up 10-7... but it finished 28-10.