Dear Legion of Mediocrity:
(This is long. Stop now if you don’t have time to read it)
I will preface what I’m about to say by stating that I rarely post anything online because I learn more about our people by reading what you post and observing the actions of those that sit (and I do emphasize sit) around me at games (home and away), as opposed to debating you. If you are easily offended and/or thin skinned, you are likely not going to appreciate or objectively handle what I’m about to say.
For what it is worth I believe most all of you truly want to see Mississippi State succeed in every aspect the University is capable of. However, there is now and has been a sizable faction of you all of my life that believes that Mississippi State’s rightful place in football is somewhere near the back of the bus and we should be satisfied with the crumbs that get swept on the floor. In other words splashing water every few years with a few more wins and a bowl game is analogous to some of your standards of success. Amazingly, many of you hold baseball to a much higher standard and let me remind you that program did not become consistently relevant until Ron Polk came to town in 1976. I’m convinced that basic psychology of listening to years of our country clay cousins reminding you of the glory days of John Vaught, other neighboring institutional success stories, our weak post-war history, combined with your own low self-esteem about Mississippi State has contributed to your way of thinking. With that said, it is now 2013, the game has changed, along with the environment, creating endless opportunities for success for most any school with the right leadership and attitude. The real question is do you have the guts as individuals and/or collectively to stand up and demand to our institutional leaders that you expect a first class product EVERY YEAR that does not embarrass us week after week! Remember they work for us, not the other way around.
For those of you, who enjoy debating the game and history with your Black Bear friends, keep in mind, many of those who claim to be supporters of the other school are some of the same ones that have carried that institution’s identity crisis for decades that they still cannot shake regardless of their efforts to repaint history. Oh and John Vaught last coached the other school 40 years ago this year after their genius leaders made the greatest mistake in modern school athletic history by letting the Kinards take over instead of hiring Bob Tyler in the winter of 1970! Although, they too have splashed water over the last four decades, they have not recovered from the Kinard mistake yet but continue to try and convince you otherwise.
As for you individually, what are your personal standards? I hope they are greater than the standards some of you post online that you hold Mississippi State Football to. This “wait til the end of the year” and “wait til next year approach”, along with addressing so called issues that have nothing to do with winning games is an obvious shield that you don’t want to address the real problems that are staring us in the face. WHY? Your approach is analogous to a ship captain that tells his crew let’s wait and see what happens when his ship is taking on water in the middle of the ocean! By the time you make a decision, it is simply too late because you were reactive as opposed to being proactive. An individual I have come to know in recent weeks pointed out just a few pages ago on this site (He isn’t your friend or family) that Dan Mullen is an employee, he’s not Mississippi State, and no individual is! Furthermore but for the fact that Mississippi State has made him a multi-millionaire he wouldn’t spit on Mississippi State! Take some pride in yourselves and defend the place you claim to love as opposed to falling all over a person who is arguably the highest paid public employee in the State. When you consider what he has made off of the backs of the true Mississippi State people and our institution do you REALLY believe we are getting what we are paying for after four and half years?
For you good people that continue to defend him by comparing him to the lowest common denominator you can think of whether that is Sylvester Croom, Charlie Shira or anyone else (as opposed to establishing a real standard), I would ask you to compare him to the more successful coaches since some of you hold him in such high regard. For example how does he stack up against Allyn McKeen 65-19-3, Bob Tyler 39-25-3 (on the field wins) or Jackie Sherrill 74-76-2 (on the field wins) during their first five years? Better than any previous coach, how does he rank where you expect a $2.6 million coach to be in year five?
I’m going to point out a few facts about Dan Mullen:
1. Dan Mullen is in the top 25 coaching salaries (#24) in the country at $2.6 million
2. Dan Mullen has to date compiled an overall record of 32-25 (56%), with an SEC record of 13-21 (38%) and a non-conference record of 19-4 (83%).
3. Dan Mullen’s teams have yet to secure a true signature win! Some might cite the Mississippi (#25) game of 2009 and/or the Florida (#22) game of 2010 but I would challenge either of those games since both teams were on a downhill slide at the edge of the top 25, only to fall out the next day.
4. Dan Mullen’s teams have not won more than 4 SEC games (2010 and 2012) in any year since his arrival in December of 2008. Again, Sylvester Croom did not surpass the four win SEC mark during his tenure and only reached it once, in 2007 when he was named SEC Coach of the Year.
5. Dan Mullen’s teams have not defeated a team in the top 20, 0-15 (0%)
6. Dan Mullen has hired four defensive coordinators in five years. To date, none of them have put an aggressive SEC style defense on the field. One might argue Manny Diaz was successful but again we won 4 SEC games in 2010 against mediocre programs (at the time) and we had several players on that defense that went onto the NFL. The bottom line, we under performed with the talent we had and Manny Diaz is among the unemployed today.
7. We have now lost 8 of our last 11 FBS games dating back to October of the 2012 season.
8. We have not defeated an FBS program that finished with a winning record since the Gator Bowl, January 1, 2011 (Michigan)
9. We have lost consecutive SEC games to programs that were in their first year of rebuilding:
a. Mississippi-2012, after losing 19 of their last 21 SEC games, including 14 consecutive in that same stretch
b. Auburn-2013, after losing 10 consecutive SEC games
c. Kentucky-2013, TBD
10. We lost the Gator Bowl this past January to a Northwestern program that had not won a bowl game since 1949!
I think it is fair to say Dan Mullen has raised the bar at Mississippi State but he has hit a plateau and we are now slipping backwards. Many of you are consumed with his overall record and ignore his SEC record. He is paid and paid well to recruit and develop athletes and prepare teams to win first and foremost in the SEC, not just the games “he is supposed to win” out of conference or against inferior opponents. Another factual analogy for those of you who like to use Croom as a comparison: Croom’s teams won 10 SEC games, Mullen’s teams have won 13 SEC games in almost the same period of time. Three SEC games are all that separates these two guys in our neighborhood record!!! Furthermore, Dan Mullen has had the resources and talent to win far more than 13 SEC games. Just a few that come to mind: LSU 2009, Arkansas 2010, Auburn 2011, South Carolina 2011, Mississippi 2012 and Auburn 2013. Several of these games were lost because of Dan Mullen’s inability to properly prepare for and manage big time games. In addition to citing Dan’s overall record, some of you like to throw out the “we’ve been to three straight bowl games” line. Again, its 2013 and 70 teams out of 124 FBS schools will go to bowl games this year. It’s not that hard to get to a bowl game in this day and age, regardless of what conference you play in.
For those of you old enough to remember, Bob Tyler is the one who showed Mississippi State we could win when the neighborhood environment was much tougher to win in and with a lot less resources! Since that time, our institutional leadership has had plenty of opportunities to select the right coaches but failed to recognize when it was time to pull the plug on their own mistakes, thus resulting in the program getting deeper into the abyss. Time and again coaches have been allowed to leave our program in worse condition than they found it because the leadership “waited until next year” or for some other stupid reason, thus creating a reactive situation. It is time to be proactive while we still have good talent and have the ability to get the right person to take this program to the next level before we return to the depths of the previous decade.
Some of you simply don’t believe we can win. If you are one of those people, I question why you’re here in the first place thinking that way. Furthermore, I wonder how you get out of bed in the morning. None the less, if you really think that way, I would challenge you to do a little homework on perennial college football doormats such as Oregon, Oregon State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Louisville, Miami and Virginia Tech to name a few. All of those programs have a common ingredient that took them from being big time losers to winners, institutional and athletic leadership! Some of you say we don’t have the resources to compete; that’s ********! We have the facilities, successful alumni all over the world and resources to compete and win in this conference right now! I expect those comments from people outside of Mississippi State but any so called leader or supporter that plays the “we don’t have” or “we can’t compete” card is simply giving the excuse to protect his/her own place in the Mississippi State trough because they are not competent enough to make the decisions necessary for success!
I don’t care who the coach is, Mississippi State’s success is where my concern and loyalty will always remain. WINNING is my FIRST, SECOND and THIRD priority and I will always support our coach until the time comes that his actions are taking away the ability for our program to continue to succeed and/or graduate to the next level because I’m a graduate and a fan of Mississippi State, not of some multi-million dollar employee who is not delivering his end of the bargain or backing up his mouth!
Having said all of that, I hope some of you can appreciate this perspective. Furthermore, I hope our leadership brakes with tradition and acts in a pro-active way so we can move onto the next level of success without repeating history first!
(This is long. Stop now if you don’t have time to read it)
I will preface what I’m about to say by stating that I rarely post anything online because I learn more about our people by reading what you post and observing the actions of those that sit (and I do emphasize sit) around me at games (home and away), as opposed to debating you. If you are easily offended and/or thin skinned, you are likely not going to appreciate or objectively handle what I’m about to say.
For what it is worth I believe most all of you truly want to see Mississippi State succeed in every aspect the University is capable of. However, there is now and has been a sizable faction of you all of my life that believes that Mississippi State’s rightful place in football is somewhere near the back of the bus and we should be satisfied with the crumbs that get swept on the floor. In other words splashing water every few years with a few more wins and a bowl game is analogous to some of your standards of success. Amazingly, many of you hold baseball to a much higher standard and let me remind you that program did not become consistently relevant until Ron Polk came to town in 1976. I’m convinced that basic psychology of listening to years of our country clay cousins reminding you of the glory days of John Vaught, other neighboring institutional success stories, our weak post-war history, combined with your own low self-esteem about Mississippi State has contributed to your way of thinking. With that said, it is now 2013, the game has changed, along with the environment, creating endless opportunities for success for most any school with the right leadership and attitude. The real question is do you have the guts as individuals and/or collectively to stand up and demand to our institutional leaders that you expect a first class product EVERY YEAR that does not embarrass us week after week! Remember they work for us, not the other way around.
For those of you, who enjoy debating the game and history with your Black Bear friends, keep in mind, many of those who claim to be supporters of the other school are some of the same ones that have carried that institution’s identity crisis for decades that they still cannot shake regardless of their efforts to repaint history. Oh and John Vaught last coached the other school 40 years ago this year after their genius leaders made the greatest mistake in modern school athletic history by letting the Kinards take over instead of hiring Bob Tyler in the winter of 1970! Although, they too have splashed water over the last four decades, they have not recovered from the Kinard mistake yet but continue to try and convince you otherwise.
As for you individually, what are your personal standards? I hope they are greater than the standards some of you post online that you hold Mississippi State Football to. This “wait til the end of the year” and “wait til next year approach”, along with addressing so called issues that have nothing to do with winning games is an obvious shield that you don’t want to address the real problems that are staring us in the face. WHY? Your approach is analogous to a ship captain that tells his crew let’s wait and see what happens when his ship is taking on water in the middle of the ocean! By the time you make a decision, it is simply too late because you were reactive as opposed to being proactive. An individual I have come to know in recent weeks pointed out just a few pages ago on this site (He isn’t your friend or family) that Dan Mullen is an employee, he’s not Mississippi State, and no individual is! Furthermore but for the fact that Mississippi State has made him a multi-millionaire he wouldn’t spit on Mississippi State! Take some pride in yourselves and defend the place you claim to love as opposed to falling all over a person who is arguably the highest paid public employee in the State. When you consider what he has made off of the backs of the true Mississippi State people and our institution do you REALLY believe we are getting what we are paying for after four and half years?
For you good people that continue to defend him by comparing him to the lowest common denominator you can think of whether that is Sylvester Croom, Charlie Shira or anyone else (as opposed to establishing a real standard), I would ask you to compare him to the more successful coaches since some of you hold him in such high regard. For example how does he stack up against Allyn McKeen 65-19-3, Bob Tyler 39-25-3 (on the field wins) or Jackie Sherrill 74-76-2 (on the field wins) during their first five years? Better than any previous coach, how does he rank where you expect a $2.6 million coach to be in year five?
I’m going to point out a few facts about Dan Mullen:
1. Dan Mullen is in the top 25 coaching salaries (#24) in the country at $2.6 million
2. Dan Mullen has to date compiled an overall record of 32-25 (56%), with an SEC record of 13-21 (38%) and a non-conference record of 19-4 (83%).
3. Dan Mullen’s teams have yet to secure a true signature win! Some might cite the Mississippi (#25) game of 2009 and/or the Florida (#22) game of 2010 but I would challenge either of those games since both teams were on a downhill slide at the edge of the top 25, only to fall out the next day.
4. Dan Mullen’s teams have not won more than 4 SEC games (2010 and 2012) in any year since his arrival in December of 2008. Again, Sylvester Croom did not surpass the four win SEC mark during his tenure and only reached it once, in 2007 when he was named SEC Coach of the Year.
5. Dan Mullen’s teams have not defeated a team in the top 20, 0-15 (0%)
6. Dan Mullen has hired four defensive coordinators in five years. To date, none of them have put an aggressive SEC style defense on the field. One might argue Manny Diaz was successful but again we won 4 SEC games in 2010 against mediocre programs (at the time) and we had several players on that defense that went onto the NFL. The bottom line, we under performed with the talent we had and Manny Diaz is among the unemployed today.
7. We have now lost 8 of our last 11 FBS games dating back to October of the 2012 season.
8. We have not defeated an FBS program that finished with a winning record since the Gator Bowl, January 1, 2011 (Michigan)
9. We have lost consecutive SEC games to programs that were in their first year of rebuilding:
a. Mississippi-2012, after losing 19 of their last 21 SEC games, including 14 consecutive in that same stretch
b. Auburn-2013, after losing 10 consecutive SEC games
c. Kentucky-2013, TBD
10. We lost the Gator Bowl this past January to a Northwestern program that had not won a bowl game since 1949!
I think it is fair to say Dan Mullen has raised the bar at Mississippi State but he has hit a plateau and we are now slipping backwards. Many of you are consumed with his overall record and ignore his SEC record. He is paid and paid well to recruit and develop athletes and prepare teams to win first and foremost in the SEC, not just the games “he is supposed to win” out of conference or against inferior opponents. Another factual analogy for those of you who like to use Croom as a comparison: Croom’s teams won 10 SEC games, Mullen’s teams have won 13 SEC games in almost the same period of time. Three SEC games are all that separates these two guys in our neighborhood record!!! Furthermore, Dan Mullen has had the resources and talent to win far more than 13 SEC games. Just a few that come to mind: LSU 2009, Arkansas 2010, Auburn 2011, South Carolina 2011, Mississippi 2012 and Auburn 2013. Several of these games were lost because of Dan Mullen’s inability to properly prepare for and manage big time games. In addition to citing Dan’s overall record, some of you like to throw out the “we’ve been to three straight bowl games” line. Again, its 2013 and 70 teams out of 124 FBS schools will go to bowl games this year. It’s not that hard to get to a bowl game in this day and age, regardless of what conference you play in.
For those of you old enough to remember, Bob Tyler is the one who showed Mississippi State we could win when the neighborhood environment was much tougher to win in and with a lot less resources! Since that time, our institutional leadership has had plenty of opportunities to select the right coaches but failed to recognize when it was time to pull the plug on their own mistakes, thus resulting in the program getting deeper into the abyss. Time and again coaches have been allowed to leave our program in worse condition than they found it because the leadership “waited until next year” or for some other stupid reason, thus creating a reactive situation. It is time to be proactive while we still have good talent and have the ability to get the right person to take this program to the next level before we return to the depths of the previous decade.
Some of you simply don’t believe we can win. If you are one of those people, I question why you’re here in the first place thinking that way. Furthermore, I wonder how you get out of bed in the morning. None the less, if you really think that way, I would challenge you to do a little homework on perennial college football doormats such as Oregon, Oregon State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Louisville, Miami and Virginia Tech to name a few. All of those programs have a common ingredient that took them from being big time losers to winners, institutional and athletic leadership! Some of you say we don’t have the resources to compete; that’s ********! We have the facilities, successful alumni all over the world and resources to compete and win in this conference right now! I expect those comments from people outside of Mississippi State but any so called leader or supporter that plays the “we don’t have” or “we can’t compete” card is simply giving the excuse to protect his/her own place in the Mississippi State trough because they are not competent enough to make the decisions necessary for success!
I don’t care who the coach is, Mississippi State’s success is where my concern and loyalty will always remain. WINNING is my FIRST, SECOND and THIRD priority and I will always support our coach until the time comes that his actions are taking away the ability for our program to continue to succeed and/or graduate to the next level because I’m a graduate and a fan of Mississippi State, not of some multi-million dollar employee who is not delivering his end of the bargain or backing up his mouth!
Having said all of that, I hope some of you can appreciate this perspective. Furthermore, I hope our leadership brakes with tradition and acts in a pro-active way so we can move onto the next level of success without repeating history first!
Last edited:
