Did Dan do this to himself?

[BCDAWG18]

Did he cause unrealistic expectations by continuously talking about "championships" and how he was going to win one at MSU? (mind you, we were about 200k short of being national champs.)

Now some fans realistically believe we should year in and year out compete with Bama, LSU and the likes (lol)

We had an all time losing record before Dan. He has won more games than he has lost, and is the only coach to do so for us since 1960. Tell me how that looks on us if we run him off.

I have wavered back and forth about how I feel about him. All it takes is a little stroll down memory lane to remember just how far we have come and just how bad we used to be. Things are better now than they have been in a long, long time. You younger fans just don't get how bad it was before

 

[NCDawg.sixpack]

Don't suppose you remember 1998, when we were in the SEC Championship game. Mullen said it was his goal to get us to Atlanta. Do you think we are closer now than when he arrived 5 years ago? I don't.

 

[geotop]

I dont think it was bad for *** to speak optimisitcally and positive. dont you really want someone who
is pushing expectations and goals? i think the fanbase needs to chill and realize what he is trying to accomplish
and give him more time to succeed. He has had a down year. ONE !!!!

 

[BCDAWG18]

I definitely feel closer than I did under Jackie in this millennium or Croom at any time

 

[patdog]

Do you think we are closer now than when he arrived 5 years ago? I don't.

What? It's one thing to be critical of Mullen. He definitely deserves some of it. But this is ridiculous.

 

[was21]

What did you expect him to say? It's expected that they all say that.

 

[Philly Dawg]

The highest we were ever ranked in 1998 was #23. And I certainly think we are closer to being ranked #23 now than we were 5 years ago. During the regular season, Arkansas was the only team that was ranked when we played them, but we did beat them. The SEC has certainly changed since then. There were fewer elite teams, and those were concentrated in the Eastern Division.

Are we closer to a Western Division Championship now? Certainly not. Its can barely even be called the same accomplishment, it is so much harder to do than it used to be.

 

[Sutterkane]

5 years ago we lost to La Tech, Kentucky, scored 2 points vs a bad Auburn team, and got absolutely demoralized against our rival to end the season. Yes, we are light years closer to Atlanta. We couldn't have gotten much further FROM Atlanta. Anybody who says otherwise is completely retarded.

 

[engie]

We're closer than we were in 2008 -- but one could certainly argue that we are further away than we were in 2009.

 

[diddog]

5 years ago we lost to La Tech, Kentucky, scored 2 points vs a bad Auburn team, and got absolutely demoralized against our rival to end the season. Yes, we are light years closer to Atlanta. We couldn't have gotten much further FROM Atlanta. Anybody who says otherwise is completely retarded.

Light years? Really? Nice to think we are but reality is different. In 2008, we were 2-6 in the SEC. We will be lucky to be 2-6 in the SEC this year.

We lost to La. Tech at La. Tech that year. We beat Bowling Green by 1 this year and likely would have lost to them at their place.
We lost by Kentucky by 1 point in 2008 and they were light years better in 2008 than in 2013. We barely escaped against them this year.
We scored two against Auburn but held them to 3.
Let's see - we lost to LSU by 10 at LSU. We lost to LSU this year by 33 at home.
We got blown out by Okie State and Ga. Tech away each year.
We beat Vandy in 2008. We would likely lose to Vandy this year.
We beat Arkansas in 2008. We should beat them this year.
We lost to #1 Bama by 25 at Bama. We are already a 25 point underdog to #1 Bama at home.
In 2008 and 2012 we were demoralized by our rival to end the season. Let's see what happens this year to a weaker rival than in 2008.

The biggest difference of all in 2008: We were building a top SEC recruiting class that would be reranked in the top 3 in the SEC today. In 2013, we are ranked 13th out of 14th in SEC recruiting.
Second biggest difference? In the spring and in the first game in 2008, we lost seven of our top 9 players to dismissals and injury. Our unexpected top player losses then far exceeded this year.

So, where are we light years better? Not in the results or in the future building of the program.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Compare the 2008-2012 SEC West against what it was in the late 90s. i'll hang up and listen.

 

[Sutterkane]

The SEC West in 08 was much worse than it is this year. It was Bama's first good year under Saban. LSU had lost a ton of players from their NC year. No A&M/JFF. Auburn had its first losing season in almost 10 years. Arkansas was dealing with the Houston Nutt aftermath and trying to install a passing offense under Petrino. It's one of the reasons Ole Miss had such a good year. The west had 3 bowl teams in 08 and will have 5 possibly 6 in 2013.

We also had a walk-on midget at starting QB and ZERO depth at multiple positions. We had a punter who shanked back to back punts and almost gave Vandy a victory over it.

You mention Vandy as a likely loss (I disagree) but fail to mention if we played Tennessee this year we'd probably win. That Tennessee game in 2008 was a signature Croom blowout loss. In addition to the 3-2 Auburn(5-7) loss, That was a bad 5-7 Tennessee team too.

We had one of THE WORST offenses in college football in 2008. We will finish at least respectable this year. ALL of our losses this year are to currently ranked teams. We had 2 losses in 2008 to programs with HISTORICALLY BAD SEASONS.

Yes, we are light years ahead of where we were in 2008.

 

[diddog]

This team would lose to 2008 Bama, LSU, OM

The SEC West in 08 was much worse than it is this year. It was Bama's first good year under Saban. LSU had lost a ton of players from their NC year. No A&M/JFF. Auburn had its first losing season in almost 10 years. Arkansas was dealing with the Houston Nutt aftermath and trying to install a passing offense under Petrino. It's one of the reasons Ole Miss had such a good year. The west had 3 bowl teams in 08 and will have 5 possibly 6 in 2013.

We also had a walk-on midget at starting QB and ZERO depth at multiple positions. We had a punter who shanked back to back punts and almost gave Vandy a victory over it.

You mention Vandy as a likely loss (I disagree) but fail to mention if we played Tennessee this year we'd probably win. That Tennessee game in 2008 was a signature Croom blowout loss. In addition to the 3-2 Auburn(5-7) loss, That was a bad 5-7 Tennessee team too.

We had one of THE WORST offenses in college football in 2008. We will finish at least respectable this year. ALL of our losses this year are to currently ranked teams. We had 2 losses in 2008 to programs with HISTORICALLY BAD SEASONS.

Yes, we are light years ahead of where we were in 2008.

Likely we would also lose to Kentucky and Vandy in 2008. Arky would be a tossup. We might beat Tenn this year., but I bet they would be favored over us. We were building depth at every position in 2008 - just look at our team in 2010. I agree that it was a mistake to go away from Wes Carroll at QB.
In the end, our record with this team against the 2008 schedule would likely be the same and maybe the same overall, but I think we lose to La. Tech at home just like we likely lose to Bowling Green in their stadium. We almost lost to Kentucky this year. Surely you don't think they are even halfway good?
And recruiting? We are light years behind at this point in 2013 where we were at this point in 2008. No debating that.

 

[121Josey]

A few corrections here. Saban's first year was 2007. Croom won that year and actually finished with a better record than Saban.

Don't know if I'd count UT as a win. They were playing well until they played Bama. But I give the edge to the home team.

You're right. The SEC West was ripe for the picking. But when I see that State was 2-6 in conference I can't say that we're light years ahead in that respect.

 

[121Josey]

We're closer than we were in 2008 -- but one could certainly argue that we are further away than we were in 2009.

I had to think about this one for a while. I think 2013 is a return to 2009. But I think 2009 played harder and was a few plays away from having an overachieving season (a la TSUN 2012) - unlike MSU 2013.

 

[121Josey]

Yes. But not because of championships. He obviously didn't learn much from Meyer on being a head coach in the SEC - in all phases. He clearly got caught up in his early success. He for most part made terrible administrative decisions (2010-2012). He bumbled those decisions so bad that he changed his tune.

I truly believe that he thought until this past off-season that he's the best MSU could ever hope for.

 

[Machiavelli]

To answer the original question, no, his high expectations are not the problem. It's all Tyler and Les' fault.

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

Actually, this year makes two...

I dont think it was bad for *** to speak optimisitcally and positive. dont you really want someone who
is pushing expectations and goals? i think the fanbase needs to chill and realize what he is trying to accomplish
and give him more time to succeed. He has had a down year. ONE !!!!

Sorry to be "that" guy.