Let's look at our losses:
1) OK State--held them to 21 points. Offense never got it going. Hadn't made the transition to Dak yet, and our team became a completely different one when we did.
2) Auburn--Dak debut, perfect position to win that game. Needed one stop against a team that had one fluke TD the entire rest of the game and we let them go score.
3) LSU--once again, prime for a victory entering the 4th quarter. We were down 5, and then we collapsed and had by far the worst quarter of our season. We were on the same level as LSU (minus their WRs).
4) USC--we hung in there despite have a -5 TO ratio. That says enough by itself.
5) A&M--a few ST plays away from winning
6) Alabama--played with a "back-up" QB for most of the game and a true freshman for the rest. Bama clearly gave us some help in keeping it close but we still played them as close as anyone has all year while lacking our best player in the most important position in football.
We are as good as just about all of these teams, but for whatever reason we lack the ability to finish. Some will say that is a reflection of our head coach, maybe so. It still remains that we are a few plays of beating elite teams. Add to that Mullen has one of the highest winning pct.s ever at State. He's no doubt turned things around in our program (despite having the misfortune of entering as a HC in a conference that has one 7 straight NC's, with most coming in our division).
We are looking next year to having one of the more favorable schedules we have had in awhile, while finally having an experienced QB that fits Mullen's system. Most other teams will be starting new QBs too: Alabama, A&M, LSU. Firing Mullen would be a huge mistake trying to learn an all new system in a year that offers us a great opportunity to succeed. If he fails next year, I'd be onboard with another option, I just know that consistency is underrated in a program (those that want to throw out Auburn as an example of a first year HC succeeding, they were actually returning to a system that the players did know; it was after he left auburn and they went 0-8 SEC that they had the changes made)
1) OK State--held them to 21 points. Offense never got it going. Hadn't made the transition to Dak yet, and our team became a completely different one when we did.
2) Auburn--Dak debut, perfect position to win that game. Needed one stop against a team that had one fluke TD the entire rest of the game and we let them go score.
3) LSU--once again, prime for a victory entering the 4th quarter. We were down 5, and then we collapsed and had by far the worst quarter of our season. We were on the same level as LSU (minus their WRs).
4) USC--we hung in there despite have a -5 TO ratio. That says enough by itself.
5) A&M--a few ST plays away from winning
6) Alabama--played with a "back-up" QB for most of the game and a true freshman for the rest. Bama clearly gave us some help in keeping it close but we still played them as close as anyone has all year while lacking our best player in the most important position in football.
We are as good as just about all of these teams, but for whatever reason we lack the ability to finish. Some will say that is a reflection of our head coach, maybe so. It still remains that we are a few plays of beating elite teams. Add to that Mullen has one of the highest winning pct.s ever at State. He's no doubt turned things around in our program (despite having the misfortune of entering as a HC in a conference that has one 7 straight NC's, with most coming in our division).
We are looking next year to having one of the more favorable schedules we have had in awhile, while finally having an experienced QB that fits Mullen's system. Most other teams will be starting new QBs too: Alabama, A&M, LSU. Firing Mullen would be a huge mistake trying to learn an all new system in a year that offers us a great opportunity to succeed. If he fails next year, I'd be onboard with another option, I just know that consistency is underrated in a program (those that want to throw out Auburn as an example of a first year HC succeeding, they were actually returning to a system that the players did know; it was after he left auburn and they went 0-8 SEC that they had the changes made)
