I'll leave this here.

[patdog]

Of course it's about making our schedule tougher. What else could playing Oklahoma St. instead of UAB possibly be? It made our schedule much tougher and damn near cost us a bowl bid this year.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

It's not about making our schedule tougher, my point is that we have to beat the top teams in the conference.

Everyone got pissed about scheduling OSU because I meant a 2-6 SEC record wasn't good enough. Two and fvcking 6! Every season that ends with a 2-6 SEC record is a failure. A complete failure. The Consolation Bowl isn't good enough to cover up losing 6 out of 8 SEC games.

No one has said that it is, other than you when you state the opposite. No one is disagreeing that we need to start winning more against the top teams. It's the elephant in the room when talking about Mullen. You know it, I know it, some national writers know it. I do think that eventually it will happen, and when it does, I would like to think that would lead to it happening more frequently. When it does, maybe we can start planning trips to Tampa, Atlanta or Dallas instead of Birmingham, Memphis or Shreveport. Until we get to that level, reaching a bowl game of any kind is a successful season. That doesn't cover up anything. It's a minimal reward for a minimally successful season. Could it have been better? Probably, but for who we are right now, a bowl game of any kind equals success and we are going to bowls reflective of our success. Call them consolation prizes all you want. Consolation prizes are better than no prizes at all. I feel like the guy on the AT&T commercials all of a sudden.

 

[57stratdawg]

It made it to where we had to beat OM to go to a bowl game. You act like the OSU lose counted 3 times.

 

[57stratdawg]

The problem is this fan base sits back and goes "Beat OM and went to a bowl game". MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!1!1!!!1

if you want this program to progress, we have to change our standards.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

The problem is this fan base sits back and goes "Beat OM and went to a bowl game". MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!1!1!!!1

if you want this program to progress, we have to change our standards.

I don't see anyone claiming that as their level of satisfaction.

 

[AtomicDog001]

I'm on the fence as to whether I agree/disagree with playing Oklahoma State, but I'm tired of the money argument. If we received 2 million a year more than the rest of the conference every year for the next several years, do you see it affecting our football record? I don't.

Apparently we've received boatloads of cash from TV deals and SEC national championships, but as far as I can see we are still a middle of the road SEC team. Winning is all that matters.

 

[Lachien]

I have been on the fence all season about Mullen. Fortunately in the last half of the season he showed that he was able to get the confidence of the team back and he coached us to a couple of desperately needed wins. I am still scratching my head about the way he runs the offense and the horrendous special teams play. If we had a better game plan on offense and had just not sucked on special teams, we could have won at least two of those 5.

It's hard for me to be critical of Mullen the way he finished the season out, but the Auburn loss still stings bad. Maybe because I was there.

It's also hard for me to play what ifs with the schedule. Had we not played Oklahoma State, would we have discovered the Legend of Dak for the first time in the Auburn game? I'm not saying Russell couldn't have won that game but with the playcalling I saw in Houston I don't think so.

Ultimately I agree with you--still many questions with Mullen and some serious missed opportunities this year but we finished strong. I am definitely in the "let's play our 8 NFL games" and leave the other 4 to the sisters of the poor.

 

[Sutterkane]

We would've gone to Nashville instead of Memphis...and the payout is almost 2 million more.

 

[jamdawg96]

nm

 

[jamdawg96]

There is so much ***** in this thread Ozarka should be killing it.

Maybe it's because I played and my father coached, I don't know... but I've always liked a good scheduling challenge every now and then. Players get excited about it. You can sell that type of game to recruits. As a fan, it's a much more exciting game to see. Would you rather play Oklahoma State in Houston or Rice in Memphis? Big non-conference games are fun. Maybe it wasn't the best year to play in one, but we're not exactly calling a lot of shots out there.

Alas, a "kickoff" game came calling. They've become popular in recent years. How many opportunities have we had to play in one? Right, so we accepted. We got paid. We played on national TV in a big city our fanbase could travel to and enjoy themselves in. Gotta take chances every now and then. We still went 6-6. It cost us nothing. Tape that **** up.

 

[patdog]

You're dodging my point yet again. Of course the OSU loss didn't count 3 times. That's stupid. But it did bump our strength of schedule to #8 in the country. Why is our program good enough that we should consistently play top 10 schedules?

 

[57stratdawg]

Who cares? We got two paydays, we still went to a bowl, we had a chance for a big win (but Mullen fell on his face). What did it hurt? Nothing. We weren't going to jump OM in bowl standings with a win over Jackson State.

Our 2011 schedule was #30, 2012 was #42, and 2014, I have a feeling, is going to be towards the bottom of SEC. We really need to keep those numbers in context, because it's basically impossible for a SEC team to have a SOS greater than 50.

 

[Sutterkane]

We have a scheduling challenge every year. It's called LSU and Alabama. The rest, pretty much every year, are winnable games for us.