Is it possible that - Jeff Bower : USM :: Dan Mullen : MSU ?

[DerHntr]

Who am I talking about?

He has won consistently.

He has raised the bar and likely set his own bar as the coach.

He has a streak of non-losing seasons that result in bowls that the school hasn't seen previously (at least not often).

If fired, most other schools and coaches would think it is crazy.

He beats who he is supposed to beat and rarely beats who he is not supposed to beat.

He isn't really exceeding expectations but he isn't missing badly on them either.

Some fans really love the guy. Some others don't hate him but they want a lot more out of him.

He finds diamonds in the rough rather than recruits at a high level.

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There are of course a fair number of differences between the two but a lot of that is because we are talking about two vastly different conferences. For example, USM won conference championships but they didn't have the massive disparity in the haves and have nots in their conference. Plus USM during the Bower days chanted Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime a lot while we seem to be chanting Nobodies, At Our Place, On OUR Time.

The next question then should be: Is it that bad to have our Jeff Bower type era at MSU where we are consistently a winner even if it means we have to beat 4 lower programs and at least 2 SEC schools to make it happen?

 

[dawgstudent]

It's actually a pretty decent comparison but under a smaller timeframe.

 

[RobbieRandolph]

The Glen Mason comparison TSK made today is pretty close, too.

We have more familiarity with Bower because he coached here, but it's worth a glance.

http://www.teamspeedkills.com/2013/...ason-zone-mississippi-state-bulldogs-football

 

[Maroon Eagle]

Disagree. Bower would be closer to Houston Nutt when Nutt was at Arkansas. USM was an upper echelon team in Conference USA during most of Bower's tenure and did have one very noticeable home upset that kept TCU from going to a BCS bowl game in 2003. I like the Mullen-Mason comparison.

 

[johnson86-1]

The circumstances each school are facing are too different for it to be a good comparison.

The biggest difference is USM was positioned as well as anybody to compete for CUSA championships. MSU is part of the bottom tier of the SEC in terms of resources.

There's much more uncertainty about the ability to get a good replacement coach at USM. For all the talk about MSU being a coaching graveyard, we're still an SEC school offering a top 25 salary.

There's much more room for improvement at MSU. When Bowers was fired, I think that USM's bowl options without going undefeated were basically the New Orleans bowl, Papa Johns' Bowl, and Liberty Bowl. Why fire a coach that gets you to a bowl consistently when your top tier bowl, if you don't go undefeated, is the Liberty bowl? What's the difference as long as your bowling. But the difference between a 6 win season and 8 win season is large for MSU.

If we were going to pick a school because of proximity, I'd say Cutcliff is a better comparison. Both were good at several aspects of being a head coach, but had flaws that were concerning to say the least. Both had proven they could call plays for superior talent available at top tier schools, and had early success with talent they more or less inherited. Both had trouble recruiting. Both were at schools that were disadvantaged, but had experienced some success. Both schools were/will be faced with a tough decision, knowing that firing a coach with that sort of success was going to make their expectations seem unreasonable.

The differences are that Cutcliff didn't come into the same type of rebuilding situation as Mullen; Cutcliff was a worse recruiter than Mullen (who probably only looks bad because of how ridiculous the SEC has gotten); Cutcliff faced an easier SEC; and UM wasn't as desirable a place to find a coach because the SEC hadn't really separated itself then the way it has now.

 

[SkullCandy.sixpack]

That was a good, well written article (and the link to the blog was a good read too). I think we are where MSU is destined to be. Mullen is a good coach. He is not a good recruiter. If he could do both, we could perhaps go to the "next level" but realistically, some other school with more money and a better venue would lure him away (think: Diaz, Brewster). And then we'd start all over again.

Starkville is never going to sell itself to many recruits. It's too rural for some. Given a choice between LA or Miami or Austin, some top flight players will go "big city." Some top coaches probably wouldn't come here because they figure it's just too hard to recruit here, if you are talking about "SEC Championships."

I figure 6-8 wins per year is where we are with Mullen, and I'm fine with that. We'll pick off a top 20 every now and then, but winning an SEC Championship is not in the cards.