Let's go back to the ol' South Carolina comparison....

[missouridawg]

Here's what the cocks rose up to for Spurrier's 4th year... a year in which they went 7-6 (lost to Iowa in the Outback). The opponent record is in parentheses.

W - NC State (5-7)
L - Vandy (7-6)
L- UGA (10-3)
W - Wofford (who cares)
W - UAB (9-4)
W - OM (9-4)
W - UK (7-6)
L - LSU (8-5)
W - TEN (5-7)
W - ARK (5-7)
L - UF (13-1)
L - Clem (7-6)
L - Iowa (9-4)

Some things that stick out to me:
1) A 7-5 team got into the 17ing Outback Bowl. We've been 8-4 twice and the best we could do is the Gator Bowl.
2) Mullen lost to 5 teams this year. Three of those five are currently ranked in the top 10. The fourth team is in the top 20. The last team is his rival who finally found some momentum.
3) Spurrier lost to 6 teams that year. Only one ended up top 10. Three more ended up top 20 (UGA, OM, Iowa).
4) Spurrier lost to 7-6 teams in Clemson, Vandy... and 8-5 LSU. Mullen lost to 12-1, 10-2, 10-2, 6-6, and 10-3.
5) Teams Mullen lost to went 48-14. Teams Spurrier lost to went 54-25. That's 6 more wins and 11 more losses for the teams Spurrier beat (kind of proving his schedule was much easier than ours this year.


Mullen's on the field results have been just fine. I completely agree that Mullen has some problems to fix... but the fanbase is WAAAAAYYYY over-reacting to the way this season finished.

It should also be noted that Spurrier went 7-6 in his 5th year.... something that I'm almost expecting to happen next year for us.

2014, however... I'm getting very excited about. I know no one wants to hear about 2 years from now... but I'm in this fandom thing for the long run and I'm pretty comfortable with Mullen right now. When Dak gets to run our offense and we have a defensive and offensive line chock full of experienced players who are SEC capable, we're going to be make some noise.

Our D-Line in 2014 should be:
DE - Smith (senior) Backup: Ryan Brown (junior)
DT - Quay (junior) J. Washington (junior)
DT - James (junior) PJ Jones (senior)
DE - Chris Jones (Soph) Torrey Dale (junior)

Not to mention Nelson Adams and AJ Jefferson are in that mix as well. The DL is 17ing loaded coming up.

Our O-Line depth in 2014 should be:
Clausell (senior)
Robinson (senior)
Day (senior)
Holley (senior)
Muniz (senior)
Beckwith (senior)
Malone (junior)
Knox (junior)
Desper (soph)
Carter (soph)
Senior (soph)
And then the recruits from this year... Thomas, Mix, Flower (who will compete early for time), and Clayborn.

The big uglies are getting to SEC quality... not as quickly as everyone wanted... but they're getting there.

Sorry for the rambling... work is slow today. But for all these people calling for massive staff changes... that would take us a step back. The only staff change I'll be excited to hear about is getting Koenning off the staff. That change will hopefully put Mullen into the playcalling role and hopefully Mullen hires a guy who recruits his *** off. The next step our program needs to take is to be int he top 15 every year in recruiting. Once we start getting the talent, it will turn into good results on the field.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

but OMlawdog told me....

 

[SPMT]

It's no the losses. It's Mullen's ATTITUDE.

but OMlawdog told me....

The losses suck of course but I believe most are pleased with an 8-4 record. It's the ******, non-energetic, mannerisms and **** talking attitude. The lack of effort is extremely apparent.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

That's fair to be concerned about that. I, however, am not convinced we were playing with a lack of effort. I think our talent/depth showed up and it made us appear that way to the sidewalk football fan. No doubt there was an element of failing to deal with success and expectations though. But not near as bad as everyone is making it out to be.

 

[patdog]

Pretty much agree with you Mizzou. Not that I'm expecting Mullen to do at MSU what Spurrier has done at USC the last 3 years or so. But our program was in really bad shape when he got here and the first step is to get consistently competitive. I'm not anywhere near totally happy with the way this season went, especially the last 2 games. But it does look like Mullen has got us to the point we should consistently be going to bowl games for at least the next several years. And that's a huge improvement over where we've ever been before.

 

[Cow College]

Pretty much agree with you Mizzou. Not that I'm expecting Mullen to do at MSU what Spurrier has done at USC the last 3 years or so. But our program was in really bad shape when he got here and the first step is to get consistently competitive. I'm not anywhere near totally happy with the way this season went, especially the last 2 games. But it does look like Mullen has got us to the point we should consistently be going to bowl games for at least the next several years. And that's a huge improvement over where we've ever been before.

Well stated. We we so bad when he got here and there was a large gap we closed quickly. It will take a while to get going but as long as we keep playing well and winning those top 25 wins will start coming

 

[TheOMlawdog]

Really bad shape?

Did MSU have a really bad season in 2008? Absolutely, but that doesn't mean the program was in the *******.

MSU's 2009 roster had 10 future NFL players on it not counting Banks and Boyd.

There are 15 MSU players currently in the NFL. 10 of them were on the MSU roster in 2009. So before we talk about Mullen raising the dead, lets recognize that the 2009 MSU team had more NFL talent on it than pretty much any MSU team in the 15 years as far as NFL talent.

 

[MSU124]

Agree. I think we are going to be okay next year if we make the coaching changes I'm hearing.

QB: Better - Russell/Dak grow a year, hope we get a real QB battle
RB: Better - return everyone
WR: Same - Better talent but not as experienced. Could end up being better.
TE: Better - return everyone
OL: Better - return everyone

DE: Better - return everyone - Autry really turned it on at the end of the year.
DT: Better - Boyd leaving but you gotta thing Jones/Quay/James will be better then Boyd/Cherr
LB: Better - only losing Lawrence and add the Browns
CB: Worse - talent is there but young
S: Better - lose Broom but Cox should be better.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

Lack of OL in 2008 and 2009 class hurt us tremendously. Since that's the most important part of the team, we were in bad shape as far as the future. Not much Mullen could do about that. We're talking about right now, as in 2012. I agree that we weren't too bad in 2009 and 2010. Everybody realizes that.

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

unfortunately we have another SEC team in our State to interfere with recruiting..SC does not..

 

[missouridawg]

unfortunately we have another SEC team in our State to interfere with recruiting..SC does not..

Completely agree that our mountain is a different that USCe. I'm not sure there's another school in America that plays a similar role to their rival that OM plays for us. Auburn maybe... but other than that, not sure there's another comparison in regards to the tactics used to disparage the rival.