Most defining statistic of our team - We lost by an average of over 23 points...

[bonedaddy401]

in each of our four losses.

31 - Bama
25 - A&M
20 - LSU
17 - Ole Miss

Average margin of defeat 3 plus touchdowns a game. Pathetic. Defines this team.

This team has a lot of quit in em'. Weren't even close in any of our losses. Couple that with 4 **** conference wins and a laughable out of conference schedule and you have a disappointing 8-4 season.

 

[Joe Schmedlap]

Disappointing for sure, but I for one won't be ashamed of 8 wins. Preseason, I counted on 6-6 at worst, 9-3 at best. I wasn't pleased with the coaching staff or players on we hit murderers row, but I won't pretend the sky is falling either. A potential bowl game victory would mean our third in a row. We are still building a program. We just need to upgrade talent and assistant coaching performances.

 

[MSDawg34]

Im sorry but our most defining statistic is that we gave up more yards than we earned

 

[Railin Jemmye]

The quitting part is what is most concerning about Mullen. I would almost be OK with it if it meant that we were 'up' to play the Troys of the world but we so often are not. We still win the games, which speaks well of Mullen, but it's not like it's an even trade.

Bottom line, I think we're running an offense that isn't MSU (pass happy spread). We are a running team, and we damn sure should be employing the spread. I hate to say that I agree with Coach34 on this but he was right. But what do you do? You've got a damn good drop back QB in Tyler Russell, you have to play him.

 

[SkullCandy.sixpack]

I'd feel better as a running team if we'd had more than 7 yards rushing in the second half against Mississippi. For the game, we averaged 1.1 yards rushing. We had more yards passing than they did. I don't think our O-line is up to blowing holes in the D-line of LSU or Bama. Not yet, anyway.

 

[kired]

Here's another: opponents averaged 10.5 rushing first downs per game.

2004 we gave up 10.4, 2003 we gave up 10.8

We averaged between 6.5 and 8.5 from 2005 thru 2010. Last year it was 9.1 and this year 10.5

I was high on Chris Wilson and had high hopes for the guy. But that's a disturbing trend over the last two years. Especially when you consider that we won 8 games this year - you'd think teams would be throwing the ball more playing catch up. Also consider we're starting a 280 DE. Seems like that would make us tougher against the run.

Our defensive stats this season
10.5 rushing first downs per game (worst since 2004)
166 rushing yards per game (worst since 2004)
4.3 yards per carry (worst since 2004)
5.6 yards per play (second worst since 2003)
389.9 yards per game (worst since 2003)
41% third down conversions (worst since 2004)

With these stats you can't make an argument to keep Wilson.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

^Exactly. We quit in our losses, and its not THAT we lost, its HOW we lost.

that is what scares me. we were tied 17-17 at half. Ole miss players said they knew we quit in the 4th quarter by the way we ran routes and were blocking. Mullen may be a good coach, but an emotional motivator he is not.

we have problems on defense, but as bo bounds said this morning, its not chris wilson. He needs some LBs and better athletes. Hopefully the young DLmen and LBs that are redshirted can help. We had 3 turnovers and 2 shanked punts in the first half against UM. Chris Wilson made those stops right? BB made a good point, we should have been up by at least 10 at half.....it was all on the offense.

Maybe Dan should call the plays. I have noticed the handful of times that he actually took over play calling by himself in games in his career, we did well.

but then again, im not at practice nor a coach. Just seems the same ol, same ole story when we got beat this year.

The quitting part is what is most concerning about Mullen. I would almost be OK with it if it meant that we were 'up' to play the Troys of the world but we so often are not. We still win the games, which speaks well of Mullen, but it's not like it's an even trade.

Bottom line, I think we're running an offense that isn't MSU (pass happy spread). We are a running team, and we damn sure should be employing the spread. I hate to say that I agree with Coach34 on this but he was right. But what do you do? You've got a damn good drop back QB in Tyler Russell, you have to play him.

 

[bonedaddy401]

Wow great post....

Those statistics are shocking considering the time frame they include. Thanks for doing the research and sharing it.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

There is no way Wilson should be coaching at State next season. None. As I've said repeatedly, Wilson has turned us from a physical SEC defense into a soft Big 12 defense in just 2 years. Those rushing stats just further prove what my eyes tell me. Pathetic. There's no way a D with our talent should allow 10 rushing first downs a game, 166 rush ypg, and 4.3 rush ypc. Unfathomable. Anyone blaming our O for the murderer's row collapse doesn't know football.

 

[patdog]

Damn. That's pathetic. I kind of felt like this was the worse defense we've had since 2003 just from watching them, but I didn't realize it was quite that bad. You've got to take into account the fact that this was the easiest overall schedule we've played probably since the SEC expanded in 1991. And the stats are still that bad. No excuse.

 

[doggy3]

^This^

There is no way Wilson should be coaching at State next season. None. As I've said repeatedly, Wilson has turned us from a physical SEC defense into a soft Big 12 defense in just 2 years. Those rushing stats just further prove what my eyes tell me. Pathetic. There's no way a D with our talent should allow 10 rushing first downs a game, 166 rush ypg, and 4.3 rush ypc. Unfathomable. Anyone blaming our O for the murderer's row collapse doesn't know football.

Agreed 100% and to add, think about this:
1. In the first Quarter plus 1 minute we gave up 21 pts to Bama
2. In the first Quarter against A&M we gave up 21 pts
3. In the third Quarter plus 3 minutes against UM we gave up 24 pts
4. Against LSU with 0:48 left until half, LSU goes 71 yards in 4 plays; additionally, from the 7:09 mark of the second quarter until the end of the third quarter (1.5 quarters), MSU gave up 24 pts.

That is 90 points given up in 4.5 quarters of football! Yes we should have been up at the half versus UM, but damn, it was tied. Man up and stop someone! It's SEC football...on the road. You aren't going to score much against SEC teams in their house! This is NOT the Big 12 folks.

 

[SignalToNoise]

Yep. Those stats are against bottom feeders and irrelevant teams. How worse would it have been had UPig, Tenn, and AU not been so terrible this year?

 

[maroonmadman]

I don't think we had quit.

We had just wore out. We don't have enough depth to give our starters a decent breather here and there and as a result, the rigors of an SEC schedule caught up to us. All the mistakes I've seen this past month, sloppy arm tackling, missed assignments, getting beat in coverage, all those point to a team that has just been worn down. Fatigue. Add to that most of our starters, on the lines, would be second stringers on an upper level SEC team and you can see what I mean.We haven't had an open date since Sep. and it just caught up with us at the end of the season. We need more depth so what few decent SEC caliber starters we have aren't just worn the 17 out by Nov. A lot of folks were bitching at Mullen 'taking his foot off the gas' in some of our early games but I can see what he knew, that we didn't have enough depth to make it a full 12 game season. Folks ***** about 'vanilla play calling' hell when your worn out that's the best you can do, and as we so readily proved sometimes you can't even do that worth a ****. Depth. Depth in the trenches is the one thing that will turn this around. And maybe an open date sometimes later on in the season.

 

[Shmuley]

It has to be frustrating for an offense guy like mullen to realize he actually is going to HAVE to deal with the defensive side. That he is going to HAVE to take responsibility for the **** masquerading as a defense that is loitering on the defensive side of the ball. As head coach, he bears responsibility for the product on the field, even if he wants nothing to do with that side of the ball.

 

[onewoof]

Maybe its just me but it seems obvious to me we don't have upper class linemen and all 4 of those teams did.

Jackie wasn't an offensive genius and he had some years of football obscurity like Auburn, Tenn, Ole Miss, Ark has had lately but he had some hosses on the line that were able to match up against the best in the SEC.

 

[patdog]

Sorry, but your excuses are ********. We weren't worn down from a tough SEC schedule when we gave up 572 yards to Troy St. And it's not like those 2005-2010 teams didn't have to deal with tough SEC schedules, plus tough non-conference games.

 

[kired]

One more: 64.5% completion % against Wilson's defenses. Exact same in 2011 and 2012.

That's likely a record high against any MSU defense ever. I could only find two other years over 60% since 2003. This was with veteran playmakers in our secondary, and NFL prospects at CB.

There is just so much to complain about with Wilson. How does Corey Broomfield have 9 INTs as a fr & soph (should have been 10 if he'd caught the one against Cam), then 1 as a jr & sr?

The Troy game this year did it for me. I didn't complain much because we were undefeated but... I went to the Troy game & saw it in person. I've never in my life seen a defense so unprepared in my life. Probably easier to see in person than on TV but guys were running around with no clue what to do, arguing with each other on the field, looking to the sideline when the ball was snapped, even LBs with head turned to the secondary when the ball was snapped. I watched Troy run the ball down our throats - almost 6 yards per carry for over 200 yards. Then one month later I watched Western Kentucky completely stuff that same Troy team... holding them to 3 yards per carry. And WKU didn't need to create 4 turnovers to beat them.