My one criticism of Mullen...

[AssEndDawg]

and here is why. It's not about this year. Let me repeat, <span style="font-weight: bold;">IT'S NOT ABOUT THIS YEAR!</span>

Part of the reason freshmen don't play a whole lot in the SEC is because it takes a while to learn a full new offense. So, it's not really about Tyson Lee but it's more about getting the entire team to buy in to the spread concept and get them ready for the coming years. This is not going to be a great season for us no matter what we do. Sure, Mullen could have dumbed down the offense and stop running the spread and maybe he wins a couple of more games this year but then next year he still doesn't have his offense installed.

So no matter the competency of the players we have now the most important thing is to build the program, get the offense installed, and show recruits that while we don't have a SEC caliber QB yet this is the type of system they want to play. This season was a throw away, anyone expecting great things this year was either retarded or delusional. So shave your wool, buckle up and get ready for a couple of bad years. In 2011 we are going to be a fun team to watch.

 

[DowntownDawg]

...the best way to attract recruits to MSU is to win. A bowl game would've done wonders for recruiting. I don't think Mullen is doing anything but trying to accomplish both goals. And nobody thinks he needs to stop running the spread. That's not even been suggested.

You play football to win games. In so doing, you are building for the future, but you don't take losses in year 1 to get to year 2. It doesn't work like that, and Mullen's not doing that.

 

[DerHntr]

You play football to win games. In so doing, you are building for the future, but you don't take losses in year 1 to get to year 2. It doesn't work like that, and Mullen's not doing that.

 

[Todd4State]

We're asking Tyson and the RB's to execute a freaking handoff. I'm not Bill Bellicheck, but that shouldn't be impossible to accomplish.

I still disagree with Mullen's call on 4th down, and really third down to, but I wouldn't have called a toss sweep. I just would have had AD run it up the middle and dive over the goal line. But, it is what it is. I realize that my play could very well have been blown up- likely by Chad Jones because he did everything else to hurt us in that game, but for me it was about playing the percentages at that point. I just feel like we had a better chance at making my play work than we did with Tyson trying to act like Tim Tebow and throw a jump pass or asking him to make a decision other than handing it off. If LSU stopped us running up the middle from the one inch line, so be it. We don't deserve to win. But don't leave anything to chance at that point against the #4 team in the country. There is a reason pretty much every coach in America runs a running play up the middle in America, and not a triple option play or a jump pass.

But I've beaten that dead horse enough.

As far as Houston, I think the fact that we had to go in there with a gameplan of trying to control the clock to give ourselves a chance to win kind of took our staff out of character, so to speak. I don't fault them for the gameplan at all- it was the correct thing to do, and gave us the best chance to win. And we almost pulled it off. The fact of the matter is if we had just run it all day, UH would have eventually loaded the box to stop it. We needed to pass at least a little bit to keep UH honest and to make sure that we had space for our RB's to do their thing. I honestly can't think of a play on offense during the UH game where I thought- gee, why did we do that?

I do agree that from now on when we get to the red zone, we need to give Tyson a shorter leash as far as decision making. I'm not sure that would help though. It's like Matt Wyatt said today- send Croom a thank you note for leaving us in this situation.

 

[LR1400]

who says we don't know ****?

I inferred the OP (and many others on here) didn't know **** by suggesting to run a toss sweep on 4th and inches on the goal line against LSU. And it is a dumbass call to run that.

 

[HD6]

that Madkin's freshman and sophomore years, we had a defense behind him that didn't put winning the game on the QB's shoulders. Tyson Lee would have won as many games in 1999 as Madkin/Wyatt did, because the defense was untouchable.

 

[ronartest]

Although it is not necessarily coaching that contributes to poor player execution, it is coaching that puts players in situations to execute poorly. By that I mean what someone on here said, you get beat with your best player, not one of your less skilled players acting as some sort of strategic weapon because you think the defense isn't suspecting it. Afer the LSU game, we should have known that Tyson, more often than not, will hurt us when its in crunch time. He does fine when the game is not on the line. I mean when the Houston game was 31-17 and no longer in doubt, he drove us right down the field for a score. The pressure was off, so he executed well. I think we should ride Dixon/Ducre/Stallworth until they put 8 in the box, then get Bumphis/Berry/McRae involved..And Leon Berry should be getting 8-10 touches a game, he is vastly under-utilized on offense.

 

[Uncle Leo]

It's like saying we should have put a receiver out wide and thrown it to him because LSU didn't put a defender out there to stop him.

 

[DowntownDawg]

...I think if we block it right, the sweep works. Or, just fake a dive and pitch it.. The safety probably bites on that. Not anything at all like the example you gave.

 

[sardis]

I'd stop calling that option dive till they can run it in their sleep.