Oklahoma St. game in hindsight

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Now that the season is over and MSU is going to its fourth straight bowl game, I am interested if opinions have changed on whether we should have scheduled the Oklahoma St. game or not. The common refrain was that it put our bowl eligibility in jeopardy. Now that we know we are bowl eligible, and that 7-5 would probably not get us to a better bowl game this year, are you at peace with the decision or are you still upset for other reasons?

I say I'm glad we played them. Adding another win to a crappy non-conference team wouldn't boost my opinion of this season. Knowing that we played a semi-competitive game against the now-#6 team in the country makes me feel better than having a 7-5 record. It was also more exciting to play in that type of game than to have another snoozer.

 

[Incognegro]

Hard to say considering that that game was what lead to Russell's injury woes. I'm not exactly upset with scheduling the game, but I really have no idea what to expect from this team had Russell been healthy the whole season. Taking away that game would pretty much take away the team we saw this whole year so it's really hard to say.

 

[PBRME]

7-5 all day every day over losing to the #6 team. We would be in the MCB bowl picture with another win.

 

[KurtRambis4]

I'm really not

that pissed, now or then, that we played them. I'm more mad about playing then to start the year. I think the game may have been different if we had played them later in the year.

 

[dotcomdawg]

We should wait several years before we start scheduling out-of-conference, strength-of-schedule teams. In the immidiate furture we need to shcedule the South Alabamas and Alcorns of the world.

It means much more to our program (exposure and recruiting) to win games and go to a bowl.

Playing in the SEC West is hard enough for now.

Maybe that day will come. Maybe not.

 

[57stratdawg]

Never had a problem with it. Start Prescott in that game and we probably win.

 

[Cherokee]

On Point

We should wait several years before we start scheduling out-of-conference, strength-of-schedule teams. In the immidiate furture we need to shcedule the South Alabamas and Alcorns of the world.

It means much more to our program (exposure and recruiting) to win games and go to a bowl.

Playing in the SEC West is hard enough for now.

Maybe that day will come. Maybe not.

I said in May that 6-6 is about the best we could expect to do. I figured no way we are ready for a game with OSU and even though the game didn't exactly follow the script any of us thought, it still showed us how far off we might be. I thought the SC effort was somewhat of a turning point. Though the game was lost on turn-overs, we played the better game. As the season progressed and we were 4-6 I thought we had maybe a 50% chance of making a bowl game. I was about half way off the Mullen bandwagon but the progress made over the last 4 games changed my mindset. Now, hopefully recruiting takes a bit of a uptick, and win the bowl game.

 

[patdog]

I'm OK with it. We really aren't in much of a position to turn those games down. And we bought out a road game to keep 7 home games.

 

[dawgstudent]

In 100% agreement - regardless of who our coach is - until we win 8+ games 3-4 years in a row, we need to schedule like we did in 10, 11, and 12.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

I'm for scheduling bcs teams but I'd like it to be during even years when we tend to have a more favorable schedule

 

[Dawg1976]

Agree. Let's build a nice foundation first. Then maybe someone like them every few years. Mix in Indiana, Iowa St etc during the in between years.

 

[operch]

I wanted to play them then and am still happy we did. I am a little concerned with the intensity that we seem to start every season. I believe the better perceived the team you play to start the season to be should increase our being ready to play. Of course the neg. to that is if you are not ready it should be easier to beet a lower caliber team.

 

[AlSwearengen]

We still haven't secured a winning season

nm

 

[AlSwearengen]

would you want to play them after we played alabama or after texas a&m or maybe after lsu?

 

[Center Z]

I still think it was retarded to schedule that game.

I don't give a **** if we made a million dollars off of it. It was stupid. You don't schedule tough OOC games unless you legitimately think you will have a chance to play in the national championship.

 

[esplanade91]

Tough? Yes. But I'd like to schedule some AQ teams if we can. Iowa State, WSU, North Carolina, BC, Washington...

 

[Resolved]

Ummm...no. 7-5 mo betta. Nobody remembers how you got there after the fact.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I wish we would schedule a game like that every year. Not a popular opinion on this board, I know, but I like a team that accepts challenges rather than shying away from tough competition. Give your players the mindset that they are good enough to play in those games. Bobby Bowden built FSU's football program by playing challenging away games all over the country. And the national exposure is great.

I know there is a downside to losing, but, really, if you lose that game all you are then asking your team to do is go 3-5 in SEC play to get to a bowl game. That really shouldn't be that difficult, particularly when we have UK as a permanent opponent. And, if MSU does better than that and is challenging for a more prestigious bowl, then that 1 non-conference loss is not really going to make a difference in our bowl selection....that is primarily set by perceived TV ratings and fan interest, and MSU will typically get screwed anyway.

Scott Stricklin has been a personal friend of mine for years, but his biggest mistake to date was "apologizing" for scheduling OSU.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Some of you are missing the point. The question is not whether you would schedule such games going forward, or even if it was the right decision to schedule that game this year. It's too easy to evaluate in complete hindsight and say a decision worked or didn't work and therefore was right or wrong.

The question is for this year, knowing we are going to a bowl, what do we gain if we don't play OSU? There was a good point about Tyler's injury. You can't predict injuries, but I think it's safe to say your QB is less likely to get injured vs. Alcorn than against OSU, because of the difference in quality of defenses. You could also argue that we could have been healthier and fresher going into the Auburn game. Or you could argue that a tough first game prepared us for tough opponents ahead. There's also the point about being guaranteed 7 wins at this point and therefore guaranteed a winning record, which is valid.

I still say there's not much difference in going 6-6 and playing in Liberty Bowl and going 7-5 and playing in Liberty Bowl. And it gives me some reassurance that we hung with a non-conference BCS bowl team on a neutral field. And if our offense was better prepared we could have won the game. That gives me more satisfaction than having a 7-5 team that beat six crappy teams and TSUN.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

100% agree Stricklin should not have apologized. He should have owned the decision whether we won or lost.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

100% agree Stricklin should not have apologized. He should have owned the decision whether we won or lost.

Stricklin did own it and he did not apologize. He took responsibility which is different than an apology. He said if folks have a problem with the scheduling of OSU, then blame me rather than Mullen, Keenum, or John Doe. Folks erroneously interpreted it as an apology. Ask Stricklin himself if you don't believe me. Or go read the actual tweets.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Fair enough.

 

[dawgstudent]

I take 7-5 every day of the week. I take no re-assurance with less wins.

 

[Dawgzilla]

Well, all he said via twitter was "Tough foe in game one (that's on me)." I don't really see that as an outright apology (which is why I put "apologizing" in quotes up above), but I do see it as accepting blame for scheduling the game. There shouldn't be any blame...he should be proud that Houston wanted us there and that he accepted the invitation.

 

[KurtRambis4]

You're

missing my point. I just don't want to play them for the first game of the year. Any other time is really fine by me. The first game of the year, not so much.

 

[BiscuitEater]

Amen ...

I take 7-5 every day of the week.

7-5 and beating OM ... I could get used to that for a couple years

 

[MStateFan22]

I wouldn't say i'm glad that we scheduled them but i'm certainly okay with it.

MSU can't play 4 cupcakes every year. I'd really like to see us regularly schedule a 2 game series with middle of the road teams from the Big ten and ACC. For some reason i've always wanted to see us play Iowa.