Oldtimers - What year was state this good?

shsdawg

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Mar 30, 2010
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99. We are way better on offense this year but our defense in 99 was incredible. I think it was the #1 defense in the country.
 

MSUDawg4Life

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Aug 22, 2012
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Oldtimers?

What kind of season are we having? What will our final record be?

The season is not over. Ask this at the end of the season and maybe somebody could make a rational comparison.
 

hotdigitydog

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May 21, 2007
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'99.........Absolutely dominant D and opportunistic O.......This

team is no comparison defensively to that squad.......

Have to go back to '80 for another compareable squad IMO......That '80 D was good as well............
 

maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
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99. We are way better on offense this year but our defense in 99 was incredible. I think it was the #1 defense in the country.

Yea, I would give the '99 team the edge in both defense and overall special teams and this year's team a pretty big edge on offense. I definitely don't remember being scared to watch every time we did a kickoff in '99 like I am this year with this team.
 

Original48

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Aug 9, 2007
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Well back in 19 and 53 we had a halfback who could run as well as take advantage of the forward pass.
 

Crystal Balls

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Aug 24, 2012
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99 team was the best MSU team I personally remember taking the field. The D was insane good! The offense was another story.

I really like Matt Wyatt and what he does for MSU these days. And he made some big/game saving plays on that team but i swear every time he dropped back to pass it scared the hell out of me.

This 2012 team still has some ball to play but their well on the way to being something special.
 
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Aug 23, 2012
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At this point I'd harken all the way back to 2009. How quickly we forget. We were run heavy, but pretty darn effective. They accomplished a lot.

Of course this team has a higher upside so let's hope that happens.

For this old timer (48), it's the most balanced team we've had thats this good. Our best teams ('80,'81,'98,'99) were always rock solid d and run run run.

A pretty pass and catch for a td is still enough to bring tears to these long suffering eyes.
 

BELdog

Sophomore
Aug 23, 2012
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Wasn't it the '99 team that was nick named the "Cardiac Kids"? They tended to let teams hang around and play extremely close and then find a way to win it is exciting fashion. I was pretty young then and wasn't following football the way I do now, but I think that was the '99 team. This team has been similar. We've won some close games and there have been games that have had some exciting fourth quarters.
 

Crystal Balls

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Aug 24, 2012
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Wasn't it the '99 team that was nick named the "Cardiac Kids"? They tended to let teams hang around and play extremely close and then find a way to win it is exciting fashion. I was pretty young then and wasn't following football the way I do now, but I think that was the '99 team. This team has been similar. We've won some close games and there have been games that have had some exciting fourth quarters.

Yep
 

Joe Schmedlap

Redshirt
Aug 11, 2010
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That 99 team was a defensive juggernaut

That team was similar to the current LSU squad, only better.

99. We are way better on offense this year but our defense in 99 was incredible. I think it was the #1 defense in the country.
 

saltslugs

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Oct 9, 2009
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Yeah...

I haven't seen anything that suggests we are better than 2010 (I'm guessing you meant 2010), and that's not a knock on this team. The 2010 was very strong, but was struck by badscheduleitis.
 

maroonmania

Senior
Feb 23, 2008
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Yea, seems like I've heard Sherrill describe that as his best overall team...

yep. The 92 team often get overlooked because of their final record- but that team was outstanding. Losing Sleepy changed that team's destiny for sure.

at MSU before Sleepy was lost for the year.
 

FlabLoser

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Aug 20, 2006
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This team is a lot more fundamentally sound than the 99 team.

The 92 team was Jackie's best team. The record didn't show it because the competition was tougher in 92 than it was in 99.

The 81 team was in an era too far gone for comparison. The players we have now would scare the 81 team out of their jocks. I bet the 81 linemen weight maybe 240 pounds.
 
Aug 30, 2006
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I was a student during 99, and this team is nothing like that team. The difference in the off & def have been covered already. The 99 team had a penchant for falling behind and were usually down by 10 to 14 points going into the 4th quarter. Then, all of the sudden, they would wake up and start scoring and we would somehow manage to win on a late FG (UK) or a kick & pick resulting in a FG (OM), or the Rod Gibson TD by an inch (LSU), or the AU game where we got two late TDs to win 18-16. This years team gets a comfortable lead and then lets off the gas. The 99 team wouldn't even start the car until the 4th quarter on offense. Fortunately, the 99 defense was off the chain, so we were always within striking distance.
 

BehrDawg

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Jan 21, 2010
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I use to have a highlight video from the Athletic Department. Its title? Year of the comebacks....
 

Todd4State

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Mar 3, 2008
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That was what was fun about the 1999 team

You never knew what improbable way they were going to find to beat someone. It was almost like they were trying to outdo themselves each week and it culminated with the pass, pick, and kick. I remember at the 1999 Egg Bowl, we were down 20-6 at one point and I told the guy next to me that we had them right where we wanted them.

We did kick Vanderbilt's *** after they had that student writer trash talk about all of our JUCO players and we beat them 42-14. That was the Fred Smoot "homework" game. I think that team scored our last shutout to date against Lou Holtz's South Carolina team that went 0-11. We only beat then 17-0 and one of those TD's was a pick six from Ashley Cooper.
 

hotdigitydog

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May 21, 2007
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That '81 team was oh so close.......Lost 4 games in reg. season but 3 of those

were by a total of 8 points.....The other loss was to a very good Missouri team......
 
Aug 23, 2012
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Yep, 2010. That team deserves some respect.

And in the reference to the '80-'81 teams above.... Glen Collins, johnnie cooks, earnie Barnes, billy jackson and others wouldn't be scared of anyone. Those guys might only be surpassed by the '99 d.
 

shsdawg

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Mar 30, 2010
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This team is a lot more fundamentally sound than the 99 team.

The 92 team was Jackie's best team. The record didn't show it because the competition was tougher in 92 than it was in 99.

The 81 team was in an era too far gone for comparison. The players we have now would scare the 81 team out of their jocks. I bet the 81 linemen weight maybe 240 pounds.

Glenn Collins, Billy Jackson, and Johnnie Cooks would start for this year's team. Cooks alone would turn this defence into something much better than it is.
 

Todd4State

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
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Yeah- the 98 team was OK

All they did was win the SEC West and go to the Cotton Bowl. We had a really good power running offense with JJ running behind Randy Thomas and Pork Chop Womack and others- but to me that team wasn't quite as good as 99. They had some unexplainable losses to Oklahoma State before Madkin took over and we lost to a bad Gerry DiNardo LSU team- and not only lost, but got blown out and looked like we didn't care bad. UK beat us in a shootout that year with Tim Couch too. They weren't a bad UK team though.

Not many MSU teams can say that they beat Auburn, Bama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss all in the same year. We came darn close to beating UT too- it took a perfect pass to beat us pretty much.
 

HammerOfTheDogs

All-Conference
Jun 20, 2001
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Biggest difference between the 99 team and now- Tyler Russell

If it wasn't for Russell, we'd be at least 4-2, and possibly 3-3 (without Russell, we lose to Auburn, Troy, and Tennessee).
 

00Dawg

Senior
Nov 10, 2009
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If we're going on a head-to-head match up on their best days and not just on final record, I'd put this one right behind a fully healthy 2000 squad.
This team would beat the '99 squad. Tyler would probably throw an interception and take some hard hits, but the 2011 defense wouldn't let Wayne and friends score more than a field goal or two. Heck, we could put nine in the box on every play: no one on the '99 team would be able to shake Banks or Slay.
A game with the '92 squad would be interesting, but right now I'd give the nod to Mullen's team.
I wasn't old enough to follow the '80 or '81 squads, let alone Tyler's teams, so I can't speak to how the Long-Haired Legends would fare. Any good teams earlier than that are from just too different of an era to compare.

Speaking of earlier eras, I did ride the elevator down after the game with Johnny Majors. He still fondly (from what I could tell) remembers his time at State.
 

coach66

Junior
Mar 5, 2009
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Agree, the 81 team was one of our best. Defense was stout but we were one

dimensional on offense. This years team is not nearly as strong on defense but the offense
is light years better. I'm not saying our defense is bad, they are playing the way they are told
to play which appears to be fairly smart at this point.
 
Sep 8, 2008
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were by a total of 8 points.....The other loss was to a very good Missouri team......

Yep, that was my time at MSU. That year was particularly painful because of the "what if's". We came out flat against a very good Mizzou & lost 14-3. I seem to recall us getting shafted (as usual) in the 13-10 loss to Bama. We lost 7-6 to USM in a game where we had 500+ total yards of offense, and the only time they crossed mid-field was when we fumbled a punt or kick return that they then cashed in for the 7. We ran up & down the field all day, but kept shooting ourselves in the foot in the red-zone. Tough, tough loss. We totally dominated that USM team, yet lost anyway.
Then, of course there was Dick Pace with the worst call I've ever seen taking a sure win away against Ole Miss.

That team should have been no worse than 11-1. Bellard's Wingbone offense was a beautiful thing to watch.

Some of the great players from that team have already been mentioned. Want to make sure we also remember Kent Hull, Michael Haddix & Glen Young. All 3 went on to play in the NFL.