It's not a fluke.
Dak is by far the best QB we've had. He's a better runner and passer than Relf, he fits the system 10x better than Russell, and he's 2ft taller than Farve or Tyson Lee.
J-Rob is as good as any running back we've had. I never believed the hype, but he's made me a believer. The guy gets 2-3 yards when there's nothing to get. He never goes down on first contact.
We finally have multiple receiver's taller than 6ft, and they can actually catch. We were throwing jump balls to 5'10ish" Arceto Clark for about 3 years. Wilson, Morrow, and Fred Brown give us something Mullen hasn't had at WR until now.
OL isn't overpowering, but they work well together. Two 5th year seniors with over 30 starts each, Beckwith has been here 4 or 5 years, Malone is a 4th year junior with 1 full season of playing time. And also remember Senior enrolled January 2012 - so he's been through 3 springs and now his 3rd fall. These guys have all been together and coached by Hevesy and Mullen for 3-5 years.
DL - one word, depth. We've had good players but never the depth we have now. And these are grown men. Almost all of them have been in the program 3-5 years except for the freak Chris Jones.
LB - again, we've never had this kind of depth. McKinney is as good or better than Wright and White, but the supporting cast is more athletic than what we have had. Wells, the Browns, Jackson, Holmes. They are flying around like mad men.
Secondary - this is the only place I'd say we're noticeably weaker than previous teams. I like our CBs but they aren't quite on the level of Banks & Slay. Our safeties are ok, but we don't hear their names called a lot. Although our LB crew is so good that the safeties don't get as involved in the run defense. So they don't always show up on the stat sheet.
Special teams - we're finally getting some touchbacks. Our punting is good as normal. Our FG kicking... jury is still out. I feel like this year won't be our best, but won't be our worst. Coverage units are good so far.
So almost every unit on this team is as good or better than what Mullen has had in the past. I think the biggest differences are Dak, the size of our WRs, maturity and knowledge of these 4th & 5th year guys, and quality athletes in both the first and second string. There's also a sense of "been there, done that" with these guys. They don't know what it's like to have a losing season, many of them were here for 7-0 and what followed, losing an egg bowl, winning 2 must win games against Arkansas and UM last year. There's so much maturity and leadership on this team. It's just different than anything we've even seen at MSU.
