So, if we finish 9-4

[Temple of the Dawg]

with a win over Arkansas and win a bowl game. We get drubbed again at LSU and lose a close one (1 TD or less) in Oxford. Is this season a disappointment? Just curious where everyone stands with reality staring us in the face. I'm not convinced yet Ole Miss will beat us, but I sure feel like it is at least 50/50 right now.

For me, I think I will be satisfied about 3 or 4 months after the season is over when I look back at the season, but I will be pretty disappointed short term I think. Didn't expect us to play with Bama, but I was really disappointed to see us get steamrolled the way we did today. After watching LSU tonight, I'm under no delusions about next week. However, if we lose to either Arkansas or Ole Miss, I think my thoughts will be that Dan failed this season. To start 7-0 and finish 1-4 will be vastly underachieving in my opinion, at least right now. I know our schedule was front-loaded with easy games, but we should have played better than we did in the last two games, win or lose. We looked unprepared, unmotivated, and completely lacking focus as a team and a coaching staff.

Your thoughts?

 

[57stratdawg]

with a win over Arkansas and win a bowl game. We get drubbed again at LSU and lose a close one (1 TD or less) in Oxford. Is this season a disappointment? Just curious where everyone stands with reality staring us in the face. I'm not convinced yet Ole Miss will beat us, but I sure feel like it is at least 50/50 right now.

For me, I think I will be satisfied about 3 or 4 months after the season is over when I look back at the season, but I will be pretty disappointed short term I think. Didn't expect us to play with Bama, but I was really disappointed to see us get steamrolled the way we did today. After watching LSU tonight, I'm under no delusions about next week. However, if we lose to either Arkansas or Ole Miss, I think my thoughts will be that Dan failed this season. To start 7-0 and finish 1-4 will be vastly underachieving in my opinion, at least right now. I know our schedule was front-loaded with easy games, but we should have played better than we did in the last two games, win or lose. We looked unprepared, unmotivated, and completely lacking focus as a team and a coaching staff.

Your thoughts?

If we lose the Egg Bowl all our momentum will be dead.

 

[engie]

Yes, 9-4 under those circumstances would be falling short. Just like 7-6 fell short last year, after 5-7 and 9-4 both overachieved. These past two games have been the worst I've seen us play since the Arkansas and Auburn games in 2009, when this type of failure was excusable. It is unacceptable now, not THAT we lost these two, but HOW we lost them.

Got to see how our team and coaches respond to a little adversity. We will learn alot about ourselves and what to expect going forward through these next four weeks. We have to start seeing improvements in the defense, and that falls on both the players and coaches. Can't tell if the scheme is terrible because we are missing so many tackles or if the missed tackles are making the scheme look bad. Definitely some combination of both, but it is difficult to analyze quantitatively...

 

[FlabLoser]

Yes, 9-4 under those circumstances would be falling short. Just like 7-6 fell short last year, after 5-7 and 9-4 both overachieved. These past two games have been the worst I've seen us play since the Arkansas and Auburn games in 2009, when this type of failure was excusable. It is unacceptable now, not THAT we lost these two, but HOW we lost them.

Got to see how our team and coaches respond to a little adversity. We will learn alot about ourselves and what to expect going forward through these next four weeks. We have to start seeing improvements in the defense, and that falls on both the players and coaches. Can't tell if the scheme is terrible because we are missing so many tackles or if the missed tackles are making the scheme look bad. Definitely some combination of both, but it is difficult to analyze quantitatively...

When our safeties are 15 yards deeper than the deepest receiver, I am blaming the scheme. When aTm subs fresh offensive players to keep running hurry-up and we leave gassed guys out there, I blame coaches for lack of preparation to manage the game. When aTm subs in a jumbo formation for short yardage and we stay in a 3-4, I blame the scheme.


Most of all, I blame Wilson. Gassed teams don't tackle we'll. Players that don't believe in ******** calls from their DC don't tackle well.

 

[Mstate]

As long as we beat ole miss to finish 8-4 I will be fine. That doesn't mean I will be a little disappointed with the way we finished up but I wouldn't be devastated.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

We are going to a bowl game. Not a disappointing season. My bar is way lower than most.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

Thank you for the dash of logic, Desotocountydawg.......

.....I said in the beginning I want 5 years in a row of going to bowl games before I start looking higher. 6 wins and postseason, that's it.

But our fans have now jumped the gun, gotten unrealistic and started criticizing. The AD is doing stupid ****, like the Oklahoma State game next year. I feel the tide turning in the State, honestly.

 

[thatsbaseball]

If that`s the case we might want to find a burial plot

 

[thatsbaseball]

More like thank you for being the next generation of complacent MSU fans

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

No it's called being realistic. We don't have the resources and money to be anything better than middle of the pack. Having winning seasons is successful no matter how they look.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

not to mention that building a long term winning program takes time.....

...and i'm not talking about doing it the croom way by going 3-9 for 5 years. i'm talking about winning for multiple years, branding ourselves as a successful bowl level program with good facilities and loyal fans, which leads to better recruits which, in time, helps us get to a championship level.

It's the Oregon/South Carolina blueprint, and it works. our fans just won't allow it to happen.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

The LSU game is a loss. Forget it. So you have a beatable Arkansas at home. That is a must win. Ole Miss is a 50/50 game but on the road and they will be sky high for that game. We will be the underdog. So, yes, I will be pissed losing to OM but a win at the liberty or Music City would make for a good season by Miss State history. Win the Egg and Arkansas, very good season, even if the previous 7 wins are dismissed by others.

 

[Dawgzilla]

State will beat Arkansas and UMiss. State may be bad, but those two teams are particularly terrible. Each of them can score some points, and those games will be rather high scoring, but I think both of those teams are worse than Troy. Say what you want about the type of offense UMiss runs, Bo Wallace is no Johnny Football.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

The writing is on the wall regarding State vs OM. They have competed much better than us vs common opponents. Hell even LaTech put up points on A&M. We were horrible yesterday.

 

[johnson86-1]

We are much better talent wise than Ole Miss and should beat them, even on the road, but if you're not worried, you're not paying attention. I was willing to give Wilson a pass on the Troy game and the UT game gave me hope, but the way we played yesterday on both sides of the ball has me worried. A&M does not have a good defense, and they more or less shut us down. I figured if nothing else, we'd outscore Ole Miss, but if mediocre defenses can shut us down like that, I'm not sure that's going to be an option.

On defense, if we insist on missing two or three tackles before somebody wraps up, it's going to be bad in the egg bowl.

 

[msstatelp1]

9-4 with a loss to Ole Miss would disappoint me. I wouldn't care about the record so much as the Egg Bowl loss. I'm not sure about LSU but still believe we can beat Arkansas and Ole Miss.

 

[Dawgzilla]

We are much better talent wise than Ole Miss and should beat them, even on the road, but if you're not worried, you're not paying attention. I was willing to give Wilson a pass on the Troy game and the UT game gave me hope, but the way we played yesterday on both sides of the ball has me worried. A&M does not have a good defense, and they more or less shut us down. I figured if nothing else, we'd outscore Ole Miss, but if mediocre defenses can shut us down like that, I'm not sure that's going to be an option.

On defense, if we insist on missing two or three tackles before somebody wraps up, it's going to be bad in the egg bowl.

I was "worried" when the team went to Troy. I will be worried - but less so- when the team travels to Oxford.

 

[johnson86-1]

That would be a failure with our schedule.

8-4 regular season means we beat four OOC cupcakes, a terrible UK team, imploding Arkansas and Auburn teams, and a decent Tennessee team for our best win of the season. On the other side of the ledger, we didn't show up against a Bama team we couldn't beat (forgivable, every team pretty much has a game like this each season), didn't show up an A&M team we should have played close (forgivable if we showed up for every other game), lost to an LSU team that is better than us, and lost to a UM team that we're better than.

One solid game, beating 6 terrible teams in a mostly lackluster fashion, two no-shows, and one loss to a team you're better than is a disappointing season. Even though it probably only affected our record by one loss, I'm pretty sure Dan Mullen would consider that a big 17ing missed opportunity. We're not going to get too many schedules this easy in the SEC.

On the flip side, we show up LSU and beat Arkansas and UM, and there's no doubt this season was a success. You're going to have no shows over the course of the season. Right now it looks bad because it's not clear whether we were using the first seven games of the season to prepare and build depth or whether we were sleepwalking through it b/c that's the way this team plays. Show up against LSU, beat Arkansas and UM and we basically had two no-shows that probably didn't affect our record at all.

Winning the games your supposed to win is still the fundamental building block for establishing a good program. If we go 9-3, I think we've done that and while we won' have a lot of impressive wins, it will still be a great season.

 

[SwampDawg]

I agree. Sure OM got the crap kicked out of them yesterday, just like we did. But I watched most of the game, and in spite of what some on this board say, I did not see them give up or be content to wave at the RBs. They all seemed to give a ****, they just got beat by a superior team. Our guys seemed to not. Again, OM is not very good, but If we don't get better they are going to whip us. I am not trying to build them up, improve their morale or anything like that. I am stating the truth.