Current NFL players Mullen inherited: Gabe Jackson, Dixon, Cox, Banks, Lawrence, Sherrod, White, Wright. That's two first round talents on the OL. We'll see how many from the 2012 Ole Miss team make it eventually, but I would bet it won't be near that amount. None made it from last year and the only possibilities I see right now (that Freeze inherited) are C.J., Mathers, Gross, Prewitt, Golson, and MAYBE Bryant, though CJ is the only likely one to make it out of that group. The rest of the potential NFL players are guys he brought in (committed after his hiring).
Dan didn't inherit Gabe, Cox, Banks, White, or Lawrence or another you forgot McPhee. I'll give Chaney, Dixon, Mitchell, Wright, and Sherrod, but as a levelheaded fan you have to admit that without Mullen, Boobie wouldn't be in the league. He lost ~30 lbs when Mullen showed up because Dan told him to lose it or he wouldn't play.
Sherrod was a stud, but Croom just completely neglected depth at OL which ultimately led to Clausell and a couple other guys who otherwise wouldn't get the chance starting for us. Some of have stepped up to the challenge, others have not.
I've made the argument 10000 times on here and I'm not about to again, but the idea that Mullen won because of Croom's recruits is the dumbest thing ever thought. 1/2 of each of his classes never made it on campus, and while there might have been an eventual stud in each one of those classes a lot of them were scrubs. Most of them were scrubs. That's not even mentioning how unbalanced the classes were.
Ole Miss hasn't started a QB from Mississippi since Seth Adams in 2007. See how silly that sounds? State has 63 players from MS on the roster, Ole Miss has 47. We have recently pulled top players from Georgia, Florida, Illinois, and Texas. During the Orgeron years we pulled highly rated kids from California, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia. You make zero points about how Ole Miss isn't capable of recruiting nationally other than some irrelevant comment about the 1960s.
And I'm not saying Ole Miss can't recruit nationally, but do you honestly believe that Ole Miss can recruit nationally on the same level Southern Cal, Alabama, or even your rival LSU can? Forget the 1960's backhanded swipe, do you honestly think Oxford is as appealing to a kid from Illinois as Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge? Those are two "big" cities, and while I admit that Oxford has a southern charm to it that I enjoy, why would a kid who isn't from our culture find that appealing? Sure, you'll grab a few, but Oxford isn't Tuscaloosa. It's not Athens. It's not Baton Rouge. It's a small Mississippi town with a nice downtown area in the middle of nowhere. You fill half of your roster with Mississippians and try to grab the others, we try to go 75% and mix and match with kids from nearby states with a couple kids sprinkled in from who cares. What does it matter? My point is that you think we can't recruit so choose to grab in the in-state guys because they'll likely come to MSU. Obviously that's not entirely the case because several of our starters are from other states.
Then you prove this with "If Mullen had lost to Ole Miss he would have shown me he floundered" and "I'm happy with what we have minus some assistants now, and he gave me a reason to believe that." All based on the Ole Miss game. You ruined your own point.
Then I need to clarify, it wasn't because we beat YOU. Following last season I just wanted Mullen to show some balls. I venture to say you'd see very few if any people calling for Mullen's head had he beaten USC earlier in the season but lost to Ole Miss, still reaching 6-6. You'd hear a lot of bitching about how we lost to Ole Miss and how Freeze was going to recruit us into nonexistence, but a lot of us have been waiting to see 2010 Dan for what seems like a long time now. It didn't have to be Ole Miss. Had we ended with a different fringe top 25 team at the end of the season and won in the same fashion it would have done the trick, it just happened to be that much sweeter for being you. A solid portion of us knew 5-7 was a likely scenario before the season. The season couldn't have started worse, but we hit our stride when it counted. Before the Alabama game it appeared Mullen threw in the towel.
Rivalries are about more than trophies, but since you justify LSU-ARK rivalry by talking about their trophy, HEY we have one with LSU, too. Rivalries are about dislike for each other, and I'll admit the LSU-OM rivalry hatred is more from the Ole Miss side than LSU, similar to the Egg Bowl rivalry hatred being more from MSU than Ole Miss. Just as your LSU friends say they hate Arkansas, I have LSU friends who say they hate Ole Miss. Y'all are no doubt our natural rivals and anyone who says otherwise is a liar. But I would still rather beat LSU and lose to you every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I know you have a trophy with them. I was implying that apparently it is all you need to have a real rival. Alabama is a stone's throw away from MSU, and while they roll us worse than any other annual matchup in existence I'd consider Bama-MSU a pretty good rivalry... more-so in the non-football world. I'd rather beat Alabama, even during one of their down years, than beat Ole Miss. Over the last 4-5 years I'd rather beat Auburn than beat Ole Miss. MSU fans don't just go walking around mentioning that to Ole Miss fans any chance the Egg Bowl gets brought up though.
Both fan-bases are nuts. Mental. I'm not trying to imply we are any better, but spins gone crazy.
