This board has gone full crazy since the Egg Bowl.

[ronpolk]

We have guys wanting to can Mullen, guys wanting to turn down the Compass Bowl (if we fall that far) and one guy who can't find anything about State to get excited about. I hate that we lost the Egg Bowl too but I'm still happy with the season we had. I remember us losing to Troy and I was a student when we lost to Maine, Tulane and UAB. I'm more than willing to give Mullen time to win big, provided he does not start losing stupid games.

Just for comparison, below are Gundy and Spurrier's record, through 2011, at OK State and South Carolina. 2 programs that historically have been no more successful than State, in my opinion.

Gundy: 4-7; 7-6; 7-6; 9-4; 9-4; 11-2; 12-1

Spurrier: 7-5; 8-5; 6-6; 7-6; 7-6; 9-5; 11-2

First 4 years Gundy = 27
First 4 years Spurrier = 28
First 4 years Mullen = 29

 

[MSUDawg4Life]

That's why I stayed away until just now. I knew the board would go full retard.

 

[thatsbaseball]

Good post but ron polk calling anybody crazy made me laugh

 

[biguglyjoe]

Many on this board are worse than any group of women I've ever been around. Five years ago, I would have taken 8-4 in any form or fashion. I see things that could be improved on as well but Russell isn't one of them, we NEVER will be in a position to turn down a bowl game, and we are pissed because Mullen has caused us to raise our expectations as a fanbase.

 

[Coach34]

yep-that's why I have hardly posted anything. Got to let the emotions die down. Too bad so many others haven't done the same.

 

[DerHntr]

yep-that's why I have hardly posted anything. Got to let the emotions die down. Too bad so many others haven't done the same.

Hell I figured you were laid up sick after all that crow you had to eat.

I am actually surprised it isn't worse around here.

 

[patdog]

One problem with your comparison. Both Oklahoma St. and South Carolina had been more successful than MSU when Gundy, Spurrier and Mullen took over. Otherwise, spot on. Mullen has us in the best position to be consistently competitive than any coach we've ever had. I think even more than Sherrill looked like he did in the late 90s. He never built the depth of redshirts that Mullen has. That's debateable, but that's the only other situation that's debateable.

 

[ronpolk]

Good point, Gundy replaced a successful Les Miles and Spurrier followed a moderately successful Lou Holtz.

 

[Coach 57]

What makes it so bad is that IF they only knew how badly the bear nation laughs there asses of when our fans melt down like this. Man I was 17ing there & sat through the WHOLE damn thing! It was messed up but you don't see me bitching & whinning like Sally Sue with her first period. Wake the 17 up! So is the life as a state fan & EVEN (don't let them lie to you) the life of a bear fan. Up & down.....peaks & valleys. Go grab some Midol, some tampax & a fluffy soft snuggie and hit the 17ing road!

 

[patdog]

Probably about as much as we laughed at them when they fired the most successful coach they've had since Vaught and replace him with Ed Orgeron.

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

I'm more than willing to give Mullen time to win big, provided he does not start losing stupid games.

I'm willing to give him time too. People saying he should be canned are just idiots blowing off steam. At the same time, as a team, we aren't any better after year four than we were after year two. That's an issue. Pointing that out isn't retarded. If you are going to get steamrolled by good teams, fine. Then your margin for error against mediocre and bad teams is next to nothing. If we'd had showed any fight against Bama or A&M, losing to Ole Miss would have still sucked, but not nearly as much.

 

[RocketCityDawg]

My first egg bowl in Oxford was in 1964, when I was a student.
I hadn't planned to go, but that morning....
My roommate got me out of the rack, and said, we gotta go.
(No, we weren't in the same bunk.)

It was a cold day in Hell. uh, Oxford. Like in the 20's or so.

We won that one for the first time in 18 years. The first time on national TV.
Old men, MSU guys, were slapping our players on the shoulders as they left the field afterward, with tears on their faces, saying, "thanks, boys!"
That's because we'd endured almost two decades of taking crap from Rebel fans back home, in our small home towns.

That's what it's all about, Dawgs.
That's why this game means so much to us.

Cheers,
RCD

 

[Todd4State]

Firing Dan would be crazy

He deserves a chance to see if he can fix our problems and make some changes. If we ever turn down a bowl- we need to have our heads examined.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

This place defies all logic after a loss.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Probably about as much as we laughed at them when they fired the most successful coach they've had since Vaught and replace him with Ed Orgeron.

You know, I've always kind of been opposed to that statement. Most successful since Vaught? Brewer had a pretty damn good run. For starters, 8-3 against y'all. went to five bowl games (two Independence, two Liberty when it meant something and a Gator when it mean't something). And he didn't have a 60,000 seat stadium and IPF to recruit to. Hell, our facilities were so bad, he hired Joe Lee Dunn in a motel room before even allowing him to look at them.

Tuberville was pretty good his short time there as well. Broke even over two years with the worst sanctions handed down since SMU got death. Two bowls, and left Cutcliffe (who beat out Mike Cavan for the job for goodness sake) a team good enough that even under his leadership, it finished 17 points short of a perfect season, but ended up 7-4. And if Cutcliffe hadn't landed Manning, his tenure would've been much worse. Perhaps not as bad if he hadn't sat the best linebacker in the NFL today on the bench his first two seasons on campus.

There's a reason he's coaching at Duke now, people. Haven't heard his name brought up in the coaching carousel by the way.

So yeah, "Tell 'em about it Jo Jo" sucked as a coach, but he did what we hired him to do. He loaded the cupboard with talent for his successor.If the 2008 team had played the first half of the season the way it did the last half, it would've finished undefeated. Loss to Wake Forrest after taking the lead with one minute left, fumbling the game-winning run at the goal line against Vandy, losing by 7 to South Carolina and coming up four points short in a rally at eventual No. 1 Bama. Still got two Cotton Bowls out of it.

By the way, pot, meet kettle. Y'all fired Croom for the exact same results and exact same number of wins a year after he pulled off your best season since 2000. Remember that? Yeah, Cutcliffe went 4-7 a year after a Cotton Bowl (with one Independence as new head coach and two Independence bowls and a Music City under his belt earlier). Croom went 4-8 the year after your team's first bowl appearance in SEVEN years.

I should note the jury is still out on how Mullen's recruiting, standing on its own two feet, will fare. A lot of this year's senior class, at the very least, committed to Croom before signing under Mullen. There's been a lot of chatter on this board regarding how much softer and less physical both the offense and defense have seemed the last couple years. Is it the transition from Ellis to Diaz to Wilson, or the players, or a combo? Losing Hudspeth to the head coaching ranks probably didn't help the offense either. Like Freeze, time will tell how good your staff's evaluation abilities of recruits truly are.

I get it. Croom truly did suck. Guess what though. So did Cutcliffe. Difference is his weaknesses were masked by a future Super Bowl QB. And our own coaching carousel got us to where we are now. If Freeze can continue to build from a start none of us expected, then the firing of Cutcliffe we've been so crucified over will have been WELL WORTH IT.

I deal only in facts. That's why I'm a cocky 17ing bastard.

 

[onewoof]

. Y'all hired Cutcliffe because that is who Archie wanted his boy to play for. Just like why Peyton went to UTenn. Then you fired him because UM was "better than 7 and 5" when all the Scruggs money was rolling in. Cut didn't kiss alumni *** either and he didn't fire his coordinator. Your AD at the time was an idiot. Cut was as good of a man as Freeze and a damn good coach. Eli lost the LSU game when he tripped over his linemans foot. Firing Cut was very stupid.

 

[patdog]

Well, if you deal only in facts, here are a few for you:

Brewer - 75-69-4 (33-38 SEC)
Tuberville - 25-20 (12-20)
Cutcliffe - 44-29 (25-23)
Nutt - 24-26 (10-22)

Cutcliffe is the most successful coach you've had since Vaught and it's not even close. There's your facts.

 

[Victory Red]

He won six games Eli Manning's junior year. Any coach that does that should not be considered "successful."

 

[BiscuitEater]

Astounding ...

• So yeah, "Tell 'em about it Jo Jo" sucked as a coach, but he did what we hired him to do. He loaded the cupboard with talent for his successor.

• I deal only in facts. That's why I'm a cocky 17ing bastard.

So, you actually think that OM hired O, suffered through the worse OM football since integraton, won 3 SEC games in 3 year, so that he could recruit for the next guy?

That was 'why' he was hired?

 

[FormerlyHighLifeRebel]

Doesn't MSU sort of lose credibility with this argument after firing Stansbury and hiring Rick Ray?

I'm willing to admit that firing Cutcliff for Orgeron was a huge mistake. I also think that anyone that isn't willing to admit that simply refuses to be rational. If we had gotten Petrino which was the alleged "plan" then it would not have been a mistake. However, we didn't get Petrino. Ergo, mistake.

Regardless of **** that happened eight years ago, didn't MSU just fire one of it's most successful coaches, just a few short years after actually winning the SEC Tournament because he wasn't getting you to the "next level"? How can you, on one hand, say that OM was deserving of being laughed at, then support firing one of your most successful coaches?

This whole argument has eggbowl.com written all over it, but since that's what Dawgstudent apparently wanted around here, I guess I'll pitch in.

 

[RiverBullyBullDawg]

"We will never lose to this school again!" - Dan Mullen

Dan set himself up for the backlash but his job was to make us all #believe, build the fan base, increase revenue, grow the stadium, earn bowl games and on and on and he has done just that. He's a huge success.

 

[Dawg1976]

Stansbury lost control of the team. Example...our own players fighting on national TV. Players always transferring. If those hadn't happen, he would have probably would still be here.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

Come on, now.....

There's a reason he's coaching at Duke now, people. Haven't heard his name brought up in the coaching carousel by the way.

You hadn't quoted a fact yet. Reason Cut is at Duke? Because he was fired from Ole Miss after being your most successful coach since Vaught (patdog provided the numbers - FACT), swallowed his pride, stepped back down into QB coaching and OC again, helped lead Weis' offense at Notre Dame to 9-3 (molding Brady Quinn into a high draft pick), and then went to Tennessee and single handedly lifted them up temporarily, almost completely due to the play of Eric Ainge. Then he went to Duke, complete bottom feeder, and has them bowl eligible in quite likely the hardest job in the country.

If Freeze can continue to build from a start none of us expected

Freeze is no miracle worker. I'm glad you're excited though. We've seen this situation play out a thousand times. Nutt was a miracle worker in 2008 too, you were going to get 1,000 recruits, yada yada. Ya'll are completely full of ****.

 

[onewoof]

He won six games Eli Manning's junior year. Any coach that does that should not be considered "successful."

You guys talk about Eli like he was the second coming of football Jesus. It's embarrassing. Curb your enthusiasm.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

It's because the rest of your team sucked. If I remember correctly, Ole Miss had ZERO running game until Eli's senior year. And truth be known, Eli wasn't a world beater until later, there were lots of questions surrounding him. I know lots of idiot rebels like to hate on Cut for playing a SENIOR Romaro Miller over a freshman Eli Manning, but I believe that decision paid off for him, unbeknownst to ungrateful and entitled bear fans.

 

[johnson86-1]

. ...Cut was as good of a man as Freeze and a damn good coach...

Cutcliff was and is a good coach, but he couldn't run an sec program. He didn't have the personality to recruit and he wasn't willing to hold his coaches accountable. Cutcliff put them in a bad position. It was lose-lose at the point they fired him. Firing him meant the best they could do was Orgeron, but I'm not sure giving him one more year would have significantly improved their coaching options, because it would have been another year without legitimate recruits.

 

[Railin Jemmye]

One more year of losing, and no one would have blamed them. Ole Miss was actually more worried that Cut would have won 6 or 7 games because they'd have to keep him. That's beneath their standard. I'm actually feeling a little of that creeping into our fanbase. It's like we've become the flagship entitled and they now have a chip on their shoulder.

But, I will say Cut did sort of slack off in recruiting at the end. That's nothing a good kick in the *** from the AD couldn't have solved though. While he did sign Robert Lane, I always thought they should have been able to sign another high level QB after Eli.

 

[MadDawg.sixpack]

I'd rather talk to Bear fans than most Bulldog fans after a loss.

 

[Oxford Andrew]

Cutcliffe didn't coach a down at Notre Dame. He resigned due to severe health problems prior to his first season.

He would have had to take the same leave of absence at Ole Miss had he stayed; a heart condition is nothing to be trifled with. Cut is a pretty good QB and offensive coach. He is very loyal to his coordinators (many would say to a fault). While at Ole Miss our defense was, frankly, terrible and he refused to make any staff changes. Some say he didn't get the Tennessee job over Dooley because he wanted to bring his entire staff from Duke. He's a mediocre recruiter, which hurts a lot less in the ACC than in the SEC. I think he's a fine man and a great coach for Duke, but there is a reason you don't see him mentioned much in connection with high profile jobs.

In any case, what's done is done. Had Ole Miss retained Cutcliffe he would have had to resign or take a leave of absence due to his health problems anyway, so it's more or less a moot point.

 

[Oxford Andrew]

I'm not a Boone fan, but I think that's what Boone was trying to do with his "ultimatum" and it backfired because Cut wouldn't change anything.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Well, if you deal only in facts, here are a few for you:

Brewer - 75-69-4 (33-38 SEC)
Tuberville - 25-20 (12-20)
Cutcliffe - 44-29 (25-23)
Nutt - 24-26 (10-22)

Cutcliffe is the most successful coach you've had since Vaught and it's not even close. There's your facts.

Oh Jesus H. Christ, records are out the window on these coaches. Each had a completely different set of circumstances. For Brewer, considering he had absolutely ZERO facilities and a sea of Confederate flags every week, what he did during his tenure was an absolute miracle. It had been 12 years since we made a bowl (the year after Vaught retired and his leftover players made Billy Kinard, the AD's brother, look good. Y'all can thank Bruiser's nepotism for getting Bob Tyler, Vaught's recommendation, btw) before he took over. All he did in 11 years despite the disadvantages was make it to five bowls, and come up a win over Tennessee shy of the SEC title in 1986 and 1990, and whip the **** out of MSU almost every year.

Then you've got Tuberville, who inherited a team coached by Joe Lee Dunn for a year with crippling NCAA sanctions. That he went 6-5 and 5-6 his first two years is miraculous. He really pissed off the NCAA when he managed to get some 40 signees (many walked on) in 1996. Year 3, beat the hell out of LSU in Baton Rouge and had the guts to go for two at MSU. First top 25 ranking since Brewer's 1992 team. Then, despite a 6-2 start in 1998, made his decision on Auburn and the team **** the bed. By the way, if you want to compare "most successful coach" and all that, what say we judge the coach on their cumulative record. Throw his record at Auburn in there as well. We had the coach that could get us back to the top. He set the table for Cutcliffe. But he left because Boone's an idiot and he had virtually zero support from the administration.

"Oh you're making that up!" No, I'm not. There's a reason he had his players practice in a parking lot on a rainy day for the media. He wanted and needed an IPF. He wanted and needed an expansion. He wanted and needed a million other things the administration wouldn't give him. He also, in essence, led the way on banning the flag from the stadium - an overdue move that has reaped huge benefits. Give me Tuberville over Cutcliffe ANY day of the week.

Speaking of the corpse, Tuberville set the table for Cutcliffe. The team Cutcliffe inherited had 12 future NFL players on it, and a bunch of very good college players. Again, the team finished 17 points shy of an undefeated season. The next year, despite having the preseason "best backfield in the country," 7-5 with a 1-3 finish. 2001, with Eli and the expansion starting? 1-3 finish, embarrassing Egg Bowl loss to an MSU team with a losing record (after "I'll see you in Pasadena"), and missed out on a bowl. 2002, with an expanded stadium and brand new IPF: 7-6 with a 5-game losing streak, and only Auburn and LSU were close. Then of course, 2003, Eli's senior year, shot at the SEC west title, and choke. 2004, the talent dropoff was obvious.

"Well how can you say that Homer?" Because, ****** of a coach as Ed Orgeron was, his team played a helluva lot better with his players than they did with Cutcliffe's leftovers.

By the way, any ventures on our record from 2001-2003 WITHOUT Eli? What's the consensus on Cutcliffe's record with, say, David Morris, Michael Spurlock, Ethan Faltt or Robert Lane back there during his tenure, with Eli elsewhere. Go ahead 17ers. Tell me how "great a coach" he is.

As for Orgeron, the team went from hapless in 2005 to should've beaten Georgia, Alabama and LSU in 2006 - three teams we didn't belong on the field with - and earning a winning record and bowl. A good coach in place, with that talent? They would've pulled those and others off. I didn't call Nutt a great coach, but he did a better job with the full cupboard Orgeron left him. He just couldn't to restock it.

Tell you what, if y'all are such a fan of Cutcliffe, Y'ALL HIRE HIM. For right now, I feel pretty good about our future under Freeze. What he's done is pretty similar to what Brewer accomplished his first year. Difference is, Freeze doesn't have a stadium of flags, or the lack of a nice stadium (with an expansion on the way), lack of an IPF or lack of a competent, supportive AD and administration to contend with.

Now, back to why y'all fired Croom a year removed from the program's first bowl game since 2000...

I deal only in facts. That's why I'm a cocky 17ing bastard.

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Freeze is no miracle worker. I'm glad you're excited though. We've seen this situation play out a thousand times. Nutt was a miracle worker in 2008 too, you were going to get 1,000 recruits, yada yada. Ya'll are completely full of ****.

Ahahahahahahaha! That's hilarious. Oh, wait, you're serious? Wow. You did see our team a few times last year right? The difference is night and day. Save for Texas, there's is not one team on the schedule we didn't play competitively despite a complete lack of talent and manpower. "What about Georgia?" Trailed by 4 at the half and save for two busted plays and a turnover deep in their territory, could've been up 17-0 or 17-3 at the half, and it's a different ballgame."What about Bama?" Yeah, they overlooked us. First SEC home game and all, but they were looking ahead to Missouri. Stil wonder what would've happened if we don't give up the kickoff return after taking an early lead. "What about Vandy, TAMU, LSU?" Three games we should've won, two against highly ranked opponents.

In year 1, with well less than 85 scholarship players. Man, y'all would be shitting a brick right now if we'd gone from 2-10 to 9-3 under these circumstances. Fact is, we couldn't close three of those out. But in time, we will. Nutt had the full compliment of players and a roster of NFL talent. Freeze does not, in either category. And this recruiting class is shaping up quite nicely. I have no reason to not be optimistic about our future.

Regarding Cut, he's such a great coach. How'd he wind up at the "toughest job in the country" (with ZERO expectations) instead of a well-established program? Singlehandedly lifted up EriK (Yeah, K, btw) Ainge? Did Fulmer miss a few games or something? And yeah, there was the health thing with Notre Dame. Sorry flapjack, he didn't mold Brady Quinn.

Haven't quoted a fact yet? That's 17ing ignorant. Compare the head coaching careers of Cutcliffe and Tuberville. Of course, I'm talking cumulative on that one. If you don't believe Tuberville - if he stayed - would've had more success at Ole Miss than Cutcliffe, and is a better coach than Cutcliffe, you're 17ing retarded. And give Brewer the facilities and atmosphere that's at OM now, when he was coach, he would've won a lot more games.

I deal only in facts. That's why I'm a cocky 17ing bastard.

 

[maroonmania]

Stansbury lost control of the team. Example...our own players fighting on national TV. Players always transferring. If those hadn't happen, he would have probably would still be here.

Plus we gave Stansbury like a 14 year run, that's about as much as anyone would get that has essentially no NCAA success. What did Cutcliffe get at OM, maybe 5 or 6 years?

 

[engie]

Doesn't MSU sort of lose credibility with this argument after firing Stansbury and hiring Rick Ray?

Regardless of **** that happened eight years ago, didn't MSU just fire one of it's most successful coaches, just a few short years after actually winning the SEC Tournament because he wasn't getting you to the "next level"? How can you, on one hand, say that OM was deserving of being laughed at, then support firing one of your most successful coaches?

I wouldn't climb on my high horse on this one, as the Stansbury comparison is much closer to Bianco than Cutcliffe. We are neither innocent in the matter, but in general in the past 2 decades, OM gets rid of coaches too quickly while State keeps them too long.

Bianco has now been at Ole Miss for 12 years, been by FAR the most successful coach you've ever had in the sport, has built tremendous fan support and facilities, but has yet to ever achieve the next level. He has a restless fanbase made worse by the rise of the in-state rival with the vastly superior tradition and history, with the coach that has now won something like 11 of 12 series head to head with Bianco. Bianco's seat is very nearly hot, and it would be scalding if he had the very public behavior issues that Stansbury had...

 

[Victory Red]

Name what juniors or seniors from 2012 are even remotely in the same realm of class as the top 5 of our junior and senior classes of 2008. 2008 had two first round picks, a future 1,000/500 (first time in SEC history) RB, a starting NFL safety, a starting NFL DE, an All-Pro NFL WR, a NFL starting OG, and several ore players still in the NFL from the senior class. You might can find one or two NFL practice squad players in our current Jr/Sr class, and neither will be drafted.

I know it hurts to admit, but Freeze is a damn good coach.