Were we exceedingly lucky in 2010?

[EmoryBellard]

It isn't in our nature to think State ever gets the lucky breaks, but it is starting to appear this may be the case.

 

[spacecataz]

It isn't in our nature to think State ever gets the lucky breaks, but it is starting to appear this may be the case.

I wouldn't call it lucky breaks. The Injuns do have a sense of humor and like to give a good ol' case of the blue balls every now and then.

 

[Sutterkane]

We soundly defeated UGA last year. We also beat Florida in very convincing fashion, even though the scoreboard didn't reflect that.

We had a great chance to beat the national champions last year.

This year's team doesn't have a line push on either side of the ball, and doesn't have 2 NFL caliber linebackers on the team. We also were a lot less penalized last year, or so it seems to me. We start drives by getting 6 yards, then before the actual 3rd down play we get a false start which puts Relf in unmanageable 3rd downs for the way we need to play offense.

 

[dawgphd]

1. We had 3 nfl players on defense. One of which (White) was a coach on the field. That can't be underestimated.
2. We had an nfl left tackle and a really good senior center.
3. Diaz > WIlson
4. Florida was down
5. Georgia was down
6. Michigan was in complete disarray by the time we got them. They were the Michigan version of our last Croom Egg Bowl team.

It was the perfect storm of positives in a rebuilding year. Things went our way and we were 9-4 with a Gator Bowl win instead of 6-6 and hoping for a Liberty Bowl win.

Add that to 9 months of wool growing and Mullen's cockiness that leads to expectations of year three rebuilding that are almost unattainable.

In a normal rebuilding progression this year at the earliest probably next would be our breakout year not last. Add that to the fact we play in the SEC West we are logically still a couple of years away.

Is Mullen the answer? Have no idea.

The rubber will meet the road the next 7 games and and next season.

I watch Wisconsin and have hope. Their recruiting rating is no better than ours probably worse. They obviously evaluate talent quite well. They coach em up . They are consistent top 20. I know they don't play an SEC schedule but they play 4or 5 tough games a year.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I wouldn't say it was "exceedingly" lucky, but facing Florida without their world class FG kicker was pretty big, particularly considering it was such a low scoring game. I'm not saying State would have lost, but they could not have played as conservatively and still won if UF was not forced to use their punter to kick FGs.

And of course we faced UGA without AJ Green. One player shouldn't make that much difference, but UGA played completely different with Green in the lineup. Might have changed things. Washaun Ealey's fumble into the endzone was pretty fortunate as well.