Not necessarily about hating UM.
Are you serious? 10-2 every time. Every single time. Do you love MSU more or do you hate UM more?
To be good for a sustained stretch, we need to dominate the state. Let's say we've been playing possum and that everybody else is essentially what they look like (i.e., UT is a paper tiger, A&M decent but not great, UK, UM, and Arkansas suck). We beat everybody we're supposed to beat and LSU craps the bed against us, even though they're more talented. We're 10-1, but our talent is not exactly at a place it's never been before, we've just gotten luck. And then Ole Miss beats us. I'd take that as a bad sign that Bucky can compete with Mullen with inferior talent, and a good stepping stone for him to start rebuilding.
On the other hand, say we compete in every game, but get out-competed by Bama and LSU and lose a toss up to A&M, UT, or Ark, and then demolish UM in the egg bowl.
I'd still prefer the first situation, but I'm not sure I'd feel better about where the program was headed in the first scenario as opposed to the second scenario.