Do you think those against Dan Mullen

[BulldogBlitz]

Again with merlinz...do yall believe he isn't coaching right now because he is holding out for us?

 

[We Men]

Like others have said, it’s the way he left. I would not support Mullen the least. It’s like asking would you marry your x-wife? No!

 

[OG Goat Holder]

I just never liked Mullen as a coach. I don't care that he left our program, and I don't have any proof that his constant job shopping cost us any games. He just wasn't that great of a coach.

He absolutely got our program organized, along with Byrne and Stricklin ( let's not turn this into a Stricklin bashing thread). And while I enjoyed the 2014 season, all three losses that year infuriated me. Still it was nice feeling like 6-6 was the floor.

I'm okay with hiring him back if that's what is decided. I'm just tired of mediocrity and would rather seek out success. Nevertheless, mediocrity is better than sucking

This actually makes more and more sense the more I read it. Especially the second paragraph. There's a lot to be said for guys that spend a lot of time with a proven championship level coach (like Urban).

I do think we can do better than the results Mullen gave us. I'm becoming more on board with a CEO/recruiter type approach, like Joe Judge, in this new era of NIL and portal. I've long advocated for the system route, but our coach freaking died. It's a pretty clear sign.

 

[Dawgzilla2]

This is just the most wrong take of the year on this message board. Mullen was unquestionably the best coach we've had since the 1950s, if not before. And he was very successful at Florida, despite what a lot of people think. The record speaks for itself.

I'm pretty sure you can find worse takes than this.

I didn't say Mullen was a bad coach, I said he wasn't great. I personally think Sherrill was better, but he certainly had a bigger downside than Mullen, so I won't argue that point with you.

Nobody at Florida thinks he was "very successful". They had a nice year in 2019, but the only time they beat Georgia was the COVID year. He could not recruit top talent, and that is what brought him down quickly.

You are obviously satisfied with mediocrity, and that's fine. Personally, I think Mullen showed us we can be better than mediocre. It's just that he can't get us there.

 

[dawgoneyall]

While Danny isn't in my top candidates, his leaving didn't hurt my feelings. The problem was that he checked out and was job searching by the end of the year, multiple times. If he had kept coaching while his agent did the job searching, I wouldn't be as apposed him coming back.

This.

how many times does coach get to quit on you

 

[RockyDog]

IF we went back to Mullens,, most people would want to put 2 restrictions in place:

1 No hiring from the country club
2 No retreads since we have a faction of people that want a totally clean house

so where does Danny boy go? Is he capable of hiring a new staff from scratch? I would be very doubtful of that.

Secondly, he’s shown now at multiple schools that he can’t/wont recruit. Plus he hasn’t coached yet in the NIL era. Is he willing to play that game?

There are just too many questions regarding the hunchback in shorts. So why not just start with a new face?

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

You defeated your own argument. High level recruits and portal people cost big time. Getting more out of lower level players is going to be THE thing unless you are one of about 10-15 programs. We aren't one of those and Mullen excelled at that.

True, Getting more out of a player is important.

Mullen signed a 2/3 star and developed him a couple of years and the player went off to the pros in his 3rd year, (we got a high level out of the player for a year or two) those days are over. A player showing talent will leave after his first or second year. Keeping current guys happy and working the portal (i.e, recruiting) is going to be key. I don't think that's Mullen's strong point.

Big time CFB, especially at the mid tier programs, will become a year to year proposition, no more three year plans for a player.

Plus nothing puts out the fire in a human like buckets of money, I want a coach who doesn't have $10 mil in the bank yet or a cushy ESPN job. I'm sure Mullen has has plenty of chances to start over, like Herman and Helton, even Coach lobbied for the UNLV job. If Mullen gets back in the grind at a La Tech type program and proves the fire is still there and he's going to put the work in, I'd believe in him.

Saban types are the rare exception.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

I want a coach who will take us to the SEC championship. I want a coach who can beat 'Bama. Mullen did neither. There isn't anything you pro Mullen folks can say or point to that indicates he's able to do those things if given another chance at State.

Good luck with that wish list. Look how many coaches in last 20 years and in our history. 1 we don't have the money 2. We don't have the buy in. Look at TAMU. They paid a crap ton snd still couldn't win it. Ed O got luck. Chizik got lucky. But they were also loaded. Ole miss can't get there with freeze or kiffin. So you better get on with 10 wins being the ceiling.

 

[Ibdancin]

I'm sure this actually happened lol. He probably kicked your dog on his way out of town too.

It did happen. It was even talked about by the 247 staff. It happened.

 

[Ibdancin]

Apart from South Alabama we won every game we should have. Yeah, we fell short in some big games but we were almost always competitive.

Look at how many players he sent to the NFL - I'd say he did OK recruiting. Maybe the problem with recruiting isn't Mullen, maybe it's Starkville/MSU. Croom, Moorhead, Leach, and Arnett didn't exactly light up the recruiting trail. Hoping our next coach will pull in tons of 5*'s is just a pipe dream.

No we did not win every game we were suppose to. We was suppose to lose to Ga Tech? To Houston?

You are right. Arnett did not lite up the recruiting trail and it's just another reason he is being fired. Mullen hated recruiting. Leach put more 4 star WRs on the field than Mullen and did it in a shorter time period.


We don;t need to go backwards to move forward.

 

[L4Dawg]

True, Getting more out of a player is important.

Mullen signed a 2/3 star and developed him a couple of years and the player went off to the pros in his 3rd year, (we got a high level out of the player for a year or two) those days are over. A player showing talent will leave after his first or second year. Keeping current guys happy and working the portal (i.e, recruiting) is going to be key. I don't think that's Mullen's strong point.

Big time CFB, especially at the mid tier programs, will become a year to year proposition, no more three year plans for a player.

Plus nothing puts out the fire in a human like buckets of money, I want a coach who doesn't have $10 mil in the bank yet or a cushy ESPN job. I'm sure Mullen has has plenty of chances to start over, like Herman and Helton, even Coach lobbied for the UNLV job. If Mullen gets back in the grind at a La Tech type program and proves the fire is still there and he's going to put the work in, I'd believe in him.

Saban types are the rare exception.

We don't have the money to really work the portal. It will never work in our favor.

 

[L4Dawg]

No we did not win every game we were suppose to. We was suppose to lose to Ga Tech? To Houston?

You are right. Arnett did not lite up the recruiting trail and it's just another reason he is being fired. Mullen hated recruiting. Leach put more 4 star WRs on the field than Mullen and did it in a shorter time period.


We don;t need to go backwards to move forward.

How many 4 stars at other positions?

 

[L4Dawg]

It did happen. It was even talked about by the 247 staff. It happened.

So your source is Rosebowl?

 

[horshack.sixpack]

99% of the ones that are against Dan are against him because their feelings got hurt when he left. If all the potential candidates' resumes were thrown in a pile with their names removed then Mullen would be the top candidate.

His recruiting suckiness and constant job searching was no fun. Recruiting is more important now than ever and he couldn’t do it at Florida…

 

[Perd Hapley]

Run whatever Mullen optimism you have through this filter:

1) Will he ever have another Dak? Chances are almost 0% of this. Subtract Dak’s years as the starter, he averaged 6.6 regular season wins per season. And in 5 of those 6 years we did not even have a Power 5 opponent in the non-conference. With Dak, he averaged 8 regular season wins per year, and that includes 2013 when Dak was only the starter for 8 games and had another he started with his mom on her deathbed.

2) Will his “diamond in the rough” recruiting work in the NIL / portal era at MSU? Any good finds that were overlooked - we’re gonna have to pay up or lose them.

Those are big concerns. Then you add in his known weaknesses - he sucks at picking DC’s, and micromanages them. He sucks at managing the QB depth chart and has a blatant bias towards incumbents / upperclassmen that he takes far too long to switch away from. He gets the tight-*** in big games / moments. And of course, he doesn’t seem to embrace the game you have to play for the elite prospects in recruiting.

 

[Indndawg]

Fans are dumb.

They can’t separate what they want for what we need.

Mullen wouldn’t be at the top of my list but he wouldn’t be at the bottom.

But here’s a secret for everyone. Selmon and the university know way more than the rest of us regardless of what anyone thinks.

This is a good summation of my feelings and prolly alot of MSU fans. Yes we might do better and yes we could do so much worse

 

[travis.sixpack]

are just bored with the hire and want someone new to be excited about?

I had two conversations last night with die hard Mississippi State fans.

Conversation 1: Why aren't we hiring Mullen already? He had us #1 and he's perfect for us. He's great at developing quarterbacks and lesser talent. We wouldn't miss a beat.

Conversation 2: I don't want Mullen. Been there done that. We need someone new to get the fanbase excited.

Option C: We know he's not interested so we've moved on to talking about more interested/interesting candidates.

Also, the longer the search goes on, the more apparent it should be to everyone that he's not coming.

 

[LOTRGOTDAWGFAN]

are just bored with the hire and want someone new to be excited about?

I had two conversations last night with die hard Mississippi State fans.

Conversation 1: Why aren't we hiring Mullen already? He had us #1 and he's perfect for us. He's great at developing quarterbacks and lesser talent. We wouldn't miss a beat.

Conversation 2: I don't want Mullen. Been there done that. We need someone new to get the fanbase excited.

No one holds lifelong grudges like MSU fans. I agree with conversation #1. He's the perfect person to come in right now and turn it around again. Saban can't last 2 more years, other than that the team to beat is UGa.

 

[johnson86-1]

99% of the ones that are against Dan are against him because their feelings got hurt when he left. If all the potential candidates' resumes were thrown in a pile with their names removed then Mullen would be the top candidate.

If all we had to go on was resume, Mullen would be the top choice. The problem is the game has changed immensely in a short period of time and we don't know how he'd adapt. Mullen would be great at identifying talent, great at getting underrated talent to Starkville, and then great at running a lot of freshmen/sophomores off that can't take his coaching style and/or are tired of sitting behind less physically gifted players. Would he also be able to bring in a lot of freshmen/sophomore transfers that he could then develop without them being able to utilize a free transfer? I dunno.

I'm not opposed to finding out depending on what our options are and depending on whether he wants to be coaching right now (I personally don't think he does but I certainly don't know). But he's nto

 

[NWADawg]

are just bored with the hire and want someone new to be excited about?

I had two conversations last night with die hard Mississippi State fans.

Conversation 1: Why aren't we hiring Mullen already? He had us #1 and he's perfect for us. He's great at developing quarterbacks and lesser talent. We wouldn't miss a beat.

Conversation 2: I don't want Mullen. Been there done that. We need someone new to get the fanbase excited.

DM with his hair on fire - I'll take it
DM that realizes his mistakes and comes to humility and thankfulness wanting another opportunity to stay and build. - I'll take it.
DM that thinks we need him and he could do better - Keep him in the announcer booth.

I don't want him because I think option 3 is what we'd be getting.