If we somehow get to 6-6 - do you want to move on from Arnett?

Perd Hapley

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It is so weird. Don went 5-7 his first year, but all things considered I felt like that they played somewhat over their head and i had confidence things would get better.
What’s funny is that’s what we all thought about Dan in 2009….at the time. Because of recency bias and just coming from where we were with Croom.

But, hindsight is a funny thing, and we were all wrong. That 2009 team was 17ing loaded, and should have won at least 2-3 more games. Turns out that was a massive underachievement for Mullen, partially due to squandering a defense loaded with talent by making an atrocious DC hire, and partially by Mullen taking 11.25 games to give regular PT to the guy who should have been the starting QB most (if not all) of the season

We certainly had absolutely no business at all losing at home to 17ing Houston, or getting absolutely curbstomped by a very mediocre Auburn team. And of course that LSU game was there for the taking as well.
 

OG Goat Holder

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What’s funny is that’s what we all thought about Dan in 2009….at the time. Because of recency bias and just coming from where we were with Croom.

But, hindsight is a funny thing, and we were all wrong. That 2009 team was 17ing loaded, and should have won at least 2-3 more games. Turns out that was a massive underachievement for Mullen, partially due to squandering a defense loaded with talent by making an atrocious DC hire, and partially by Mullen taking 11.25 games to give regular PT to the guy who should have been the starting QB most (if not all) of the season

We certainly had absolutely no business at all losing at home to 17ing Houston, or getting absolutely curbstomped by a very mediocre Auburn team. And of course that LSU game was there for the taking as well.
WOW!! Holy hot take. You are literally the first person I've ever seen in my life that referred to that 2009 team as an "underachievement", much less a massive one. Have you eaten bath salts today?

Remember that we played the #1 SOS that year? And yeah we could have beaten that 9-3 LSU team (one pitch) and that 10-2 Houston team (Case Keenum), but that's an argument FOR Mullen, not against. I was at every one of those games, it was mind-boggling to see the competence compared to the year before that.

You're nuts, dude, if you really believe what you typed. That is all.
 

Perd Hapley

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WOW!! Holy hot take. You are literally the first person I've ever seen in my life that referred to that 2009 team as an "underachievement", much less a massive one. Have you eaten bath salts today?

Remember that we played the #1 SOS that year? And yeah we could have beaten that 9-3 LSU team (one pitch) and that 10-2 Houston team (Case Keenum), but that's an argument FOR Mullen, not against. I was at every one of those games, it was mind-boggling to see the competence compared to the year before that.

You're nuts, dude, if you really believe what you typed. That is all.
Nobody says it because it didn’t feel like it when it happened. Like I said, recency bias. But go back and look at the roster. 25% of the 2-deep on that team were multi-year NFL guys, including multiple first round picks, a first ballot HOF defensive tackle, a Thorpe award winner, Seattle Seahawks HOF linebacker….and on and on. We had the same amount of overall NFL talent on that team (if not more) than 2014 and the 2017-2018 teams.

The only position on the field where we lacked talent was QB, but the guy on the bench was still way better than the starter, which was a Mullen issue. And an issue he would repeat again with Tyler Russell / Dak a few years later.
 

OG Goat Holder

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The only position on the field where we lacked talent was QB, but the guy on the bench was still way better than the starter, which was a Mullen issue. And an issue he would repeat again with Tyler Russell / Dak a few years later.
QB and WR. Croom was woefully weak recruiting those positions, and it created a ceiling for us. Even that 8-4 in 2010 was a STRONG 8-4. The schedule was a killer those two years.
 

Perd Hapley

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QB and WR. Croom was woefully weak recruiting those positions, and it created a ceiling for us. Even that 8-4 in 2010 was a STRONG 8-4. The schedule was a killer those two years.
The schedule was tough in 2009. Easier in 2010 without having to face GT or Tebow led UF or Keenum led Houston. But we still had, at worst, 7-5 on the table for us in 2009. We had no business giving up 49 on the plains to Barrett Trotter and company with the talent we had on defense those years.

And even the games we showed up to play were duds in many cases. UF scored 15 offensive points unassisted by turnovers, and won because we were completely inept offensively, due to us sticking with Lee for far too long. The QB talent wasn’t elite, but Relf was far more capable as both a passer and a runner than Lee, and Mullen was as insanely stubborn and loyal to the incumbents throughout his tenure as any other coach.
 

lazlow

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Can anyone articulate what direction we are heading? Should I expect better recruiting? Should I expect better portal work? What's our identity? Should I expect the energy levels to increase going forward? I don't feel like there's a plan. If there is, nobody is selling it. Selmon owns some of that too.

With Leach, we were going to be air raid and sell out to it. Love it or hate it, we knew what direction everyone was pulling. Today it just feels like we are in limbo and hoping for the best.
And that’s what happens when you get a 37 year old HC. No one’s as smart as Arnett. He put up a 1/3 of the points that his predecessor gift wrapped for him because he just had to 17 with it. At least w/ the AR you had something to offer the portal……and it was still trending up (even through people just didn’t like the way Leach put up 40+ pts). guess every now and then the fans need a dick kick to remind them of the last idiot that waltzed into Starkville w/ system that he had zero personnel for (and that 17er lasted 4 years). I think we’ve seen seen enough of ZA’s poor judgement and other coaches just like him.
 

OG Goat Holder

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The schedule was tough in 2009. Easier in 2010 without having to face GT or Tebow led UF or Keenum led Houston. But we still had, at worst, 7-5 on the table for us in 2009. We had no business giving up 49 on the plains to Barrett Trotter and company with the talent we had on defense those years.

And even the games we showed up to play were duds in many cases. UF scored 15 offensive points unassisted by turnovers, and won because we were completely inept offensively, due to us sticking with Lee for far too long. The QB talent wasn’t elite, but Relf was far more capable as both a passer and a runner than Lee, and Mullen was as insanely stubborn and loyal to the incumbents throughout his tenure as any other coach.
Wrong. Chris Todd was Auburn's QB and they obviously had enough talent to win a natty the following year. Again, stop, you're making a fool of yourself. I agree with you on most things but this is just asinine.

And Ralph was not a better passer than Lee in 2009. Remember the ball in the Egg Bowl he threw to Bumphis? Yeah, that was supposed to go to someone else. Ralph is one the greatest bulldogs ever but let's not act as if he was a world beater that year outside of carving up Tyrone Nix' defense with the read-option.
 

OG Goat Holder

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And that’s what happens when you get a 37 year old HC. No one’s as smart as Arnett. He put up a 1/3 of the points that his predecessor gift wrapped for him because he just had to 17 with it. At least w/ the AR you had something to offer the portal……and it was still trending up (even through people just didn’t like the way Leach put up 40+ pts). guess every now and then the fans need a dick kick to remind them of the last idiot that waltzed into Starkville w/ system that he had zero personnel for (and that 17er lasted 4 years). I think we’ve seen seen enough of ZA’s poor judgement and other coaches just like him.
Outstanding post.
 

BigDawg0074

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I want him gone regardless. There’s only one team left on the schedule worth their socks so stumbling into six wins ain’t gonna cut it. The team is nosediving and there isn’t a new slate of recruits that makes me feel any better about the future of the program.
 

Perd Hapley

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Wrong. Chris Todd was Auburn's QB and they obviously had enough talent to win a natty the following year. Again, stop, you're making a fool of yourself. I agree with you on most things but this is just asinine.

And Ralph was not a better passer than Lee in 2009. Remember the ball in the Egg Bowl he threw to Bumphis? Yeah, that was supposed to go to someone else. Ralph is one the greatest bulldogs ever but let's not act as if he was a world beater that year outside of carving up Tyrone Nix' defense with the read-option.
Sorry, I remembered the wrong mediocre Auburn QB…..which is just about every QB they’ve had except the one that won them that 2010 title.

So anyway, if you think that a defense containing Fletcher Cox, Josh Boyd, Pernell McPhee, KJ Wright, Johnathan Banks, Chris White, Jamar Chaney, Nickoe Whitley, and others should have had 49 hung on them by a 7-5 Auburn team (that also lost at home to Kentucky that same year) that was led by….checks notes….Chris Todd, then be my guest. Or maybe you could just admit we made an absolutely awful DC hire. Mullen admitted as much himself just a few months later, so it’s certainly OK for you to admit it now.

And Relf actually was a better passer than Lee, even in 2009. 137 passer rating compared to f-ing 107 for Lee. Lee threw 4 TD passes ALL SEASON, and had 14 INT’s. And Mullen started him 12 times. I loved the heart of the kid. Great guy and a great leader. Would have loved him as the back-up. But he was a 5-8 walk-on trying to play QB in the SEC. Inexcusable that it took Mullen 12 games to figure that out. And it was almost as equally inexcusable that he didn’t make the switch to Dak no later than halfway through that horrid 7 game stretch in 2012-2013 that started with #webelieve and ended with the Oklahoma State kickoff classic game.
 
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AstroDog

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He's coming back if we go 3-9. Nothing to discuss. These message boards are like 1% of the MSU fan population. If we all demanded the same thing, no one would ever hear you.
 
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