Mike Leach takes his teams bowling

[Smoked Toag]

I don't care about other football teams. "whataboutisms" are stupid retorts. I care about Mississippi State.

Nowhere in this thread have I criticized Leach, said he was a poor coach, or said I hated going to bowls. This board is full of people who have poor reading comprehension skills or pivot discussion points with whataboutisms.

Once more for the record: We're going to a bowl game. Great. But let's not jerk each other off about it. It's not nearly as big of an accomplishment to go bowling as it was even 10 years ago. It should be our minimum expectation for this football program, and a coach should probably be fired or at least put on severe notice if it doesn't happen.

Thanks for reading.

We've been playing the 12-game schedule since 2006. Since 2016, we've been required to play a P5 opponent. The bowl threshold is 6-6. So theoretically, it's harder to get to that point than 10 years ago. Of course you always have have the outliers like the APR and dumb COVID year where record can't be compared to other years.

Just trying to keep it factual here. The easiest time for an SEC team to go 6-6 and get bowl eligible was from 2006-2015, and further, 2010-2015, because we played a hard P5 OOC opponent from 2006-2009. Funny enough, 10 years ago, 2011, was probably our worst bowl team ever, worse than 2017, and maybe worse than 2020 since we really can't compare. 6-6 (2-6) with no P5 opponent and all wins over crappy teams.

 

[The Peeper]

Vanderbilt says "here, hold my beer"

 

[Drebin]

Everyone has down years. That is just sports. We can agree to disagree here but to say a coach makes 6-7 bowls in a row and if he misses one he should be fired is crazy

If a coach makes 6-7 bowls in a row at a historically mediocre program, he's probably built enough good will to miss one. But it's definitely hot seat territory. At many of the SEC programs, just getting bowl eligible isn't enough. It wasn't good enough for Orgeron. It wasn't good enough for Malzahn. It wasn't good enough for Mullen at Florida. It wasn't good enough for Butch Davis when he was at Tennessee.

Arkansas was a dumpster fire for several years. So was Ole Miss. Vanderbilt is Vanderbilt. Tennessee cratered under Pruitt. Yeah, things happen at places. But given how we schedule, and who our permanent East opponent is (for now), going 6-6 (2-6) should be the bare minimum expectation here, and not a reason for celebration. This year was a good year for us (despite a bad start), so I'm happy for the Liberty Bowl. It's not the same thing as backing into a bad St. Petersburg bowl with a losing record.

 

[mstateglfr]

Just proud of my team for making another bowl game and proud of our coach for taking us there. You should try it some time. You might be a happier person.

My 5th grader put her shoes on this morning before walking out the door. Should I be proud of that, or should it be a minimum expectation at this point?

Ill guide you to water on this- apply that line of thinking to the football team making a bowl game.

 

[PirateDawg]

BWAHAHAHA! Of all the "holier than thou" stuff you throw out on here this is the funniest. Comparing going 6-6 in the SEC West to getting a participation trophy! You can't be serious or were you just seeking a laugh. If so, you got it.

 

[kb549]

I don't care about other football teams. "whataboutisms" are stupid retorts. I care about Mississippi State.

Nowhere in this thread have I criticized Leach, said he was a poor coach, or said I hated going to bowls. This board is full of people who have poor reading comprehension skills or pivot discussion points with whataboutisms.

Once more for the record: We're going to a bowl game. Great. But let's not jerk each other off about it. It's not nearly as big of an accomplishment to go bowling as it was even 10 years ago. It should be our minimum expectation for this football program, and a coach should probably be fired or at least put on severe notice if it doesn't happen.

Thanks for reading.

Spot on.

 

[PirateDawg]

You guys can't find middle ground. Anything positive gets **** on and you gotta take it to Gene's page and any negativity brings out the Far Cohen crowd. Not sure if this is a sports venue or comic book

I guess I should apologize for posting a positive here. It seems that some only want gloom and doom with firing a coach and replacing him is the preferred discussion. I was just happy to see our coach had not missed a bowl game while at TTU, missed twice at WSU and now is 2-2 here.

 

[GloryDawg]

13 out of 14 SEC schools are bowling this year. If the OOC schedule is soft enough, a 2-6 conference record gets you bowling. It's just not an accomplishment anymore.

There is something wrong because they are only 4 teams in the SEC that have not missed a bowl game in 12 years. You are right no one in the SEC should miss a bowl game. Must have been Probation or ****** coaching.

 

[PirateDawg]

Wow, you should be an educator with your inate ability to connect the dots for us uneducated folk. Leach exceeded 6-6 this year with a 7-5 and I'm disappointed because I thought we should have won at least 2 more. With that said, I'm happy we are going to a bowl game because it is not a given since we are in the SEC West and we play one P5 team. Go look at Leach's records. He exceeds 6-6 most years he goes to bowl games which was my point so we should see more bowls with with better records. There, I hope you understand my original post better and can defer from your supercilious behavior.

 

[dorndawg]

Good job with supercilious there.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

The bowl streak is .... nice.
but we've been in how many New Years Day bowls?
How did we perform in the one New Year 6 Bowl we made it to?
How many times did we get a bowl with a 6-6 or losing record?

You hope we can do better at some point.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

If anyone needs proof that MSU fans will argue over pretty much anything, see above.

View attachment 23290

 

[047Dog]

Drebin once again tring to tell someone "we're not as good as you think"!

We aren't. We "extended the streak" twice due to ******** technicalities. We were a 5-7 qualifier due only to grades since all the slots didn't fill, and then last year EVERYONE who wanted to went bowling. Not exactly stellar continuation of this great bowl streak that everyone loves to spout about.

 

[PirateDawg]

Everyone was saying our program would get better when they were calling for Stansbury's head. How has that worked out? Sometimes the grass isn't always greener. My reason for posting Leach's record wasn't to say let's settle for mediocre as y'all call it. It was to point out that we would go bowling moving forward. If you look at his record he did a lot better than 6-6. Even 6-6 would have been bad this year.

 

[PirateDawg]

Well duh. I meant get rid of them in their current format.

Didn't Leach recommend going to a 64 team playoff?

 

[Drebin]

Everyone was saying our program would get better when they were calling for Stansbury's head. How has that worked out? Sometimes the grass isn't always greener. My reason for posting Leach's record wasn't to say let's settle for mediocre as y'all call it. It was to point out that we would go bowling moving forward. If you look at his record he did a lot better than 6-6. Even 6-6 would have been bad this year.

And everyone's point is that we are likely to go bowling moving forward regardless of the coach. Nobody was attacking Leach.

That you bring up Stansbury shows how silly this is.

 

[Smoked Toag]

Didn't Leach recommend going to a 64 team playoff?

Yeah he did. But that's too many, I think everybody agrees on that except him.

16 should do it IMO. I'd be alright with 24.

I remember reading an Athlon back in 2003 or 2004 who proposed a 32-teamer, and thought they were insane. Now we're on the precipice of something like that. It's amazing what just gets ingrained in your head because reasons.

 

[Dawgg]

13 out of 14 SEC schools are bowling this year. If the OOC schedule is soft enough, a 2-6 conference record gets you bowling. It's just not an accomplishment anymore.

I get what you're saying and I agree with you to a certain extent, but we're living in an age where Florida State, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Nebraska, USC, Oregon, and LSU will either miss a bowl game this year or have missed one in the past 5 years. In 2017 & 2019, we had 5 SEC teams miss postseason.

I don't want to pretend like it's nothing to make a bowl. It could be a lot worse.

 

[Dawg1976]

My 5th grader put her shoes on this morning before walking out the door. Should I be proud of that, or should it be a minimum expectation at this point?

Ill guide you to water on this- apply that line of thinking to the football team making a bowl game.

What an asinine comparison.

 

[Dawg1976]

This board is dominated by unhappy folks. Not surprising you got **** on.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Considering there are today 41 bowl games, making a bowl is a bare minimum for an SEC program.

That's funny I could've swore I heard everybody saying we would never win a SEC game and go bowling after the LSU game.

 

[QuadrupleOption]

Well there’s obviously no need to go to Twitter to see Ole Miss fans **** on our program’s accomplishments when I can just read this board and see MSU fans do it for them.

 

[dorndawg]

Well there’s obviously no need to go to Twitter to see Ole Miss fans **** on our program’s accomplishments when I can just read this board and see MSU fans do it for them.

Some are willing to settle for less. Nothing to be ashamed of.

 

[PirateDawg]

We aren't. We "extended the streak" twice due to ******** technicalities. We were a 5-7 qualifier due only to grades since all the slots didn't fill, and then last year EVERYONE who wanted to went bowling. Not exactly stellar continuation of this great bowl streak that everyone loves to spout about.

I get it 047Dog. You and others on here think we suck. BTW, we won both of those games against supposedly better opponents. I know, they sucked too so it didn't matter if we won or not to y'all.

 

[PirateDawg]

Well there’s obviously no need to go to Twitter to see Ole Miss fans **** on our program’s accomplishments when I can just read this board and see MSU fans do it for them.

LOL, you are right about that! I was considered a negative poster on Gene's page. Here I'm considered a raging, rose colored glasses fanatic. It's all about perspectives.

 

[maroonmania]

Hey, the bowling alley beats the water park anytime.***

 

[Dawgg]

Exactly. So many folks still in a mindset from 25 years ago, when it *was* a relatively big deal for a team like Miss State to make a bowl. There were what, maybe 20 bowls then?

15 bowls in 1980
20 bowls by 1997
30 bowls by 2006
40 bowls today

 

[PirateDawg]

How about 32. You would have to cut back on regular season games. That would be 5 games for the finalist. With 12 games and 2 games for championship now would you just go with 11 game regular season?

That would be 31 bowl games converted to playoffs.

 

[QuadrupleOption]

Some are willing to settle for less. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Gosh, you're right. I bet if we just wish REALLY REALLY HARD and fire our coaches every two years we'll be Bama level IN NO TIME.

 

[patdog]

40 42 bowls today. They added one earlier this month so all 84 eligible teams could go to a bowl game.

 

[Dawgg]

40 42 bowls today. They added one earlier this month so all 84 eligible teams could go to a bowl game.

Either way, I'm going to watch 95% of them.

 

[tbaydog]

This bowl will be Coach's $ 800,000 revenge 17!

 

[mstateglfr]

What an asinine comparison.

I typicallyt dont post about how proud I am that minimum expectations were met.
Others do.

To each their own, but being surprised that people laugh at being proud of minmum expectations is...surprising.

 

[PirateDawg]

You and your ilk are the ones that took my post and turned it into "minimum expecations". You are an *ss and you show it on here all the time. If you go back and look at what Leach has done its far better than "minimum expectations" at the schools he coached. You have twisted another post to fit your "I'm better than that" image you have created. I'm amazed that you think so highly of yourself. Keep it up because it offsets how some of us think of you.

 

[Misfit]

I may be mistaken, but I think MSU is one of only 4 SEC teams with a current bowl streak of 12 or more years; and Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Georgia are the only 3 teams in the country with a current bowl streak of 20 or more years.