The good old days
- Thread starter skipper.sixpack
- Start date
That goob held us hostage nearly every late November flirting with other programs, but he understood that we were a program that HAD to evaluate and develop, to be competitive.
I'm gonna go a hot take with here, @Shmuley alluded to it the other day, Danny was just an above average to good coach. He wasn’t elite or anything. He ran the program “passably” IIRC, the terminology.
I don’t think we at MSU really know much about what a great or elite coach really is.
I don’t think we at MSU really know much about what a great or elite coach really is.
Some of you are lucky that that era is your only brush with MSU football history. As for the rest of us we’ve seen the **** for 40-50 years. Yes Hunchie did some good things at MSU but he made it very clear every November where his heart was. It damn sure wasn’t in Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, MS
He certainly rode the SEC money wave. That mixed with favorable non-con skews him a bit. Still a good coach though.
Why do some state fans work so hard to diminish or downplay the success that Mullen had here?
Agree. Funny that playing Georgia Tech and BYU directly led to Danny's two losing regular seasons. That's why I hold King Jackie in the same regard as him. Kang had 11 game seasons to deal with, and many times still had a P5 opponent. Of course, the way he let the program go prevents him from ever being the top coach ever.
This frustrates me so much. I just wish there was a guy we could call our own, to build a tradition around. Danny just didn't have the loyalty. Kang rode us into the ground and he's an aTm homer now. Emory rode us into the ground too, and lost to Southern Miss too much. Tyler was pretty good, I don't remember much about his tenure.
I guess we just have to take a little from all of them. Even still, if I had to say what was the best time in MSU history, I'd probably pick Danny, due to Dak and that 3 week stretch of 2014 that will never be upstaged, unless we win a national title.
Yep. So many schools have at least one historic coach that is forever held in program lore.
- Ole Miss - Vaught
- Clemson - Danny Ford
- Arkansas - Frank Broyles
- Mizzou - Don Faurot/Dan Devine
- Auburn - Pat Dye
- GA Tech - Bobby Dodd/John Heisman
- VA Tech - Frank Beamer
Geez that makes me even more mad. I mean, screw Cam Newton, what if Mullen had just committed after 2015? That's when he truly quit in my mind. He screwed up the 2016 class by not caring, and then 2017 is the one that had so many holes, due to him stacking up the JUCOs, so he could get out. He could have balanced that out and no telling what 2017 and 2018 look like at MSU. And we wouldn't have dropped off in 2019 and 2020. We would have paid him whatever he wanted and he could have hung out at the lake in Georgia and shopped in Publix whenever he wanted.
Oh well, just another what could have been in MSU football history.
Dan Mullen coached against the most difficult schedules we've ever faced. This was the time period the SEC West was at its peak. We've never had a coach face as many top 10 teams as we did in that era.
Something in the hearts of the State fan base died when he led Florida to victory in Starkville in 2018.
A French Foreign Secretary after seeing how the Germans treated Bismarck in his later years: "The Germans will never be a great people."
Here is my opinion. JWS came in and showed us we can make it to Atlanta. Then Mullen came in and moved us up a notch or 2. More consistency. Then Leach came in and proved that MSU can throw the ball and attract more than 1 four star WR and have a room full of them. We are now building off of all what Leach showed we could do and Lebby is the next step in my opinion.
What he accomplished this weekend may be the biggest turn around ever at any college. To have a recruit come in that would not even give the last staff the time of day was big. But to hear that kid say that it's easily in the top 2 OVs he's ever been on.... That's massive.
What he accomplished this weekend may be the biggest turn around ever at any college. To have a recruit come in that would not even give the last staff the time of day was big. But to hear that kid say that it's easily in the top 2 OVs he's ever been on.... That's massive.
Hell we just had a probable hall of fame coach die on the job here a year ago after a 9 win season and after 100 years of us having a mediocre to poor football "program" some are blaming him for screwing it up. **
Which is why I said he was a good coach. But you can't deny that playing really easy non-conference schedules weren't a major factor in his overall success. Having 4 gimme wins makes it much easier to make a bowl game each year. I acknowledge that we also played incredibly difficult SECW schedules, but we are also all aware of Mullen's poor record vs the Top 25. It's not disparaging him, it's just giving context to his tenure.
Cohen screwed it up by holding on the purse strings like a guy named Goldberg running a New York Bank! Keenum compounded it by dragging *** I hiring an AD, then hiring a Jr. Grade AD, After he hired a HS level Head Coach and telling to hire a bunch of nobody coaches that were friends or related to the Cigar Boys!
Heck! We had a winnable Non-Con schedule this year. If Arnett and his Scabs hadn't ruined the program, next year would be a winnable non-con schedule.
The UAT game is what broke him. Seems like he came to the conclusion that if he couldn't beat them with the team he had that year, he never would.
He was trying to get out every year. But he essentially quit trying to recruit after 2015.
When have we ever not had a winnable non conference schedule? Yet somehow some idiots want to blame Mullen.
Lot of years. Like I said earlier, it contributed to Mullen’s two losing seasons. Almost gave him a third in 2013 when the Pokes kicked our ***. P5 OOC foes have not been good to us.
If Mullen would have just semi cared about recruiting and hired a couple of better staff members instead of his friends, he could be elite.
Mississippi State did not play on a level playing field in the SEC until 1992. Go back and look at the record books and see how we not only screwed ourselves, but were screwed by our own conference.
In the 1970s the only teams we hosted on campus were Mississippi (for 1 year) and Auburn for ONE year. We played our "home" conference games in Jackson and also played a couple of "home" games against Vandy and UT in Memphis.
In the 1980s we had home games against Vandy twice, Florida twice, LSU 3 times, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama all once and then we sold 2 homes games against Florida in 89 and 91.
That is 2 decades in the "modern" era of football where the majority of our games against the power teams of the conference were either neutral or road games. It is not really that hard to understand why our record in the conference is pathetic. Our "leadership" even viewed us as nothing more than a sacrificial lamb for the better part of half a century.
In the 1970s the only teams we hosted on campus were Mississippi (for 1 year) and Auburn for ONE year. We played our "home" conference games in Jackson and also played a couple of "home" games against Vandy and UT in Memphis.
In the 1980s we had home games against Vandy twice, Florida twice, LSU 3 times, Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama all once and then we sold 2 homes games against Florida in 89 and 91.
That is 2 decades in the "modern" era of football where the majority of our games against the power teams of the conference were either neutral or road games. It is not really that hard to understand why our record in the conference is pathetic. Our "leadership" even viewed us as nothing more than a sacrificial lamb for the better part of half a century.
As I watched the Cowboys v Eagles last night I found myself thinking that if Dan was that great, he should've won a lot more with that talent. As I've stated before, I was sick of his schtick long before he finally left. Don't want him back.
I got drunk out on my screen porch whilst my Gator fan wife celebrated inside . . . . . . . . that game didn't just break my heart, it also broke my spirit, and darn near broke several bones, but I won't reveal whose.
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