What's the most excited/positive you have been entering a State football season?

[Bill Shankly]

1981

Yep, no other year comes close.

 

[Seinfeld]

From an expectations vs reality perspective, this just has to the answer. With the firepower that we had returning that year, I genuinely thought that our absolute floor was 9 wins, and that was with an 11 game schedule. Instead, we got to endure not one, not two, but FIVE soul crushers plus two absolute *** beatings against Spurrier and LSU. Just an absolutely miserable season

 

[Dawgzilla]

2001 for me. I usually have cautious optimism going into a season, but 2001 I was all in. 2000 had been disappointing, but we had 9 starters returning on offense -- and the 2000 offense was 3rd in the SEC in total yardage. Cover of Sports Illustrated over the Summer. I was in Vegas in August and put down $20 on State at 60 to 1 to win the BCS, just because I could

That first half of the first game against Memphis was heartbreaking.

Learned my lesson, and I have not been all in since. I was excited going into 2014 and 2015, but not "we may be a contender" kind of excited.

Still SMH at the number of you who expected so much in 2018. We had a new coaching staff, and a QB who couldn't throw. With Mullen we would have been 10-2 at best. I predicted 8-4.
Y'all had unrealistic expectations, and still blame Moorhead for failing to meet them.

 

[eckie1]

There’s nothing unrealistic about expecting a first year coach to be logical.

2001 for me. I usually have cautious optimism going into a season, but 2001 I was all in. 2000 had been disappointing, but we had 9 starters returning on offense -- and the 2000 offense was 3rd in the SEC in total yardage. Cover of Sports Illustrated over the Summer. I was in Vegas in August and put down $20 on State at 60 to 1 to win the BCS, just because I could

That first half of the first game against Memphis was heartbreaking.

Learned my lesson, and I have not been all in since. I was excited going into 2014 and 2015, but not "we may be a contender" kind of excited.

Still SMH at the number of you who expected so much in 2018. We had a new coaching staff, and a QB who couldn't throw. With Mullen we would have been 10-2 at best. I predicted 8-4.
Y'all had unrealistic expectations, and still blame Moorhead for failing to meet them.

We had the most prolific running QB in SEC history and that cockeyed idiot tried to make him Patrick Mahomes. That defense ALONE was enough to get us to 11 wins if the offense was just not awful, and that potato headed 17 couldn’t even make that happen.

2000 was far and away the biggest letdown in my lifetime as a fan. We were the best team in the SEC and lost to the worst teams in our schedule. The 2000 season plus the AZ Western stuff in the off-season was enough to temper my expectations. Still, though, we lost so many close games that season. I could have killed somebody after the AUB and BYU games.

 

[rcdawg08]

2018 for me. What a kick to the balls that year was. We allowed something like 7 defensive TDs all year and managed to lose four games (five if you count the bowl).

That 2018 team was better than any team Mullen had at Florida. What a wasted opportunity that was. Most Mississippi State thing ever. SMH still makes me sick

 

[Smoked Toag]

We had the most prolific running QB in SEC history and that cockeyed idiot tried to make him Patrick Mahomes. That defense ALONE was enough to get us to 11 wins if the offense was just not awful, and that potato headed 17 couldn’t even make that happen.

Perfect summation.

2000 was far and away the biggest letdown in my lifetime as a fan. We were the best team in the SEC and lost to the worst teams in our schedule. The 2000 season plus the AZ Western stuff in the off-season was enough to temper my expectations. Still, though, we lost so many close games that season. I could have killed somebody after the AUB and BYU games.

Yeah that's what people forget. No doubt we got drilled by Florida and LSU, but that was the #3 team in the country and the eventual SEC champs. But we were competitive that year, though the record was awful, and the Troy game where we didn't show up makes it look much worse. 2002 is when we just straight fell off the cliff, and 2003 never had a chance in hell.

 

[grimedawg1]

For me, it was the year we were predicted to go to the Rose Bowl.

 

[Dawgzilla]

We had the most prolific running QB in SEC history and that cockeyed idiot tried to make him Patrick Mahomes. That defense ALONE was enough to get us to 11 wins if the offense was just not awful, and that potato headed 17 couldn’t even make that happen.

Even Mullen would have lost to Alabama and Kentucky. And there is no way in preseason that anyone could have expected a new coaching staff to field one of the top defenses in the country. Sure, the talent was there, but if you were expecting it to come together like that you were a blind optimist.

I'm not defending Moorhead, its just funny to me how angry people are because they had unrealistic preseason expectations.

 

[ezsoil]

1981 ....2014 (I had 500 on MSU ago win it all at 175-1) and 2018

 

[MeridianDog]

As an old fart Iam going to say 2022. I am eagerly counting the days until I can say, "Just wait until 2023 rolls around. That will finally be our year!"

 

[eckie1]

And now we see your problem.

Even Mullen would have lost to Alabama and Kentucky. And there is no way in preseason that anyone could have expected a new coaching staff to field one of the top defenses in the country. Sure, the talent was there, but if you were expecting it to come together like that you were a blind optimist.

I'm not defending Moorhead, its just funny to me how angry people are because they had unrealistic preseason expectations.

You can’t accept that realistic expectations weren’t unrealistic. Moorhead hired a great DC, and if he’d utilized his QB even partially competently, we would have had an amazing season. We had the #1 defense in the country, and would have probably had something similar with Grantham.

Hope you don’t find that funny, tho…. That would be a real back breaker.*******

 

[fredgarvin]

1981

I was convinced we were going to win the SEC that year.

 

[Nunya.sixpack]

The year Jackie came to town. That was the most exciting.

 

[tenureplan]

When Crooms got smoked by latech and then turned gatech into a clownshow

 

[KingBarkus]

1981

Yes. Preseason number 4 in the country. I worked multiple summer jobs that year and found an all night national sportstalk show while working a convenience store. 1981! It was weird hearing the host talk about Mississippi State football during the show.

 

[kired]

I'll be honest - I was pretty excited heading into 2008. We'd finally had a good season, won a bowl game. Dixon and Ducre at RB, with young Robert Elliott providing speed we hadn't seen since Norwood. Wes Carroll would definitely be better after a decent freshman season. Defense had won those games in 2007 and was going to be legit with so many seniors returning - Pegues, Fitz, Chaney.

And then we went to la tech...