The mental approach

[DawgatAuburn]

As underdog after underdog pulled off upsets over more highly regarded teams in the SEC today, our lack of truly memorable and impressive wins stuck out more and more. To me, what you saw today was teams with a mental approach of expecting to win and not backing down. Auburn went to College Station and expected to win that game. You could see it in the way they carried themselves from the opening drive. Vandy had the same approach. Lose your QB? Give up a pick six and trail by 10 at the half? Believe. Believe, believe, believe. Tennessee's offense sometimes looks like the Croom offense (hope we get a big play), but that's two weeks in a row they have taken more talented and highly regarded teams down to the wire, and today they got the win.

I can count on less than one hand the number of times in the Mullen era we've gone toe to toe with someone better or more highly regarded than us when it felt like we were there to win. Most often if feels like we are just waiting for something to go wrong so we can go ahead and lose and get it over with. I don't know how as a coaching staff you get your players and to some extent your fans to the point where they believe they are going to win, but I'd sure like to find out. Malzahn seems to have figured it out. Freeze too. Franklin too. Jones seems to be getting there. And here we are, plodding along in year five still trying to figure things out.

Hail State.

 

[drt7891]

Abandon all hope.*

 

[thunderclap]

Yep.

 

[was21]

There was a youtub video about Pat Dye addressing his team about their inferiority complex about Bama. It worked and turned the entire thing around..until Saban. It really does have a lot to do with the mental aspect of the game...just like all sports... State's coaches other than Bob Tyler have all been thick headed and numbskulls (even Sherrill)..if Dan would do it, he could bring a shrink into it and do it..if he wasn't a knucklehead.

 

[rugbdawg]

Bump for the impending Ole Miss upset win.

Mullen has to go.

 

[esplanade91]

'09 Florida & LSU and '10 Arkansas. All signature games in the Mullen era, all loses.

 

[drt7891]

'11 Auburn, '12 Auburn (We won.. but it was before we knew how freakin' awful they were), '12 LSU, '13 Auburn, '13 LSU... The list goes on and on. We don't play with pride and the willingness to win... and it sucks.

 

[Philly Dawg]

From what I can tell, the only way we can tell who believed, played with pride, or wanted to win is to wait and see who wins the game. In my humble opinion, I think that there are lots of other factors at play, including a healthy dose of pure dumb luck. But that is just me.

 

[johnson86-1]

Mettenburger shitting the bed has nothing to do with UM.

As underdog after underdog pulled off upsets over more highly regarded teams in the SEC today, our lack of truly memorable and impressive wins stuck out more and more. To me, what you saw today was teams with a mental approach of expecting to win and not backing down. Auburn went to College Station and expected to win that game. You could see it in the way they carried themselves from the opening drive. Vandy had the same approach. Lose your QB? Give up a pick six and trail by 10 at the half? Believe. Believe, believe, believe. Tennessee's offense sometimes looks like the Croom offense (hope we get a big play), but that's two weeks in a row they have taken more talented and highly regarded teams down to the wire, and today they got the win.

I can count on less than one hand the number of times in the Mullen era we've gone toe to toe with someone better or more highly regarded than us when it felt like we were there to win. Most often if feels like we are just waiting for something to go wrong so we can go ahead and lose and get it over with. I don't know how as a coaching staff you get your players and to some extent your fans to the point where they believe they are going to win, but I'd sure like to find out. Malzahn seems to have figured it out. Freeze too. Franklin too. Jones seems to be getting there. And here we are, plodding along in year five still trying to figure things out.

Hail State.

Nothing to do with anything but luck. Just an awful decision and awful throw by mett.

But I do agree mullen's teams are missing something. He has had some legitimately bad luck, but he's also kept the team from enjoying the benefits of good luck by getting too conservative against good teams.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

The longer the day goes, the more it feels like we lost today.

Such is the life of a State fan.

 

[DerHntr]

Such is the life of a State fan.

Hard to shake that feeling for sure.