Mood on Campus...

[EngDawg]

...seems to be pretty bleak about football. No one seems to be excited about this season. I've had several people tell me they aren't going to the USA game even though they have tickets.

 

[TBone.sixpack]

Time to rent some pressure washers and get the sand out.

 

[Col. Forbin]

Well that nice 11 o'clock kick off on labor day weekend against a sun belt team probably has a lot to do with that.

 

[The Peeper]

Who has the best prices on Dales and blue tents?

 

[AlCoDog]

I'll gladly take those unused tickets next time you talk to these folks. TIA.

 

[kired]

I'd say that's inevitable. After our run in 2014, gameday on campus, SI covers, 3 seasons watching the greatest QB ever at MSU, and losing a lot of our best known players last year... there's just not as much interest. There were people asking me for tickets in 2014 that I couldn't give them to for free now.

 

[esplanade91]

I've seen Ole Miss get nonstop exposure on ESPN for their game against Florida State next week. Hopefully the lack of attendance puts some pressure on the school to do better. Would rather go 6-6 with a kickoff loss to a national contender than go 7-5 or 8-5 with 3 wins against Sun Bult teams and JSU.

 

[HD6]

Interesting fans that would prefer a worse record.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

I've seen Ole Miss get nonstop exposure on ESPN for their game against Florida State next week. Hopefully the lack of attendance puts some pressure on the school to do better. Would rather go 6-6 with a kickoff loss to a national contender than go 7-5 or 8-5 with 3 wins against Sun Bult teams and JSU.

That's all good until we go 5-7 and are sitting at home, like we almost did in 2013. That's what people like you don't think about.

I mean, without the #1 SOS in the land in 2009, we would have a 7 year bowl streak instead of 6. But by all means, lets make our SECW schedule harder. Real Talk.

 

[HD6]

I guess those games against national contenders like LSU and Alabama just aren't enough.

 

[xxxWalkTheDawg]

Would rather go 6-6 with a kickoff loss to a national contender than go 7-5 or 8-5 with 3 wins against Sun Bult teams and JSU.

Really? You see Michigan fans bitching about their schedule this year? You would be more satisfied with Birmingham in December than the Gator, Outback, Liberty, or Music City?

 

[QuaoarsKing]

That's all good until we go 5-7 and are sitting at home, like we almost did in 2013. That's what people like you don't think about.

I mean, without the #1 SOS in the land in 2009, we would have a 7 year bowl streak instead of 6. But by all means, lets make our SECW schedule harder. Real Talk.

For that matter, if we'd played 2 awful Sun Belt teams at home in 2008 instead of road games at La Tech and Ga Tech, we could be going for our 10th straight bowl game.

 

[notoriousD_O_G]

I guess those games against national contenders like LSU and Alabama just aren't enough.

The biggest problem to me is that we play them both on the road in even years. Our home schedule is really bad this year especially with two OOC road games. We need to have our Power 5 OOC games at home in even years.

 

[MSUDC11]

Well that nice 11 o'clock kick off on labor day weekend against a sun belt team probably has a lot to do with that.

Yeah if we were playing South Carolina at 6 pm next weekend instead of two weeks from now, the mood would be much different.

But this is the first situation like this we've had in the Mullen era. We opened on the road in '11, '13, and '15. Tons of hype around our season openers in '09, '10, and '14.

2012 is the only somewhat comparable scenario, but even then we returned a lot of talent and were expecting to win a lot games.

We had a pretty good but not great year last season and lost our best all-time player. Add in this opponent and the date and time of the game, and I totally get it.

That said, assuming we beat USA, I'm expecting a great crowd and much more excitement for the SC game.

 

[HD6]

Don't say that, Croom would still be here.

 

[MSU601Dawg]

I've seen Ole Miss get nonstop exposure on ESPN for their game against Florida State next week. Hopefully the lack of attendance puts some pressure on the school to do better. Would rather go 6-6 with a kickoff loss to a national contender than go 7-5 or 8-5 with 3 wins against Sun Bult teams and JSU.

I'm firmly in this camp as well, what does a bowl streak get us, a banner? Who outside of 20% of our fanbase even knows how long the streak is, I don't know and don't think it matters to recruits or anyone else. If we're 2-6 in the SEC but we "saved the bowl streak" by playing 4 nobodies should we really be at all proud of that?

Plus I'd gladly trade a Liberty Bowl in a year where we're 2-6 in the SEC for a home and home against a team that I might not ever get to see us play on their campus in my lifetime (Texas, Ohio St, Notre Dame, etc...)

And no HD6, having big games against Bama and LSU doesn't provide enough value to my season tickets when there are 3 games I don't want to attend on the schedule. We play those teams every year, there'd be more novelty and excitement surrounding a team of that caliber that we've never played before.

I'm not advocating for loading the schedule up with 4 power 5 teams, but definitely one with one other game that is mildly interesting.

Did it hurt us or Ole Miss when we played Texas? Is it going to hurt Ole Miss playing FSU this year even if they lose? Plus conceding those games as a loss rather than thinking of them as an opportunity is not the right way to look at it.

Who gives a **** if you're 7-5 as opposed to 6-6 if you didn't beat anybody?

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

Don't say that, Croom would still be here.

I just threw up a little in my mouth all over my desk.

 

[VillagepeopleDogs]

Eh. Nothing that some short shorts and some sweaty cleavages won't fix.

 

[KentuckyDawg13]

Spoiled fans

Wow...lame.
That's the reason The Hump has devolved into a placid arena.

 

[Xenomorph]

If Derek Pegues hadn't been suspended against La Tech..

..we wouldn't have fumbled 2 punts and lost in Ruston that night. We would've gone bowling that year and not fired Croom.

 

[esplanade91]

Interesting fans that would prefer a worse record.

Context is key.

Would I rather go through another year like 2012 where we had a mediocre team propped up by playing a bunch of bad teams or would I rather win less game and see what we have early against some equal competition?

Someone mentioned Michigan. Michigan has never and will never have a problem with putting people in seats. We do and have and probably will as long as we play Northwest Arkansas Community College Southern Campus 3 times a year.

Every off season all I hear is how disrespected MSU is, and I don't see how our scheduling isn't somewhat to blame. During Dan's tenure, who have we played outside of bowl season? Georgia Tech and Houston?

Yes we play Alabama and LSU each year, but so do 5 other schools. Those guys don't play exclusively teams ranked in the bottom 3rd in the Sagarin ratings with little variety of those same 10 teams on rotation.

The OP mentioned that no one wants to see us play USA. It's my personal opinion it's because we've seen enough games where our backups blow out marginal D1 schools. Time to mix it up.

 

[VillagepeopleDogs]

That had to be the longest drive back to the Jackson area after that game I've ever suffered. It seemed everything, including our Team, was in slow motion. Thought I would never get home.

 

[Death Rattle]

I agree. I don't care at all about bowl streaks, nor do I care about going to some ****** bowl.

I thought it was pathetic that our fans bitched about scheduling OSU in 2013, and even worse when Scott Stricklin publicly apologized for it. Talk about a loser's mentality.

 

[HD6]

So its national championship or bust for you? Boy, did you pick the wrong program to cheer for.

 

[HD6]

What I am reading is you care more about the experience you are having than the result of the game. In that case, why not just go to a couple of big time college football games across the country? The price you would pay for tickets to those games plus lodging and entertainment would probably be far less than what you pay for season tickets and lodging and entertainment in Starkville. Go see an Iron Bowl, or Ohio State-Michigan, or USC-Notre Dame and get that experience.

 

[FQDawg]

I've never understood the argument that it's boring to see us win...

Maybe it's because we went to one bowl game during my undergrad career but I don't think it will ever get old for me. I love going to games where I know we are going to win. They are low stress and much more enjoyable for me. I'm not sure how many home games I can make this year but the top two on the list for me are South Alabama and Samford.

Give me four cupcakes any day.

 

[HD6]

I can assure you all that last year's Troy game was far more enjoyable than Oregon 2003 or West Virginia 2006.

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

To be fair

So its national championship or bust for you? Boy, did you pick the wrong program to cheer for.

The mileage you get out of winning just one or two of those games against name teams FAR outstrips the mileage of a bowl streak. Always scheduling cupcakes is the prevent defense of scheduling. Your playing not to lose something (bowl streak) instead of playing to win something (notoriety and respect).

 

[HD6]

Did State get more notoriety and respect in 2014 or 2013?

 

[horshack.sixpack]

I vacillate between two thoughts on this:

1) Play a tough schedule so that you have a chance to really do something on a national level if you win them. (assumes some hope of being nationally relevant and good enough to handle it)

2) Keep the patsies, at least go to a bowl and if we really are good enough to make national noise we just need to win our SEC games and we will get there. (reduces the pain of yet another season that doesn't end in significance outside the SEC West by having a nice bowl game)

I never entertain option 3 which is UM level delusion about being a national elite program despite never having been one and showing no signs of being one now...

 

[HD6]

You have to look at it like this, out of conference schedule strength is meaningless if MSU wins all of its games. So if you want MSU to have a real chance at a national title, you should want an easy 4-0 in out of conference.

In 2014, MSU played a terrible USM team, two mediocre teams in UAB and USA, and an FCS team in UT Martin. They would have played for a national title, no question about it, had they beaten Alabama. They could have even lost the Egg Bowl and still been in the playoff. Saying MSU needs to beef up its non conference schedule to improve their chances at a national title is contradictory thinking.

 

[EngDawg]

We play in the SEC West

The toughest division in college football. We need our non-conference games to be easy. Beating a team like FSU adds very little to your resume if you have also beaten Bama, LSU, and Auburn, but losing to FSU hurts you quite a bit.

 

[PBRME]

As a life long State fan I've had enough moral victories to last me a life time. 17 a tougher schedule. You get your ooc power 5 game at a bowl game.

 

[engie]

^ Prefers investing his money at the casino rather than mutual funds**

9 games against similarly or more talented teams this year -- and that's not enough? We're playing a power 5 team OOC every year now -- so what do people want? 2 of them? Cancel the off-week and let's bring in the Seahawks while we're at it.

All that thought process does is guarantee that these folks didn't live the later Jackie/entire Croom scheduling model in the same way many of us did. We play 6 of the top 22 teams in college football history(per the AP) every damn year. Half the schedule. Top 22 all-time. In our own division. Nevermind #9, 13, 17, and 32 in the other division -- who we've been extremely lucky with catching at the right time in the rotating schedule since 2009 -- a trend that will eventually reverse and equal out.

The scheduling model is perfect right now. It's mandated -- and Stricklin did as good of job as he could possibly do at addressing it. Would I like to see the Bama/LSU/OM home/away schedule broken up? Sure I would. And Tulane put us in a tough spot this year -- and 6 home games sucks. But we never take another step forward as a fanbase while people are crying over 3 gimme wins.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Correct and logical. Pipe dream is a tough schedule where we punch everybody in the mouth and win it all. It's like a redneck who doesn't know when to back down from a fight. My option 1) is inexplicable...

 

[VillagepeopleDogs]

^ does not speak with forked tongue.

 

[rugbdawg]

2003 Oregon was the Justin Jenkins show AND the worst Msstate defensive performance I've ever witnessed in person. Yes, worse than the Manziel home game when we wore our snow bowl helmets.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

Interesting fans that would prefer a worse record.

We still have an abundance of dumbassery in our fan base.

 

[Palos verdes]

That's because the only thing the kids have heard, or paid attention to is all the negative pub about losing Dak and we're gonna suck ********. They don't know what the hell is actually going on with the MSU football team.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

You mother 17er. I had blocked out that WV game. Did every QB get injured?