Hey, I want Mullen to succeed because when he pours himself into football we get excellent results. It just seems like he is lacking motivation and his worst attributes (attitude and loyalty to incompetent buddies) are dragging our program down. It's possible to go to a bowl game still, but this was always going to be a year with a tight margin for error, with a tough OOC game at BYU, always strong SECW, and a dearth of skill players, especially on the offensive side. We blew through that margin with the USA loss and we're up against the rail the rest of the season.
Mullen really needs to do two things to succeed. First is he needs to accept that Mississippi State is an excellent place to start and finish a decades long coaching career, as he's getting paid an incredible amount of money. Second is he needs to fire his buddies and hire competent positions coaches who can recruit, especially if he doesn't want to do much of the recruiting. The number of assistants is capped by the NCAA and Hevesy and Sallach have been earning well over their value for 8 years. If they haven't broken through to the next level by now, they never will. So can them. (Sounding like a broken record, I know).
The good news is there isn't a DGAF attitude from the players like we saw in 2003. Sure they may not play well, but anyone who watched the 2001-03 teams in great detail, especially the 2003 team, knows just how little effort Jackie's final teams were putting in. I'm not seeing that here, so there's hope.
