The bases are loaded for Mullen

[msugrad2003]

With the success of Prescott in 2016 and others in the NFL, along with the crumbling in Oxford, Dan Mullen should be smoking fine cigars and primed to have our program take the next step. How do you see him using these feathers in his cap?

 

[gymdawg.sixpack]

I brought up a theory behind his "recruiting issues" a couple yrs ago....that he was playing the game safe knowing what was likely to happen with ncaa and tsun. I think youll see a different appraoch now

 

[paindonthurt_]

If there was a time to play it safe as far as cheating goes, I'd consider that time to be right now.

He needs to step it up a notch and sign a class ranked in the 21 to 17 range that hits a lot of key needs. Follow that up with a similar class and then we start pushing for the 17 to 14 range.

We can win a lot of games if we stay in the top 20s and meet needs.

 

[MSUDC11]

We've got to be extra careful on the recruiting trail. They will to try to ruin us now.

They have buried themselves. We just need to keep doing what we are doing. Improve offensive line recruiting but otherwise I don't have an issue with how we recruit.

 

[57stratdawg]

Agreed. I'm afraid we'll see a marginal improvement in MSU recruitment and Mullen saying a bunch of "our program isn't for everyone"

 

[The Maroon Pug]

^^This^^

Just get above average O-line and we will be set.

 

[57stratdawg]

The small numbers in 2018 will make it tough for us to have a headline grabbing class. Having said that, 2019 is suppose to be the best MS HS class in decades with Starkville High school leading the way.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

You can't expect us to sign consecutive highly ranked classes with the way we've managed our sizes. This coming signing class will be very small, so we could have the highest rated signees we've ever had as a group and still not have a highly ranked class. Our numbers will always have us signing a lowly ranked class every couple of years

 

[mount lefroy]

With the success of Prescott in 2016 and others in the NFL, along with the crumbling in Oxford, Dan Mullen should be smoking fine cigars and primed to have our program take the next step. How do you see him using these feathers in his cap?

More and more requests to open the pocketbook to pay assistants more. If we can gain momentum, I'd say its in the category of media attention and continue to move assistants to bigger jobs. Make sure we continue to promote our players in the NFL and associate them with us. We cannot let Dak or any of our NFL players become yesterday's news. Heck, I'd bribe every national newscaster to continue to bring up our players names while mentioning MSU and Starkville.

But right now Brackey needs to Brackey.

 

[basedawg]

Mullen at least does it the right way as for as not cheating. All he has done is win and take Msu to the next level. Yes he hasn't beat Bama and Lsu only once, but we are more consistent as a football program than we have ever been in my lifetime. Oh we can do better in recruiting, I think that is coming especially with the Cheater University having there "glass house" broken. I also think Mullen has a newer energy with seeing the Cheaters going down!

Time to pile on those mo fo's and reel off a big winning streak.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

We may be paying Grantham a lot, but it appears we're still not giving our assistants much. DJ Looney is reportedly making 90k

 

[Shamoan]

Dan Mullen might have the bases loaded, but there are two outs and he has a 1-1 count. The wolves are at the door and looking to take him and us down with them. We need a tight ship and to finish them off if they want to play those kind of games.

 

[engie]

DJ Looney is in his first paid assistant gig. He signed off on it as well as a non-compete.

who on staff is underpaid?

 

[KurtRambis4]

$90k as a first

time assistant...I'd say that's pretty fair.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

This is an almost a parallel situation to 1994. Ole Miss going on major probation & firing Billy Brewer while MSU had gone to consecutive bowls for only the 2nd time in 50 years. JWS & staff got lazy by not stepping on the Rebels throat while they were knocked down. Ole Miss made a great hire in Tuberville. We missed an opportunity to dominate them for at least a decade. Thankfully JWS re-grouped and made a great run 1997-2000 before the NCAA spent years taking him down.

I think the NCAA wants Freeze to go away as much as they did JWS.

 

[codeDawg]

We'll always be limited by Ole Miss' desire to bury us. They want to be good at football soooooo bad that they are willing to go way over the line to achieve it. That means we have to find other ways to run a program besides stepping up our "benefits" to players. I think we have the right staff and mentality in place to do that. They just need to focus on how to recruit clean a little better.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

I expect the same thing to happen to Mullen. It's just the nature of it, and we've already seen the cycles with Mullen. It happens to every coach. I am hoping we have an 'up' cycle in 2017 and 2018, and then Mullen opts for greener pastures (unless we are competing for titles which is unlikely). At that point, we can get somebody with some fire like Mullen had in 2009.

 

[Hoover Dawg]

After these penalties, even a group as determined as them could possibly lose hope. Especially with as good as we can be the next two years.

 

[Todd4State]

This is an almost a parallel situation to 1994. Ole Miss going on major probation & firing Billy Brewer while MSU had gone to consecutive bowls for only the 2nd time in 50 years. JWS & staff got lazy by not stepping on the Rebels throat while they were knocked down. Ole Miss made a great hire in Tuberville. We missed an opportunity to dominate them for at least a decade. Thankfully JWS re-grouped and made a great run 1997-2000 before the NCAA spent years taking him down.

I think the NCAA wants Freeze to go away as much as they did JWS.

I think this is very different in that we were being investigated ourselves which lessened the impact of their probation.

Also Ole Miss had a perfect storm happen in 1994 after the sanctions. We went 3-8 in 1995 and lost to Northeast Louisiana plus they hired a then unknown who happened to be a really good coach in Tuberville.

The thing that is different now too is we are much more consistently successful as a program and light years ahead of where we were in 1995. Dan is a better coach than Jackie IMO as well and doesn't have a recruiting model that over relies on JUCO's. Not to mention Ole Miss's sanctions are likely to be much worse this time around and likely over a longer period.

 

[DudyDog]

Couple of things...OM will never stop cheating completely. It's just not who they are. They were cheating when Vaught was there and they'll be cheating 10 coaches from now. What they will do is look at their operating procedures (the network) and see what they did wrong and correct their mistakes. We now have the NCAA's attention. The next time anyone goes back to them and says OM is doing this and that, they will listen and look into it. We need to have our eyes wide open to see what they are doing. Won't be as easy the next time because they are going to try and fix their mistakes.

As as far as our recruiting, this is the perfect time for us to process some folks. Those that have been here long enough to have shown what they can do and are not progressing to the point where they will ever contribute, need to move on to someplace where they can. We haven't done this much in football in the past, but if we ever want to take another step, we need to do it. Instead of having a 15-18 person signing class, we could get closer to a 22-25 class. We do this in baseball, but like I said, Mullen doesn't like to do his it seems. We did push a couple out this past year however. I have heard a couple people say you may see a few move on after spring, so we'll see. If so, that will help balance out the classes some which needs to happen. I don't see any other way to do it.

 

[was21]

Possibly by landing another gig?

 

[Deltaduckhunter]

I read this forum often, but never have posted. This is a good thread and I have been thinking about this for the last few days. By the end of Mullen's third season, I thought we had the same opportunity and I saw no path for UM to get back in the mix anytime soon. We had beaten them three years in a row and bowled the last two. UM was coming off two brutal seasons, lots of turmoil amongst fans due to the whole Black Bear, Colonel Reb decision and no proven coach wanted to be apart of the mess. They then hire a D2 coach with little experience and it looked like things were set.

What I didn't' realize was the desperate situation in Oxford was causing the people who really call the shots to get desperate. Also at this point Auburn seemed to be getting away with the Cam Newton situation, so it may have looked like the right time. When guys that were committed to MSU started flipping at the last minute and a school called the Rebels started pulling top ranked recruits from Illinois and Florida it was clear. Freeze was brought in because during his previous stint with Orgeron, the people in charge knew he would play the game. People like Kiffin and Farrar, who would also play the game were brought in. It worked almost immediately for them.

The good thing for for us is with all of this, they never really separated themselves from us. Now we sit in that situation again, only this time I think it is different. UM is going to still cheat like always, but they better reel it in for 4 or 5 years or the NCAA will shut them down. Their coach, who was once loved by the media, is now being shown in a very different light. So where do they go from here? Keep a distracted Freeze who has proven he is not always the best gameday coach and now with less talent? Fire him and see what coach wants to come be a part of this mess? We need to have a really good 2017 season, followed up with a good, clean, recruiting season (which previously not possible with UM cheating). We can then start distancing ourselves.