Why didn't Emory Bellard succeed at State?

[blacklistedbully]

Guy had success at aTm before coming to MSU. Gets us to 17 wins (should have been 19) in years 2 & 3, then:

• 1982 - 5-6, but with 3 losses by 8 points or less
• 1983 - 3-8, but 4 of those losses were to #1, #3, #4 & #6 in the nation, a 5th was to #15 Bama, and a 6th the freak "immaculate deflection"
• 1984 - 4-7, with 3 losses to ranked teams, but unlike previous years, we lost to some bad teams as well. Just a bad year all-around
• 1985 - 5-6, with losses to #5, #13, and a 2-point loss at #20 LSU. Again, not a good year overall

Was Bellard and/or the "Wingbone" offense just not a good fit anymore, or did we just have a bad run of injuries? Did our horrendous facilities back then play a key role in not being able to attract enough talent & depth to stay competitive, despite the "modified wishbone" being a system capable of bridging some of that gap? Or did defenses just, "figure it out", making the Wingbone offense no longer adequate vs SEC defenses?

Those 1980 & 1981 teams were damn good...better than their record IMO. The '80 team turned down a forfeit offer from UF who admitted they cheated to beat us, so should have been no worse than 10-2. The '81 team that finished 8-4 lost 3 games by a total of 8 points(lost by 3 at #7 Bama) , including the BS Dick Pace Egg Bowl PI call that cost us that win (and 4 of those 8 points). Absolutely no way that team was legitimately worse than 9-3. We wouldn't lose fewer than 3 games again until 1999, and would not lose less than 5 except for 2 times prior to '99.

4 straight losing seasons is clearly not good, even if the first 2 were tough breaks/losses, and those last 2 years were pretty bad. But is there no doubt Bellard and his triple-option weren't going to work at MSU, or might we have turned it back around had we stuck with it, and perhaps improved our facilities to help with recruiting?

 

[Dawgzilla]

Recruiting.

 

[The Peeper]

I was enrolled 82-85 and can say one of their problems stemmed from having too much fun on Thrs, Fr, and Sa nights. On home game weeks you could go to The Club in Columbus on Thursdays and your starters were lined up along the walls drinking free beer on Ladies night every home weekend. On Fri nts they were scheming about how to sneak out of McArthur dorm whether it be bribing the grad assts, pulling fire alarms, having someone roll them out in Rubbermaid barrels, etc, etc. I spent many weekends in McArthur back then with a friend and the dedication was lacking, as was mine because I was right there with them

 

[patdog]

Bellard was kind of a better version of Croom. Won big with Tyler's players, then lazy recruiting, defenses catching up to the wishbone offense, stubbornness to change (the wingbone and the inverted wishbone he tried were just the same offense from a slightly different formation) and no understanding of the year-end rivalry game caught up to him. I still like him better than Croom because he did actually win here for a couple of years, and he wasn't condescending and acting like he was doing us a favor coaching here as Croom did.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Recruiting.

Exactly, it's not rocket science. Building a consistent winner has been elusive throughout history at Mississippi State, mainly due to the affect of recruiting. We never seem to accomplish enough to keep it going. Right now is the closest we have ever been. Last time we got this close Jackie lost control of it. Mullen was on that path, so in hindsight I'm glad we rebooted when we did.

 

[dudehead]

I was enrolled 82-85 and can say one of their problems stemmed from having too much fun on Thrs, Fr, and Sa nights. On home game weeks you could go to The Club in Columbus on Thursdays and your starters were lined up along the walls drinking free beer on Ladies night every home weekend. On Fri nts they were scheming about how to sneak out of McArthur dorm whether it be bribing the grad assts, pulling fire alarms, having someone roll them out in Rubbermaid barrels, etc, etc. I spent many weekends in McArthur back then with a friend and the dedication was lacking, as was mine because I was right there with them

I second that. I partied pretty hard with a good many football players back then (and baseball too, for that matter) and often wondered how in the hell they got up for 11:00 AM or 1:30 PM games the next day.

 

[Clarence Boddicker]

Bellard was kind of a better version of Croom. Won big with Tyler's players, then lazy recruiting, defenses catching up to the wishbone offense, stubbornness to change (the wingbone and the inverted wishbone he tried were just the same offense from a slightly different formation) and no understanding of the year-end rivalry game caught up to him. I still like him better than Croom because he did actually win here for a couple of years, and he wasn't condescending and acting like he was doing us a favor coaching here as Croom did.

Houston Nutt is a better comparison. Won early with Ed's players, then bombed in recruiting. And regardless of hivemind thought, Nutt could coach a little offense, and always seemed to have his guys ready to play ball.

Croom isn't similar to Bellard at all. Bellard was an offensive innovator, and won when he had players much like Nutt. Croom never won, however, his recruiting was better than Bellard, because he left Mullen with a dang good team. Croom still would have went 7-5 or worse with them though, while Mullen hit the average or slightly overachieved.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I can third that. Bond was a known party animal, and you could find plenty of players out and about on any given night. There were rumors of players betting on the games -- which is certainly possible -- but I always just figured they were hung over.

 

[blacklistedbully]

If Jackie lost control, it was primarily due to his nuts being in an NCAA vise for his final 3 years courtesy of the ******** up north. Prior to Jackie, our facilities were an embarrassment. Our weight room wasn't on par with a lot of high schools. The town was decidedly not friendly to the students, and the blue-laws made it a fairly boring place outside Frats and Sororities.

We did not invest in athletics much before Jackie, and even under Jackie we still were lagging behind almost everyone else other than Vandy & UK. While we still can't challenge the spending and opulence of the Bamas of the world, the SEC Network contracts in particular have given us enough money to close the gap enough to make it much less an issue.

Also, according to 247 sports, Jackie's final 2 classes were ranked #15 & #13 in the country. Surprising considering the investigation was going on. But then, Jackie had us trending up prior to the onset of the investigation. Sure seems as though the circus that was going on negatively impacted his ability to coach. Still, doesn't seem accurate to say Jackie left the cupboard bare.