Does anyone want to go on record

[triton28]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

 

[Seinfeld]

My response will be simple, and I’ll just say that it will mean that we’re not trending in the right direction

Anytime that is the case, it’s a problem

 

[deadheaddawg]

I didn't like all the Moorhead bashing last year. I thought the first year a coach should be given some time and you should expect some bumps. I liked his recruiting.

But a loss to UK will change that. I won't mind the Moorhead bashing. It would finally be deserved for me. It's time to smooth out the bumps

 

[triton28]

And on the flip side, I will admit that if he wins this weekend the bashing should stop as well. This is the biggest game of his coaching career by a lot.

 

[KeyserSoze1999]

Kentucky is a must win.

Before the season started I looked at this upcoming stretch of games - Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, and Texas A&M...and I figured we would go 3 wins and 2 losses through it. Now we must beat Kentucky just to go 1 win and 4 losses (which I think is highly likely) and a fighting chance to make a bowl game.

If we lose to Kentucky, almost certainly will will go 0 wins and 5 loses through this stretch and our fanbase will go absolutely insane.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

I am not going to make up my mind about anything after one more game. The crappy play we had in the bowl game and our first three games got me off the JoMo train. I still hope he can turn it around and I am fully behind our players and want to see them improve. You can call that sunshine pumping, but it just makes you look sophomoric and silly.

Win or lose, it's all a matter of how we play. IF we still look like a bunch of monkeys 17ing a football, my opinion won't change about Joe.

If we play better ball fundamentally, win or lose, I'm not back on the wagon.

I will take improvement over the season for me and I am not making my mind up one way or the other after one more game.

I'm not expecting a win, but it would be great IF we play more sound football as well.

 

[blacklistedbully]

Tutorgate & TS getting injured makes it tricky at best to properly evaluate Joe as a coach. That said, if we continue to look mentally weak and unprepared, I'll be more down on him.

It's one thing to lose when there are valid excuses such as injuries, suspensions, etc. It's entirely another when the team does not seem to play with much heart and/or does not look ready to play to the best of their skill and ability. I need to feel as though we are doing the best we can with who we put on the field. So far, I have not felt that way. Win or lose, I want to see that the rest of our games.

 

[mount lefroy]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

It will cause the obvious melt on message boards. If we win this and UT people will inaccurately say things are back on track. Fact is it’s a process that most fans have no patience for. Amazing how that happens so consistently across all forms of social media.

The bigger question is will society keep degenerating until it cannot function without immediate gratification?

Maybe we can get someone off Matt Luke’s staff.

 

[johnson86-1]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

It's not about UK in isolation as much as how we do against UK, UT, Arky, and UM. If we win all four of those and get to 7 wins, I'll feel pretty decent. KSU would be much less disturbing to me considering the circumstances than UK, UF, and Iowa were last year.

If we go 3-1 in those games and get to 6 wins, I'll be worried, but don't think it would be a lost cause considering Joe's recruiting.

The challenge is going to be that UK is probably the most likely game we lose out of the 4, so I will be concerned about how the team reacts following a screw up against KSU with a screw up against UK (and this place will certainly be miserable). On the flip side, if we do beat UK and then slip up against one of the other three, those will be worse losses, and deeper in the year when our "young" team should be getting better. But if we lose Saturday, which I think is a decent chance, then I will probably check out for a while to avoid the misery.

 

[jumpdawg]

November 2019

 

[kired]

Doesn't change a thing. I'm mostly unimpressed so far.

But it does mean the likely best outcome will be 6-6, and we'll realistically be looking at a possible 1-5 stretch through the end of October. We'll be lucky to have 35,000 show up for the Arkansas game regardless of kickoff time and weather.

We're in bad shape if Stevens, Gibson, and Dantzler are all still out. Joe might need to consider no suspensions for this game. It's a must win after losing last week.

 

[Diggin Out Yo Wife]

Going to be tough to defend him if we lose Saturday. They have injury, penalty and suspension issues too. Plus it's at home. Losing 2 games at home to teams that have a lesser talented roster than you would be difficult to explain away.

 

[Cap'n Geech]

If we lose to Kentucky, Tennessee becomes a must win.

 

[57stratdawg]

Home losses to KSU and UK probably means no bowl game. I don't see him recovering from that.

 

[Trojanbulldog19]

loss doesn't change my opinion really unless we come out on fire and look sharp, disciplined, clean, smooth on offense, and just still lose. same goes for if we win. if kentucky just plays terrible and we still look terrible but come out with a W. I'm still going to have some concerns just as before.

 

[MeridianDog]

I'll go on record saying if Iran and Saudi Arabia don't settle things, we are headed toward problems that will make MSU's football program meaningless.

 

[philduckworth]

UK coming off a tough loss at home. They have a couple of guys suspended for the first half. Lost a ton from last year including their 2 bell cows in Allen and Benny Snell. Backup QB is now starting.

We are at home. Stevens is going to play. I expect Autry and Gay to play. Recruiting wise, we have a more talented roster. We've had a week to clean up all of these special teams issues which were scheme and personnel related on the coverage teams. Anything other than a win is a really, really bad sign. Even Vegas has us a big favorite.

 

[Muttley]

I'm already leaning towards Coach Joe being less than a good hire. I don't think I'll go completely over the edge if we don't win against KY, but it won't take much more without seeing some hard nosed football during the play and less talking crap after the play is over.

 

[thekimmer]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

A loss in any fashion cannot possibly improve my current opinion. My level of disapproval of his overall performance can be increased if we get blown out or lose due to some particularly egregious coaching related ineptitude.

A win is also not likely to move the needle much either as it will take more than one victory at home vs an underdog to get him out of a doghouse that took multiple screw-ups to put him in but would be a step in the right direction.

I will admit Joe is in a unique position for a new MSU coach. He is the first HC probably since the 40's that did not inherit a train wreck and as such his honeymoon is much shorter. To whom much is given much is required.

 

[KingCharlesSpaniel]

I read all the articles about what an offensive genius he is and I foolishly let myself buy in before the Ky game last year. I rolled off the Joe bandwagon after the Florida game. I was impressed by the changes he made to win the Auburn game, but that proved to be a 1 game aberration. The bowl game was more unnecessary sloppiness. I have not achieved even minor JoMo hatred yet. Right now I feel he is a lateral move from Mullen rather than an upgrade. So far his recruiting is only marginally better than Mullen's, but at least it is not worse. Like Mullen he seems to be a poor game day coach.

If Joe cannot clean up the penalties (including the ones caused by the coaching staff), if he does not play Gay, Murphy, & Autry to maximize the win chances (UK, TN, UM, AR), if all 3 units do not improve over the course of the season, I will join the haters on the mild end of that spectrum. I still feel firing him before 4 years are up would be a mistake (unless he pulls a Taggart).


Right now I do not expect us to beat UK. But if we do not play better and if we do not play Gay, Murphy, & Autry, I will be angry.
I still do not understand why we would play Autry against Louisiana and not against KSU.

 

[DAWGS1.sixpack]

A loss, ESPECIALLY with all of the suspensions and having to play a true FR QB, while will be bad, I wont view it as all doom and gloom.
It will make UT, Ark and OM MUST wins if we plan on keeping our bowl steak alive.
6-6 with no suspensions would have been a whole different story however.
Joe still gets a third year even if we go 5-7 in my opinion.

 

[Dawgzilla]

I stated preseason that, for me, it is not so much the wins and losses this season as how the team plays. I won't panic over a loss Saturday if our offense looks competent and the D continues to show improvement. If we continue to see Sloppy Joe out there, then I'm probably done making excuses for him.

 

[$altyDawg]

This game against Kentucky reminds me a lot of where the Auburn game fell last year. We were 3-2 going in, and a lot (if not most) were expecting 5-0, and the two losses were really bad, not at all unlike the one last week. If he loses that Auburn game last year, some were about ready push ol' Joe off the ledge.
If we win this weekend, it will temporarily quell the "Let's run Joe's *** back up north" crowd, but if we don't...Get ready for some righteous outrage to be expressed. The degree of outrage expressed will depend on how we look, win or lose. If we look like we did against K State, Florida, or Iowa...It won't be pretty around these here parts.

 

[MSUDC11]

On the surface it would be a bad look to lose to Kansas State and Kentucky at home, but "how" matters. I can rationalize how we lost to Kansas State with all the injuries and suspensions and because they're a good team. But we win that game if Stevens is healthy. I feel similar about this one. If Stevens is good to go and we still can't find a way to win, I'll be pretty disappointed. But if we lose a battle of the backup QBs then it just kind of is what it is. Our backup QB is true freshman, theirs is a grad transfer with 6-7 games of starting experience in his career. It sounds like Stevens is healthier than he was last week so if that's the case I expect to win this game and a loss would not be a good sign at all.

That said, we have essentially four key games the rest of the year that will determine if this team goes 7-5 or if it finishes worse than that: Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Ole Miss. I would consider Kentucky the least important of those four games. Joe really can't afford an Egg Bowl loss at home this year combined with a disappointing record, and there is no excuse for losing to Tennessee or Arkansas with as bad as they've looked. You can come back from a loss to Kentucky, they're still a solid team that will win 7 or 8 games. Losing any of the other three games is much less redeemable to me.

 

[Drewbowski]

I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

is this code for calling him Croomtastic?

 

[dorndawg]

I predicted 6-6 at beginning of season, and thought we'd split K-State and UK. So here we are...

 

[horshack.sixpack]

And say what a loss to Kentucky this weekend will mean for their opinion of Joe? Would be difficult to pump sunshine if you have already said it will be unacceptable.

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

It won't tell me a thing. The series is tied overall. In recent decades Kentucky has been a whipping boy; little better than Vandy, but that is not who they are as of late. If we were not missing tutor-gate players, I'd have a more critical eye. To win, we will have to game plan, call plays and execute better than we did against KSU.

The most interesting thing about Kentucky to me is my sense that they got better as soon as Bob Stoops retired from Oklahoma...shadow coach? Plenty of time to teach his brother how to coach? Conspiracy theorists, lmk your thoughts!

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

I had higher Hope's for this season than most. After watching Tommy the first 2 games I was thinking 8, maybe 9 wins but that last game has me losing hope for this season. I still think Joe will figure it out in a year or teo

 

[philduckworth]

He will however go up in my book if we call a play, go to the line of scrimmage and run the play. That would be cool.

 

[ronpolk]

Home losses to KSU and UK probably means no bowl game. I don't see him recovering from that.

Agreed on the bowl front. Lose this weekend and the path to a bowl game looks murky.

 

[Seinfeld]

I’d argue that they’re now both must wins unless there are fans out there that are ok with 6-6.

A lot of fans defended the 8-5 record last year by stating that the only people expecting more were State fans. Well, if Joe tallies 6 wins when Vegas set the mark at 8.5, that won’t sit well

 

[Cap'n Geech]

If we win 6, 7, or 8 games, we are most likely in the pool of six bowls: Outback, Gator, Music City, Texas, Belk, and Liberty. So the difference between 8 and 6 wins is not that great other than perception. The difference between 6 and 5 wins is huge.

 

[She Mate Me]

For me, I am fully expecting it. And it won’t change my opinion of him. I already believe he is a very good man who took a very good job that was way over his ability.

I'm pretty much where you are in this paragraph, but I'm holding out hope that I'm wrong. There's a lot going on personnel wise right now, so I have to give him that slack.

A win and correcting some things from last week would improve my outlook. An ugly loss and the slack is gone.

 

[Go Budaw]

Kentucky is a must win.

Before the season started I looked at this upcoming stretch of games - Kentucky, Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, and Texas A&M...and I figured we would go 3 wins and 2 losses through it. Now we must beat Kentucky just to go 1 win and 4 losses (which I think is highly likely) and a fighting chance to make a bowl game.

If we lose to Kentucky, almost certainly will will go 0 wins and 5 loses through this stretch and our fanbase will go absolutely insane.

I think you may be suffering from some sort of bipolar disorder. Before the season, nobody in their right mind thought we would win any more than 2 (UT/UK) against that stretch of teams. Now that the first 3 weeks have played out, those two teams look way worse than they did before (UK because of injuries, UT because they flat out suck). And the other 3 teams are all bona fide Top 15 squads, just like they were preseason. 2-3 was the right call before the season, and 2-3 still looks good now if we can get healthy at QB and get some guys off suspension in those two games.

 

[Cap'n Geech]

A lot of people have forgotten about that Auburn game. A first year State coach beat the #8 team in the country by two touchdowns. Three weeks later he beat the #16 team in the country by two touchdowns. I know that Moorhead walked into the best situation of any State coach, but we've come a long way as a program that we are not satisfied with a 10-6 coach three games into his second season. I'm not pro- or anti-Moorhead. I just think it's a good sign that the expectations have changed. We can thank Mullen for that.

 

[triton28]

A lot of people have forgotten about that Auburn game. A first year State coach beat the #8 team in the country by two touchdowns. Three weeks later he beat the #16 team in the country by two touchdowns. I know that Moorhead walked into the best situation of any State coach, but we've come a long way as a program that we are not satisfied with a 10-6 coach three games into his second season. I'm not pro- or anti-Moorhead. I just think it's a good sign that the expectations have changed. We can thank Mullen for that.

While I agree that our standards have changed, I’ll say thank god to that. But there’s stats and eyeballs. The stats say that we are in better shape than we’ve ever been, the eyeballs say get ready for lower standards.

 

[MSUDC11]

While I agree that our standards have changed, I’ll say thank god to that. But there’s stats and eyeballs. The stats say that we are in better shape than we’ve ever been, the eyeballs say get ready for lower standards.

Even if it doesn't end up working out with Joe, I don't think that necessarily lowers our standards as a program. The last decade changed the ceiling of what our fans know we are capable of. Jackie Sherrill is considered our best coach ever by some, and he missed going to a bowl game more than 50% of the 13 years he was here (I know '97 is a weird exception since we went 7-4 and there weren't many bowl games back then, but the other times we missed bowl games it wasn't particularly close). Moorhead won 8 games last year and has a better than 50/50 chance of winning 6 or 7 games this year and he is perceived to be a bad coach by some of our fans simply because of what expectations are perceived to be now.

I guess what I'm saying is if Joe goes 5-7 this year and 4-8 next year and gets fired, the expectation level isn't going to drop down to what it was during the 90's and 2000's. Now that we've experienced success, I feel like our fans will always expect what I'll call the Mullen Standard: 6 wins minimum each year, and a team that rises up to the 9 win level or more every few years. If Joe isn't capable of meeting that standard, we'll go find someone else who can. Thankfully he is at least maintaining and in some areas surpassing what Mullen did as a recruiter, so if we do need to hire a new coach in a couple of years he should have a pretty good starting point.

 

[msudawg12]

My position:

Joe eroded my faith. I hope i'm wrong. He has to prove it.

 

[johnson86-1]

Doesn't change a thing. I'm mostly unimpressed so far.

But it does mean the likely best outcome will be 6-6, and we'll realistically be looking at a possible 1-5 stretch through the end of October. We'll be lucky to have 35,000 show up for the Arkansas game regardless of kickoff time and weather.

We're in bad shape if Stevens, Gibson, and Dantzler are all still out. Joe might need to consider no suspensions for this game. It's a must win after losing last week.

Joe absolutely needs to play this game with no suspensions. It's about salvaging the season at this point. To do that, he needs to win out against UK, UT, Ark, and UM. Even if UK were the weakest of the SEC teams left we play, still have to play everybody because he can't afford the loss in morale and fan support if he drops to 2-2 at this point.

 

[Shamoan]

so far with joe, we have experience a lot of losses that we were favored (sometimes heavily) to win...Uk 2018, UF 2018, IOWA '2018, KSU 2019 but on the flip side, based on how we looked, he won two games I didnt expect to win Auburn 2018 and aTm 2018 although the goal is always to be competitive and at worst go 1-1 with those two. the "coach effect" to this point is basically -2 for joe. not good and -3 with such a small sample size means we are in a really bad place with much of the season still to be played. that should scare everyone.