Rebuilding years - Gary Patterson

[Bulldogg31]

At TCU, which granted has the luxury of not playing in the SEC West, but still an interesting look at a program that has to rebuild:

In 2001 Patterson goes 6-6
2002 10-2
2003 11-2
2004 5-6 lost to South Fla, UAB, and Tulane. Should have fired him.

2005 11-1
2006 11-2
2007 8-5 lost to Air Force and Wyoming.

2008 11-2
2009 12-1
2010 13-0
2011 11-2
2012 7-6 moved to Big 12. Lost to Iowa St
2013 4-8 clearly he's not the guy. Fire him?

2014 12-1
2015 11-2
2016 3-1

I know it's not a perfect comparison, but it shows sometimes it does take a year to work some things out before you go on a nice run again.

 

[msstate7]

Following back-to-back 11 win seasons in years 5 and 6, mark dantonio inexplicably went 6-6. Surely this was a sign he was done... Michigan state stuck with him though and went 13-1 (Rose bowl champs), 11-2 (cotton bowl champs), and 12-2 (lost in playoffs to bama) the last 3 years

 

[engie]

We would have fired Dabo for "losing to OM". 5 times in a row that Spurrier bent him over.

 

[ronpolk]

You're trying to make a rational argument with unrational people. The people that want Mullen gone are not rational people. I promise someone is going to counter with the south Alabama loss, which is no doubt bad.

 

[Bulldogg31]

Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech...

In Beamer's first 6 seasons at VT his average record was 4-7, including 2-8-1 in 1992.

In 1993 he got it turned around and averaged 9-3 over the next 4 seasons.

After back-to-back 10 win seasons in '95 and '96, he fell to 7-5 in 1997 with an awful loss to Miami of Ohio. Shoulda fired him.

Unfortunately VT hung in there with him and he only averaged 10 wins a season over the next 14 years. Missed opportunity huh?

 

[HD6]

Beamer is not a good example because college football was so different then. I'd bet willing to be his first six years at VT he didn't make a million dollars combined.

 

[aTotal360]

Nor did he have to play the good ACC schools.

 

[Cow College]

I can provide plenty of examples of coaches who neve bounced back as well. Everybody made the Beamer comparison when we wanted to get rid of Croom. Remember that?

 

[BulldogBlitz]

Cool. I'm buying season tickets for next year, when we will be 12-1.

 

[msstate7]

I can provide plenty of examples of coaches who neve bounced back as well. Everybody made the Beamer comparison when we wanted to get rid of Croom. Remember that?

When you give the examples use ones that were the most successful coach in that school's history and also the youngest in their conference (division). I think the age factor is important... Mullen is 44, so it's not like he's at the end of his rope

 

[8dog]

How many coaches are out there with a similar start that didnt get it together though?

 

[John Lorry]

Honestly, look at 2013 season.

We were within a millimeter of going 4-8 (or even 2-10) with losses to Bowling Green and Kentucky. We would go on to beat Bowling Green 21-20 (sound familiar?) and Kentucky 28-22.

From the Bowling Green game:

With 4:21 left in the game, Mississippi State went for a fourth-and-1 on the Bowling Green six yard line. Prescott's rush was inches short, and the Bulldogs turned it over on downs. Johnson completed four passes and Green rushed once to get the Falcons to midfield. But then the drive stalled, and Johnson failed to complete a fourth-and-11 to Ryan Burbrink, and Mississippi State ran out the clock.

From the Kentucky game:

The Bulldogs had picked up their first Southeastern Conference victory of the season. But it wasn't easy at all. Mississippi State beat Kentucky 28-22 on Thursday night at Davis Wade Stadium. The Bulldogs built a 21-7 lead in the first half, but couldn't secure the game until Kentucky's last drive fell short at Mississippi State's 29 with 21 seconds left.

We also escaped with OT wins against Arkansas and OM that year. 4-10, and even 2-10, could have happened.

You can quickly find plenty of threads at that time with people demanding that Mullen be fired immediately and Hudspeth locked down before someone else took him.

It's a good thing we listened to the message board collective because, as we all know, the 2014 season was just more of the same for MSU. And, come to think of it, the 2015 season sucked too.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

I can provide plenty of examples of coaches who neve bounced back as well. Everybody made the Beamer comparison when we wanted to get rid of Croom. Remember that?

No everybody didn't make that comparison. Because the vast majority knew it was time when we let Croom go. It was used in 2013 for Mullen when people where calling for his head.

ETA please provide examples of those coaches and I can match you for each and everyone that have bounced back.

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

This is who LSU should go after IMO

 

[NCDawg.sixpack]

A lot of people wanted to fire Sherrill after the '95 season when we went 1-7 in the SEC. To his credit, he wasn't pleased with the defense and brought in Joe Lee Dunn. 3 years later we won the SECW. I think most people think the OL is our primary problem on our team at the present time. Apparently Coach Mullen doesn't agree and is satisfied with their performance.

 

[johnson86-1]

I'd be interested to see if there was typically a clear reason for a step back for some of these coaches. Anybody can get derailed for a year if they have bad injuries at a thin position. Mullen's year was derailed in 2011 by injuries on the OL, although we already had a problem at LT before the season even started. Anybody can get derailed for a year by making a bad coordinator hire. That was part of the problem with 2012.

Right now, Mullen seems to have been derailed mainly by a lack of recruiting. We are losing because of a talent issue, and to make things worse, it's not even young talent that's losing. We are losing with upperclassmen and the underclassmen still can't justify getting on the field.