Something changed after Auburn '14...

[Xenomorph]

Walking off the field we knew we'd be #1 come Monday, players hugging (the straight on kind), Mullen crying...

I honestly think at that moment Dan felt like he had climbed the mountain in Starkville. Looking at our program as a whole, we haven't had the same passion to succeed as we did before that day.

I have no inside knowledge of him looking at other jobs, but it's easy to see something has been different in the program since he gave the famous speech at practice about playing LSU, A&M and Auburn and winning all three.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

There's a bit of a whiff of Mullen not giving everything he has for State and it might be turning off bigger programs. Who knows exactly he wants to end up, and if you are at Florida or Miami or Penn State, how would you know he isn't there as a stepping stone to another big school? I thought we lost having a head coach who wanted to be somewhere else when Croom left.

 

[Shmuley]

Late in the evening on November 15, 2014, Mullen realized he would never summit his mountain while at MSU.

 

[coach66]

Sometimes when people see their net worth climb past 5 million they can get

complacent, arrogant and shut out the rest of the world. True competitors aren't as motivated by money as they are driven by the need to win and succeed.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Ole Miss's network is about that high and they aren't complacent

 

[coach66]

No, they will be in contact the top 300 players for next year this afternoon

with blanket offers and begging them to just visit.

 

[tatedog]

In the back of mind I've always been concerned that Mullen worked under Urban Meyer for so long. Not that there is anything wrong with Urban Meyer outside of the fact that he didn't have the fortitude to compete the way you have to compete in the SEC... dirty. It's not much surprise that Mullen doesn't have it in him either.

 

[engie]

It's not the first time that he's given the impression that he lost the fire IMO

 

[coach66]

Freudian slip, meant to say Net Worth. Damn this day is off to a great start.

nm

 

[121Josey]

Nothing really changed. It just represents the apex of 2011-2016. Mullen's a big picture guy, but he's not (or not yet) into the details. Unfortunately the devil is into the details. Sure, everybody makes mistakes, but he's got to understand situations better. Here's a few examples that come to mind:
1) @Bama 2014 - come out flat. His teams never play well if they fall behind early. Was it because of the decision to travel on gameday?
2) @TSUN 2014 - team couldn't tackle. 3 plays lose the game. The players went home to celebrate Thanksgiving. Family first, I guess.
3) ^LSU 2015 - get behind early. Played conservative. 2pt conversion and Bad 2 minute drill sets the season on a different trajectory.
4) @TAMU 2015 - Sumlin had never beaten a Top 25 team at home. OL looks silly. So many fumbles. Dear hardly touches the ball.
5) ^Bama 2015 - they made the OL look silly. Why would anyone want to play for you after that beating?
6) ^TSUN 2015 - came out flat. Game out of reach by halftime. Why didn't he learn his lesson about sending the players home?
7) Recruiting 2016 - came out flat. Decommits. Whiffs. Rumors of job search. Lose defensive staff and recruiting staff. Cluster 17.

Mullen can just beat the people that he's better at beating. Don't expect Dan to pull an upset on the field or in recruiting or in staffing.

 

[anon1787432961]

CORRECTION: Something changed after Auburn 2011

The day the NCAA found no issues with Cam Newton's father getting paid $180K for him to go to Auburn, college football changed forever.

More schools started putting together plans and budgets to get the elite athletes, not just Bama, Auburn, Florida State, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas.

If you need 10 solid commitments then roughly plan to spend up to $2M getting them. The schools that do, get the players. The ones that don't, don't.