It's a weird time for me as a sports fan. My favorite NFL squad, the New Orleans Saints, are still undefeated eleven weeks into the season. I'm certainly happy for their success, but I've seen too many heartbreaks at the hands of the black and gold to not be exercising a healthy amount of restraint. My excitement will remain tempered for the time being. On the college front the situation isn't too different, my alma mater had one of those seasons that's hard to wrap your head around. They beat a handful of teams that they should have and upset a ranked opponent (their rival no less), and yet they lost more than they won against a very difficult schedule. Now that the season is over, I'm reflecting on the Bulldogs and trying to decide how to feel about the new regime.The Bulldogs were under new head coach Dan Mullen for the first time and finished the year with five wins and seven losses. When he was hired, I was skeptical that it was wise to give an SEC job to a coach without any head coaching experience. The statistics say that first time head coaches don't perform well in the SEC. Of course, it's only the lower tier teams that are going to take a shot on someone without head coaching experience so those statistics are, by nature, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. One year into the Mullen regime, I can't say that I'm disappointed but I also can't say that I'm overwhelmed. According to many, Mullen has taken an talent deficient team and gotten the most out of them against an admittedly brutal schedule (Outside of FCS Jackson State, the lowest ranked team to visit Davis-Wade Stadium was the #20 Ole Miss squad). Now, the same people that say MSU is talent deficient were saying that Jevan Snead was going to be the best quarterback in the SEC this year, so I always take opinion of talent evaluators with a huge grain of salt. Only time will tell how deficient this team was talent-wise. But to their credit, the new coaching staff did generate excitement about a previously dismal football team. Some of that credit needs to go to a very attendance-inducing schedule. Fans lined up to see several teams that spent time in the top 15 or higher (Florida, Alabama, LSU, Georgia Tech, Houston, Ole Miss). In many of these games, the Bulldogs were in a position to win, which only added to the excitement. Of course, the five games that were wrapped in maroon and white aren't that impressive: JSU, MTSU, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, & Ole Miss (the latter two being the only bowl teams for MSU to have beaten). However, despite a losing season and the lack of a defining win (which might have happened if the team had called a couple quarterback sneaks late in the LSU game...not that I'm bitter or anything), I have a generally positive attitude about the team going forward. The current regime seems committed to putting the days of "good-to-great defense and an absolutely abysmal offense" squarely behind them. The games this year were entertaining, and given the previous regime's style, that was a revelation in and of itself. My hopes for next season and the future are as follows:
1. We desperately need a quarterback. Whether that is Cameron Newton, Tyler Russell, Chris Relf, or somebody else I do not care, but we need one badly. It is going to be very difficult to win games if we keep getting a negative at the most important position on offense. It's a stinging indictment of the Croom era that Tyson Lee had to start for us this year. The guy is a great guy and I wish him all the best because he tried his hardest but he isn't nor will he ever be an SEC-caliber quarterback. The success or failure of the Mullen era will likely be determined by how this need is met.
2. We need to continue to play top competition. I don't want to be pessimistic here but, Mississippi State is not going to be in the hunt for the national championship. Period. Nor is Ole Miss. Nor is Southern Miss. The population and economics of our fair state scream this at the top of their lungs. We divide a rich, but small talent base three ways (and that's before you consider that Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Auburn, & Arkansas are all recruiting in Mississippi as well). On top of those disadvantages, we will always have LSU, Alabama, and other juggernauts on our schedule. The prospects of an undefeated season are not good. If that's a given, then we should have no trepidation in scheduling really tough opponents. It gives us more opportunities for headline grabbing upsets and it gives yet another reason for our fans to place their rear ends in the stadium seats rather than the deer stand. Playing one FCS team is fine, but we should be actively seeking out teams like Boise State, TCU, BYU, Utah, and other BCS conference opponents like Georgia Tech, West Virginia, etc. Kids like to play in big TV games. No one is going to put MSU-UAB or MSU-Memphis on national television. The last thing MSU needs is to play more games where they have everything to lose and nothing to gain.
3. We must continue to score points. You can't win in the SEC without defense and my hope is that our defense will improve (it has little room to go anywhere but up from this season's statistics) but more than anything, Bulldog fans need to know that a 14 point deficit is not the end of the game. I've been so scarred by the Croom era that I automatically assume defeat if we get more than 7 points behind. I don't think I'm alone in that regard. People will continue to fill the seats if they are entertained. News flash: 3-2 games are the exact opposite of entertainment. I realize that being more aggressive on offense is going to lead to more turnovers, but after so many years of ultra-conservative play-calling, that's a chance we've got to be willing to take.
To sum up my thoughts and this season, I am cautiously optimistic. State scored 307 points this year, up from 183 last year. They beat every team on their schedule that they should have beaten and upset one ranked team. These are good signs. The question remains, will the team build on this year or stagnate? I'm certainly hoping for the former and preparing for the latter.







