Would this really work??? Be Kind to a Bulldog ...

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Hell freezing over? Be kind to a Bulldog!

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Please read this in it's entirety before you crucify-

First, I please understand that I never, ever have rooted for Msu in any game in any sport. Unlike the few times that I have rooted for Bama or LSU in a national championship game, I could never bring myself to do that for Msu (not that it would ever happen anyway, but you get the point). They could be playing the N. Koreans or the Taliban, and I would not have rooted for them.

With that said, I do think we need for Mullen to have some moderate (emphasis on moderate) amount of success in recruiting and football next year. We simply cannot afford for him to be fired in the next year or two.

Here's my logic:
Initially many Msu and Ole Miss fans thought Mullen was a up and coming coach and strong recruiter. He was beating Houston Nutt who had won two Cotton Bowls and was getting under the Rebel nation's skin a la Steve Spurrier versus FSU/UGA. Because state beat us for a few years and whipped up on enough of the Jackson State's of the world, they were going to bowl games and had given the football world the impression of being a program/coach on the rise. Mullen was still riding the Tebow wave (I'm actually not sure that he deserved to be riding it in the first place and in the meantime that Tebow wave has pretty much died out, but you know what I mean) and he was continually nudging his name into coaching search discussions (oddly he has never been offered). With guidance from his AD, he smartly crafted a message about focusing on Mississippi and was able to take some recruits (like one or two from Yazoo City and one from the coast) that we wanted. His bravado gave the Msu fan base confidence and they enjoyed rubbing our noses in it. We didn't like it and we hate him for it.

Well, believe it or not those days are over. In the span of approximately 12 months, the landscape has shifted. Nutt is gone. Boone is gone. Freeze and Ross are here. They are very good men and they are great at the their jobs. Meanwhile, Mullen is starting to be exposed as the pretender that we have believed him to be.

Some of you are probably thinking, "but HE, how can you come to this conclusion after just winning one game in the past for years against Msu?". I will answer that with the following questions for you--
1. Do you think that Mullen is a better man that Hugh?
2. Do you think that Mullen will inspire his staff to out work Hugh and his?
3. Do you think that Mullen is even half the recruiter that Freeze is?
4. Do you think that Mullen has even half the credibility with parents that Freeze has?
5. Do you think that there is any way Mullen could win more than 2 of the next 10 games against Freeze? (I know even 1 of 10 is two much for most of us, but just play along-you have to assume Doyle Jackson will rear his god-forsaken head another time or two, possibly in Starkville, if it would somehow help the Tide)
6. Do you think that Mullen (in the next 1 million years and even if every other SEC West team was on probation) could ever get an Msu team to the SEC championship game?

Now for the scoring, if you were honestly able to answer "Yes" to even just one of the questions above, then I am wrong and you should hope that Mullen gets fired next week or as soon as the Mirando/NCAA investigation ends. You should stop reading now and go back to complaining about Msu recruiting rankings being inflated.

However, if you were able to answer "No" to all 6 of the questions above, then I think you may need to rethink your Hate Msu strategy as I am currently doing.

Simply put, we can't afford for Mullen to be fired anytime soon. We are flying past Msu right now and we haven't even started running yet. They had 3 years to gain some separation and they somehow they fell behind instead of taking the lead. Mullen is an average game coach at best. He has great difficulty in hiring and keeping a good staff. Mullen is an agitator, but he's not someone who inspires. He's not particularly liked by the media, the coaching community, or recruits' parents, and he's certainly not very trustworthy. Finally, he's a pretty average (this may be generous) recruiter - hell, he can't even recruit a QB and he personally invented Tim Tebow.

Does all that mean that he won't ever be able to steal some strong recruit from state of Mississippi or to perhaps beat us if there is some kind of perfect storm of errors? No, of course those things could happen. As an example, he may very well manage to somehow hold on to Chris Jones this year, but I'll start winding down with this -

Mullen and Msu no longer keep me up at night. I'm back to worrying about the Bama's, Lsu's, and UF's of the world. Don't get me wrong, I never want to lose to Msu in anything (even calf-roping), but I'm no longer worried about them. We should be sure to beat them brutally every year in football, but we need Mullen to hang on for a few more years.

So before you rub the Egg Bowl win and our superior recruiting class in the face of your Msu friends. Just consider telling them something like this:
1. "Hey buddy! Don't be blue! You guys had a pretty good recruiting class. Smart move stealing that USM recruit and you almost stole that one from Delta State that everyone else missed! Dan has keen eye for talent. You know, I think a lot of our guys were over-rated because Yancy and Chuck have so much pull with Scout."
2. "Hey fella! Your boy, Mullen, is really making us nervous with all of the talent he is bringing to Starkville. I wish we had something like the Pony to draw big time recruits to Oxford. It's really not a level playing field."
3. "I'm rooting hard for you guys against Bama this week."
4. "I'm rooting hard for you guys against Lsu this week."
5. "I'm rooting hard for you guys to make it to bowl game this year. We need the state of Mississipp to Represent." (note you do not need to specify that the bowls in question are limited to Shreveport, Birmingham, or Memphis)
6. "Wow, you guys beat the hell out of Jackson State this weekend! Mullen has his team hitting on cylinders. He's an offensive genius! I'm glad we weren't playing you guys this weekend."
7. "If you guys can just hang to to Mullen, you may be headed to Atlanta next year."
8. "You guys are so lucky to have Dan Mullen. He's the total package."

We don't need to send Msu to Hell. They are already there, but they just don't know it yet. Fortunately, most of them are not very smart. So just let them take some time to figure it out for themselves. Be kind to a Bulldog today!

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