re: Predict Mississippi State's Record

9-3 best bet at worst 6-6

Definite wins
Sept. 1 Stephen F. Austin
Sept. 15 Louisiana-Lafayette
Sept. 22 at Kentucky
Nov. 3 Louisiana Tech
Nov. 17 Arkansas

Probable wins
Sept. 8 at Kansas State
Sept. 29 Florida
Oct. 27 Texas A&M

Toss ups
Oct. 6 Auburn
Oct. 20 at LSU
Nov. 22 at Ole Miss

Definite Losses
Nov. 10 at Alabama

So, obvious floor is 5-7, obvious ceiling is 11-1.

However, we will win all our probable wins and go either 1-2 or 2-1 in the toss-ups.

9-3 or 10-2.

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No Mullen = 10-2.

Mullen did a lot of great things for State, but his offense, play calling, and in game coaching decisions will always hold him back.

Moorhead's teams will be fun to watch. He believes in attacking, and he's not afraid to open things up against better teams. He will get the most out of these players.

Remains to be seen if he can recruit and keep the program on the upswing, but this season will be very special.

LOL at the people predicting losses to KSU, UK, UF and TAMU. MSU is much more talented than those teams.

My possible losses are BAMA, AU, LSU and UMiss. We won't lose all of those.

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i love how msu fans went from claiming mullen was the second best coach in the sec to now saying moorehead's gonna be an upgrade

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Hardly. His offense allowed State to beat most of the teams that State should have beaten, but prevented him from being competitive in the SEC.

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Holy I don't even know where to start Batman. Getting a perennial doormat like State competitive in the SEC is a Herculean feat and somehow you and other State fans are so delusional that you believe there are actually teams out there that you should beat?

I love this narrative that Mullen, the man responsible for State’s best modern seasons and their only #1 ranking, however brief,, is a worse coach than Joe Moorhead, a man who has never coached an SEC game nor been a head coach in general, yet still a “real coach” and clear upgrade over Merlins

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i love how msu fans went from claiming mullen was the second best coach in the sec to now saying moorehead's gonna be an upgrade

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I personally never claimed Mullen was that great. I never liked his offense. Moorhead is a clear upgrade at offensive coordinator...whether he is an upgrade in other ways remains to be seen.

He is a massive upgrade at alumni relations and public speaking, but that doesn't effect my season predictions.

Okay, I have no idea what you are talking about. How did Mullen "try to open things up" against UGA and AU last year? His normally conservative offense was getting stuffed, and then the defense gave up big plays to get MSU behind early in both games. In the AU game in particular, he just kept running the same conservative offense and almost got back in the game, but could hardly score any points.

Arkansas in 16? Track meet, just like the 2015 game was. Mullen just ran his standard read option spread, and Arkansas had no run defense. How did he "try to open things up"?

2013? We had a lousy team with Tyler Russell at QB. He did call more passing plays in 2013 because Russell wasn't much of a runner, but I don't call that opening things up.

Most of these blowouts are not caused by Mullen "opening things up." They are caused by his normally conservative offense getting stuffed and him having backup gameplan to respond with.

His "strategy" against Bama (or lack thereof) is exactly what I'm talking about. He usually just goes into the fetal position in the 1st quarter against Bama and never gives his team a chance. This past year, he manned up and ran a pretty conservative, ball control offense to keep State in the game. He dumped the hurry up offense in favor of huddles and running the play clock down to keep Bama's offense off the field. Then, with a chance to win or at least tie in the 4th quarter, he couldn't open things up and try to win. He curled up into his shell and took the loss.

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Mullen, the man responsible for State’s best modern seasons and their only #1 ranking, however brief

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State's best modern seasons are 1998, 1999, and 2014. Mullen was only responsible for one of those.

The #1 ranking was really cool, but was caused by a lot of circumstances out of Mullen's control. MSU was 8-0 in 1999 as well, but they got that way by having a stout defense rather than a productive offense, which doesn't impress the pollsters as much. Plus, the 1999 team didn't get the benefit of:

1. Texas A&M (#6) and Auburn (#2) were both way over-ranked when State played them.

2. On the same day that State beat A&M, #2 Oregon lost to Arizona, #3 Alabama lost to UMiss, #4 Oklahoma lost to TCU, and #8 UCLA lost to Utah, thus clearing the way for UMiss and MSU to be tied at #3

3. The AP pollsters broke with long standing precedent and actually dropped the undefeated, defending national champions (FSU) from the #1 spot.

Mullen's 2014 team ended the season with 3 ugly losses, and then Mullen signed one of his worst recruiting classes ever.

I'll take the 1999 team over the 2014 team any day.

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i love how msu fans went from claiming mullen was the second best coach in the sec to now saying moorehead's gonna be an upgrade

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Mullen is the 3rd best coach in the SEC now. Obviously