Has Mississippi State peaked under Dan Mullen?
During his seven seasons at Mississippi State, coach Dan Mullen’s success cannot be denied.
Mullen has led the Bulldogs to six straight bowl appearances, including a Orange Bowl bid in 2014. It was Mississippi State’s first trip to the Orange Bowl in more than 70 years. Behind Mullen’s leadership, the Bulldogs also reached their first ever No. 1 ranking in the history of the program.
Over the last six years, Mississippi State has won at least nine games in three different seasons. In the 29 seasons before Mullen’s arrival, the Bulldogs hit the nine-win mark just once.
He has already carved a legacy that will be remembered in Starkville for decades.
But that leaves Bulldogs fans with this difficult question: Is there anything else Mullen can accomplish while the coach at Mississippi State? Has he taken the program as far as it can go?
Although the obvious answer to the first question is to win the SEC West, SEC or even a National Championship, those goals seem rather lofty for a program with Mississippi State’s resources and history.
The Bulldogs simply do not have the same brand or facilities as competitors such as Alabama or LSU, making it hard to attract top recruits.
In its own state, the Bulldogs face stiff competition from Ole Miss Rebels, which has been to two straight New Year’s Six bowls and is attracting top recruits. If SEC recruits aren’t going to Alabama or LSU, Ole Miss often gobbles them up. And in order to win the SEC West, Mississippi State has to beat those three teams in the same year.
Mullen has admitted that Mississippi State is a “developmental program” — a program that given time and a great coaching staff can turn two- and three-star prospects into standouts. No one in the SEC gets more out of talent than Mullen.
But there in lies the crux of the problem. Unless Mississippi State improves its recruiting, there isn’t anywhere else for the program to go. According to 247 Sports, the Bulldogs have the 12th-best 2016 recruiting class in the conference and worst in the SEC West.
Despite all this and the fact the greatest player in Mississippi State history, Dak Prescott, is leaving, Mullen has decided to stay. That is quite admirable. His goal is to make the Bulldogs program the best it can ever be.
Unfortunately, there is at least a 50-50 chance the program is already there.
For the record. I for one am going to delete this site from my history and absolutely dump it. It’s getting old as a Bulldog fan hearing this ole miss alumni associated rag tout how marvelous the rebels are and how MSU has done about all they are going to do and how one player is responsible for the past years successes. Mostly pathetic writers who for the most part know nothing about writing. I know third graders who could do a better job at getting basic information correct. Pitiful!
Why should we start expecting anything other than “Last in the SEC West!” every single year. We’ve always been the underdogs and have consistently proven them wrong.
Truth hurts sometimes. So you delete the site because they don’t agree with State fans delusional mind set that they’ll be better without Dak? I mean it’s not saying they’ll be awful, they just won’t be anywhere near as good as they were the past 2 years. He’s simply not recruiting the talent needed to stay at the top (even though it was more like mid tier). I mean I guess you could go check our Elite Dawgs. Although they cover more Ole Miss than any Ole Miss site could dream of. Reality isn’t fair sometimes. And reality is, this is your peak. The Belk Bowl. Enjoy it.
Nobody said we would be better without Dak. You are putting words in people’s mouths. If you are honest with yourself you know this was nothing more than a hit piece. I mean where is the same article about other schools i. The sec who might have peaked. You won’t find one. Period.
What is possible is that there may not be the drop off that everyone at this site hopes for. Facts are that until the last two years ole miss has been no more relevant than State since 1961. That’s the facts that you have to live with and get back with us when ole miss ever gets to a number one ranking. Ain’t happening.
Yes let me worry about a #1 ranking while Ole Miss throttled that same team that was ranked #1 with a depleted team. And throttled again this year. Congrats on being number 1 and still managing to lose your final 3 games. Something to be proud of for sure. And this year you lose again to Ole Miss and go to the Belk Bowl while we’re in New Orleans. But hey. And least you guys have those moral victories the last 3/4 years.
You guys will not give Mullen the respect he deserves. Every year you say he can,t match last years performance, yet year after year, he does. If MSU were to win a nation Neal championship, you guys would say Mullen can’t keep it up. He has changed the culture in Starkville, and I, as an older alumnus, am grateful to him and expect our program to continue to spiral upward despite the doubts of the so called experts.
State has peaked period. Don’t blame Mullen. It is what it is. Starkville is not a place to win a national championship. That is not to say they can’t rise up and beat a national champion on occasion though. The Big 12 would not want them in their conference :)
This is what I’m trying to say. But instead of understanding they point fingers. Don’t try to reason with them.
Mullen has always had the problem with beating ranked teams. He beats teams he is supposed to ( I know I know, Olé Miss doesn’t always do this) but he just can’t seem to pull the upsets like Olé Miss and in Mississippi it’s all about besting the other school. Mullen is a good coach, but to truly call him a great coach I’m not so sure. He has had the benefit of coaching Alex Smith, Chris Leake, Tebow and Dak. Give him an average college QB I.e. Chris Relf and Tyler Russell and his squads aren’t very impressive.
Mullen is a good coach. He is a hell of a lot more proven then say Kirby Smart. I can’t believe Georgia didn’t take a close look at Dan. Hell, he has won at Mississippi state and put damn good competition on the field. Just imagine what he could muster with top five recruiting classes.
He won 9 games with Chris Relf.
Oddly enough, I think they’d go a long way towards lifting their profile if they did join the big 12.
They’d instantly be one of the top 4 tms in the conf & they could from under big brother’s shadow ala A&M with Tex. I think the big 12 would consider it a steal to land the Cowbells.
This was in response to RiffTide. I hit reply on that comment and it created a new thread. ….in case anyone was wondering what I was talking about.
Look at Cousin Eddie’s record against teams that finished in the top 25 during the two best years in program history. He is 1-8! Won 22% of the toughest games! Dan’s “success” is smoke & mirrors aided by Larry Templeton, lead scheduler in the SEC office and former lead dog at Humper Tech!!!!
Yeah, well at least he can keep his players out of icu from smoking spice and can keep them from jumping out windows running from a marijuana and spice bust. Unlike buck tooth howdy doody that the rebels have coaching
He is definitely buck toothed but come on, his teeth look better than mcelwains. My word, state coach is humpback, and ole Miss coach is buck tooth. Those are some terrible junior high talking points both schools use. I hate both schools fans and posters sometimes.
Except for that whole “De’Runnya Wilson got arrested for weed and drug paraphernalia possession and wasn’t suspended a single game last year” thing.
Dan is a good enough coach. However, before Dak became the starter MSU was looking at missing a bowl game and looking for a new coach.
Especially good enough when it comes to playing the hogs.
BITE ME.
I can’t say that Dan is one of my favorite coaches at all because he doesn’t ever give ole miss any respect. I also think the state of Ms. should be proud of both schools for what they have done the last few seasons. The media must think state are the underdogs instead of Bulldogs but that gives y’all something to prove and makes a team play harder. Other than hurting my ego a little bit I like it when Ole Miss is underestimated.
The only peak Mullen will hit ‘in Starkville’ is his own. And the facilities State has are on par with most of the SEC, or don’t yall remember ‘the house that roids built’. It’s true, we don’t have Bama’s brand, but who does. South Carolina was the punching bag of the SEC, Spurrier was there a few years, puts up a couple of double digit seasons, and people are thinking they are contenders, SOUTH CAROLINA. Even we used to play S. Carolina for homecoming. Between 1960 and 1998, TCU had all of 6 seasons above .500. Enter Franchionne, then Patterson, TCU starts having double digit seasons. But they did while journeying through the WAC, CUSA, and the MWC before the Big XII invites them back into a big boy conference. After a lackluster debut followed by a losing season, they won 13 games last year, their only loss was to Baylor, a team that was also considered one of the best in the country. I didn’t hear anybody asking if they had peaked. Condescending nonjournalists. Seriously, Mullen is the first decent coach we’ve had to have resources comparable to the big boys in the conference, maybe the first one period. Is it really any surprise that he can win most of the games we are supposed to? One day, when we realize that he is just too stubborn and inflexible, we will move on and then you can shut up about this crap. Go write about the BigXII or something.
Maybe if things keep going a positive way for Ms. teams the egg bowl will determine who wins the Wild Wild West in the near future. Maybe Y’all can be the bulldogs and we will be the underdogs because it’s nothing like having the motivation to prove somebody wrong.
You’re the kind of Ole Miss fan I become friends with. Enjoy the rivalry. Don’t hate the people who do hate the team that wants to beat you for the top spot in your state. We’re all brothers, cousins, mothers, to a State/Ole Miss fan. I’ve done wrong, and have had wrong done to me (as recently as Christmas 2015). I’ve found it much more enjoyable to talk rationally to rivals, and still cuss them behind closed doors. A good friend of mine was the drum captain at Ole Miss last year, and we’ve found we enjoy the rivalry on a completely different level. If both teams are killing it, our state’s biggest hate party becomes more important. That equals more success for both teams.
This sad writer must have been forced to “contrive” an article to meet a deadline and this was the best he could do!?!? If he had written this article 2 years ago, it would have likely included references to the program never breaking the top 10 or 5. And look what we did last year. This guy has zero credibility…..absolutely laughable. It’s hard to even get mad at such an immature article. Just keep winning Dan and the Dawgs!!!!
A lot of this is just crazy talk. MSU is a charter member of the SEC, they’re not going anywhere’s nor should they. They have already been to Atlanta and played in the SEC championship game, Ole Miss can say that. Their facilities are not on par with LSU’s, Alabama’s, Texas A&M’s & Auburn’s out of the west, true but very few across the country are, LSU’s, Alabama’s & Texas A&M’s are all in the top 10 in the country, but they are on par with Ole Miss’s, Arkansas’s, Vandy’s, Kentucky’s, Mizzou’s and a lot of others across the country. Although in his last couple of years at MSU his teams fell off some, but in the mid to late 90’s Jackie Sherrill put some pretty damn good football teams on the field at MSU. Plus the fact that we all have learned through the years that stars mean nothing, for instance just the other night we all watched a 5* Alabama freshmen corner get ate up all game long by a walk-on freshmen receiver from Clemson. Mullen will do & be just fine at MSU.
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What facilities are we small sec schools lacking exactly besides huge stadiums? I know ole Miss stadium is small but once we bowl it in, it will be a nice low level stadium with not a bad seat in the house. These kids are pampered way more than they use to.
Missy State after all these years fields a good product. And, along comes the media and poo-poo’s it. Come on give me a break?! MS is challenging people on the field and recruiting like crazy. Putting players in the NFL , doing it right it appears? And, now we talk about peaking etc. Crazy!!
Have they picked us to finish last again yet? We all know it’s coming.
I have noticed a strong anti-MSU bias on this site for at least two years now. Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking along the same lines. Unless recruiting picks up, the future for State looks the same or worse than the 2015 season. The best hope for Mullen is that Freeze will leave for a signature school (if Saban retires…???), get hammered by the NCAA for recruiting violations, or get run off for not winning the national championship in the next 2 years. Otherwise, Freeze is the real deal and will continue to dominate within the state.
Riffe, Good of you to concede Mullen isn’t a great coach based on his record against teams that ended in the top 25 in the 2 most successful seasons in school history and with the greatest player in school history! As for keeping his players out of trouble, you conveniently forgot about DeRunya’s little run in with the law. And what about Super Dak’s drunken brawl on the beach last spring! I am sure there are others but those two come to mind first…….
Man, like we don’t have issues ourselves.
Funny you compare kids drinking to smoking spice and Marijuana. bit of a stretch there.
To face the truth is hard for a fan , especially those dedicated to the Bulldogs. Dak was our promised one and we had two back to back winning seasons. It’s hard to draw new players but the ones we get can be coached up.