It ended on a high note thanks to a blocked field goal in the final seconds of the St. Petersburg Bowl, but Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen is ready to put the 2016 season, which the Bulldogs went 6-7, in the rear view and move forward.
“That’s it. We don’t fix anything with this team,” Mullen told The Clarion-Ledger’s Michael Bonner. “The next time we have a team meeting on Jan. 6, that’s the birth of the 2017 team.”
Unfortunately for Mullen, the 2017 team won’t include this season’s top tackler, LB Richie Brown, or the program’s all-time leader in receptions and receiving yards, WR Fred Ross. He’s hopeful that the returning players’ experienced gained from this season and the new talent coming in will make up for that.
“There’s new guys in the room. New faces. Guys are a year older. New guys coming in,” Mullen said. “There are guys on the team that aren’t going to be there anymore.”
While Mullen counts on younger players like QB Nick Fitzgerald and a veteran secondary to continue to grow, he believes that the culture he’s built at MSU will put the Bulldogs in position to succeed in 2017. He made going to a bowl game a goal for every season when he came to Starkville in 2009, and the St. Petersburg Bowl made seven consecutive seasons that the Bulldogs made it to a bowl game.
“One of the great things, when you look at the guys in the locker room, they believe what you’re doing,” Mullen said. “When you look at the guys in the program, they believe in the program. It’s bigger than one game.”
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
