USA TODAY ‘Misery Index’ features 2 SEC teams following Week 5
By Keith Farner
Published:
Misery is finding a home in the SEC West, and this week, it falls on Texas A&M and Mississippi State following disappointing performances on Saturday. The Aggies at least came out with a win on Saturday, but alongside the Bullodgs’ loss at Auburn, both teams are looking to bounce back after Week 5.
USA TODAY’s Dan Wolken pegged those two teams in his weekly “Misery Index” column.
“The overwhelming emotion in Aggieland was not relief Saturday after holding off Arkansas, 31-27,” Wolken wrote. “It was bewilderment about how the expectations coming into this season got so far out of whack with the actual on-field product, which is still quite mediocre in Jimbo Fisher’s second season. And they aren’t paying him $7.5 million a year for mediocre.”
The bigger issue than Kellen Mond’s ineffectiveness is the running game, Wolken wrote.
In Starkville, fans are measuring Joe Moorhead’s performance through the lens of how Dan Mullen did as Mississippi State’s coach.
“Though the Bulldogs are probably going to win seven or eight games this year — which was a fairly typical Mullen season — fans are seeing a lesser quality of football and don’t like it very much,” Wolken wrote. “Though Mullen suffered an odd blowout here or there against Alabama or a team like Georgia, Mississippi State was generally able to hang in and sometimes beat teams with more talent. So far, Joe Moorhead hasn’t shown the ability to do the same.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
