True, but Mullen lost control of the narrative with his awful decision on retaining TG and recruiting efforts (or lack of them).
Both Mac and Mullen towards the end look like they had something they wanted to say, but wouldn’t spit it out.
No, 2013 is the year we lost to Georgia Southern; 2014 was the lost season that Muschamp got to coach even though it was clear to everyone but Foley that Muschamp simply didn’t have it, and we were delaying the inevitable.
This is the crazy mindset that causes trouble.....we go on the road facing a legit top 10 team, lose our qb for a significant portion of the game, fight tooth and nail all night, lose on a heartbreaking field goal at the end. Your takeaway......"we stunk it up and mismanaged it entirely start to miserable finish". That is lunacy
Lets say he stays in bounds...39 seconds run off...we still lose that game on a field goal. It would have just been a bit longer field goal.
I’m not sure I agree with that. I don’t doubt that this team might have found a different way to lose; that’s just what they did this year. But without those 39 seconds, Missouri’s playcalling would have changed a bit, and who knows what would have followed from that.
IMO, what we saw was less "obliviousness" and more "Master Plan". The dialog seems to imply that Mullen thought after the Trask season, he would be entertaining NFL offers. He got none and the rest is history, including the meh idea of the bowl game. He orchestrated it because that was where his mind was. After that, it is about not giving a damn and probably thought he had political cover from that season. Or to put it in better perspective, Mullen was and still is a damn dickhead.
Very stupid play regardless, and it possibly cost us the game. But many players did many stupid things throughout the year last year. There was a lot of highlights and a few bright spots, but the disorganization probably just comes from a young team.
I agree that we don’t need to sell our souls, but I am willing to sin a bit and go to confession on Saturday
I actually have always liked his "don't hurry up to mess up" concept. But, I've feared from the beginning that the patience he expected is more than the patience he would get. Nobody gets a five-year rebuild cycle anymore, especially at this level. Gotta win some games we're not supposed to win next year. We also have to maintain what is currently an excellent 2024 class (even if some of the talent shifts from high school to the Portal Potty).
You have to win some games if you want to get to five years. You can’t get everything else built and going if you don’t. There’s just too much negativity to overcome when you’re losing on the field like we have. Your recruiting efforts start to crumble, your financial backing start to dry up, you start to get bitter. When those things start happening, you get in a situation that’s hard to overcome. You have to win and it’s real hard to win in this league if you’re not getting it done off the field too. If you’re not winning on the field, it’s tough to get the support to make the wins happen off the field. Viscous cycle. Then you fire everyone and start over and hope you don’t find yourself in the same place 3 years down the road. At some point we have to give someone a longer leash and see if they can get over the hump. At the same time, once things start to snowball, you get in a spot that’s almost impossible to overcome. I do not envy the folks at the top who have to fund all this stuff and make all these decisions.
It’s really hard to know what to do because you cannot predict the future. Napier could go six and six next year and get fired or he could go six and six next year eight and five the next year and 13 and the following year.
Yep. Or he could go into weird rant about death threats and then refuse to cooperate in an investigation about said threats and be gone within the next week. Who knows, man? My crystal ball is busted.
Is Billy in control of the narrative at this point ? Mullen was said to have lost the team based on rumor. Billy appears to be losing the team based on players leaving.
I am going to say that your take on Mullen is strictly in hindsight. Napier is going to be Napier and that is quite different. We do not know what will be the future, or what is happening in the minds of the remaining team. Cox got kicked off the team. Was he disillusioned and made it known or was he a prima donna? The first 4 games next year will be VERY telling. I just hope it not like this year's first 4 games and does not reflect the remaining 8 games.