Miss.St. vs App.St.?

[spacemonkey]

The most important part of this thread is that APPSTATE is painted on MISSST students chest. AppState is a nationally recognized brand now....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

[bigdaddyg]

I don't know much about branding and stuff like that but I think we have wanted to progress (nationally) past certain recognized steps:

- beat Michigan..for years when we played on a big stage that was the main feather in our cap that got mentioned repeatedly

- beat UNC and USC..kind of a big deal in that we took down 2 P5's in the same year. That accomplishment kind of got added to Michigan for a few games

- nearly beat Tennessee, Miami and Penn State. Kind of increased our brand but close isn't good enough

- beat A@M- brand established
Now as long as they don't go 5-7 and we finish strong brand will continue to improve

[Longrifle28]

Careful what you wish for. We've been known for embarrassing teams and getting coaches fired.

[Black Saturday]

Some said we did not want to play Texas A&M....

As we see TAM aint all that this year. and we aint too far from being 1-6 our last 7 games

[huskie3]

Talking with MissSt grad after church today, he said Jimbo Fisher was overrated.

[Black Saturday]

We need to focus on winning the "middle 8" first for a change before we want to hypothetically take on another 800lb gorilla.

[AppStFan1]

Some said we did not want to play Texas A&M....

I agree anyone at any time but I can see why MrCraig would feel this way. MSU has a QB that is much closer to Drake Maye than A&M does. We all thought A&M's QB play would be a lot better but it is clear that they are not a top 10 team by now and that is thanks to the QB because they have skill position weapons and a very good defense. If A&M had a QB like Drake Maye or if UNC had a defense like A&M's then imagine what that would be like. We probably lose by 30 or so.

You do you...and I will have my perspective..

His point was look at how we have done with NFL QBs. The last 2 we played are Maye and Zappe. We gave up 59 and 63 with losses to both. You are looking at A&M as a whole and we are talking about QB specific matchups. His point, and hard to dispute, is that we struggle with NFL QBs. I expected Texas A&M to be better than they have shown but I also never saw them as a top 10 team. They just don't have a good QB so they don't fall under the same matchup as Miss State would.

I have not seen this debated but the Sun Belt could finish with 3 ranked teams, if we get our stuff together. If JMU wins out, we win out, Coastal only losses to App, and South Alabama wins out except for the SBC title game then we could have 3 ranked teams and 1 RV in the final poll. That is assuming all 4 won a bowl game and opponents like A&M, UNC, MTSU, and UCLA of those teams all end up with a strong finish. We have to get a lot better before we worry about it but that would be a historic season for the league.

I understand exactly what his point was. MY POINT is that we are a program of play anyone, anytime anywhere...if we had a "fear of failure" mentality, we would have never scheduled Michigan, Texas A&M, Penn State, Tenn, UNC, USC, etc. We would schedule OOC games with YMCA and whomever the Beach Chickens play every year to be 5 -0, 6-0, etc each year. I do NOT want to be that program. Games are played on the field. Schedule them and play them... anyone, anytime, anywhere...

Agreed and we both said we would like to play them. We just both pointed out that we would likely lose because of that QB. If they had a QB like Max Johnson then I would change my tune. We have just struggled with NFL QBs in our history. It does not mean I would hide from it. It is just the reality I would expect due to our recent history with NFL caliber QBs.

[NewApp]

Anyone, anytime, anywhere.

I love that our program has that mindset. I’m just explaining what would more than likely happen in a hypothetical matchup between these two teams. And then someone would start a thread about how our program is devolving right before our eyes and some serious thought needs to be put in to getting a completely new coaching staff.
I have a lot of family that went to Mississippi State. They are a mid-tier SEC team. I’m just saying that their specific strengths exploit our specific weaknesses, which would most likely end with a very ugly score against App.

Totally agree. Everyone has to blame someone. Nobody realizes we sometimes are out manned and out depth-ed and out talented. Just because we beat a powerhouse one Saturday doesn't mean a lesser team is just going to fall on their butts for us the next Saturday. Sometimes we just lose and doesn't do any good for dozens of posters to try to assign different blames. Just play the game and do our very best. The wins will come and still some losses. Just my opinion and not trying to be a sage or know it all anymore than any other poster.