Mississippi State Bulldogs

Open Letter to MSU Administration: Re: Dan Mullen

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

foxsports

After a complete display of ineptitude and lack of fire against Auburn, it’s looking like it may be time to make a change. Dan Mullen does not appear to be the answer for the future of Mississippi State football. He took us to where we are now, but in order to advance we need better leadership.

With this in mind, the decision to fire Dan Mullen is not based off of the action during the Auburn game. This has been a culmination of frustrations and inability to advance the program. The simple ability to motivate a team when momentum is not on your side is necessary. The simple fact is that Dan has not been able to do this.

One of the factors that makes it embarrassing is that Dan Mullen cannot even see that he’s getting in the way of success. He doesn’t put the best product out on the field. He won’t relinquish play calling duties to anyone else. Is this because he doesn’t believe anyone else can do it, or that someone may do it better than him? If his belief is that someone will do the job better than him, then that’s a major issue for progress.

The next issue is simple: Why can’t we keep a defensive coaching staff intact from year to year? Is this because we aren’t paying our staff well enough? Or is it because Dan Mullen will not allow a Defensive Coordinator to do his job how they want to? We have already seen two defensive coordinators end up being much more successful at other programs (Florida and Miami).

Mullen is a man of many words. However, it seems that he just repeats the same phrase over and over again. “Strain” and “We are just a young team” seems to be the two talking points from Mullen this year. Mullen may say that he sees where things are going wrong, but I don’t believe him. If that were true, he would have done all that is necessary to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Simply put, if Dan fails to turn around this program in a major way, he needs to be gone. No excuse for a lack of effort put forward by your team after a bye week. Absolutely no excuse for the showing that many Mississippi State fans paid to view. If that is the product we should expect on the field from this point forward, then a major change is needed.