Bulldogs Celebrate Seniors Saturday and Money Ball Recruiting Philosophy
This Saturday Mississippi State will entertain the Vanderbilt Commodores in their last home football game of the 2014 season and like every year; the Bulldogs will honor their seniors before the game.
Senior day is always a great day to pay homage to those men that have made it through the program, reached the finish line and are about to grab those coveted degrees.
But – this weekend should also be a celebration of sorts for Dan Mullen, his staff and their efforts in recruiting; combined with these seniors buying into a process, a program and a plan. It’s Moneyball, Mississippi State style.
Moneyball was a book published in 2003 by Michael Lewis about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team’s analytical, evidence-based,sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite Oakland’s disadvantaged revenue situation. A film based on the book starring Brad Pitt was released in 2011.
Until this year, Mississippi State and Dan Mullen was mocked, laughed at and ridiculed for their recruiting approach.
While another school in this state was putting up high recruiting numbers, Mullen continued to talk about the “process”, something he’s done since day one.
Fans from the rival school, radio talk show hosts and media, meanwhile continued to dissect and discredit Mullen’s philosophy saying, “It’s only a matter of time before the other school buries the Bulldogs and leaves them in the dust.”
These seniors are a part of the 2010 and 2011 signing class, both of which were rated the 34th best recruiting classes in the country during their respective years.
Per 247Sports.com, four-four stars, 11-three stars, three-two stars and a walk on make up this senior class. That’s good enough for a composite of a 3-star rating as a whole for these seniors. Most people scoff at a 3-star filled program as being good enough to be “average”, especially in the SEC.
Back in 2009 Mullen talked about building his team as THE State of Mississippi’s team, with home grown talent, filling in the gaps with other guys from around the region that would buy into the program.
Guys that would work hard, be team players, good citizens for the community and guys that would follow the process.
Mullen constantly had to answer questions on recruiting rankings and talked about evaluation, projection and molding players into five-stars, not necessarily signing five stars.
Fast forward back to today and this Saturday; the Bulldogs will honor 19-seniors (14-native Mississippians, 5-regional men) who started their journey back in 2010-11 and have up to this point helped Mississippi State accumulate a 31-18 record, four straight bowl games and these guys have a ton left to play for.
The Bulldogs are currently number-four in the latest college football playoff, have an opportunity for their 10th win this weekend and a chance to finish 11-1 next week with a win in Oxford against Mississippi. That win would give this class a 4-1 mark against their rival, the Bulldogs would still have an outside shot at Atlanta and would probably lock up a spot in the National Championship Playoff in January.
Not to mention, several of these Bulldogs will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of 12-previous Mullen recruits and play in the National Football League.
These seniors have helped set the foundation solid, raise expectations, sell out stadiums, win a record number of ballgames and left a high water mark for those that follow them.
This weekend let’s celebrate each and every senior on this team for who they are as individuals, what they mean to this university and program and let’s celebrate the hard work and vision of this coaching staff.
Nobody really believed Dan Mullen back in 2010 when he talked about the process. I dare say you can find many folks laughing at him now.
He’s created a culture, a winner and he’s just getting started in Starkville.