STARKVILLE — Four years removed.
That’s when Mississippi State University head coach Dan Mullen continually professes a staff can properly rate and assess the productivity of a recruiting class.
In that time MSU football has won back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 2000, won three straight rivalry games over the University of Mississippi and the second-most wins in a coach’s first three years with the program.
So now that the Bulldogs coach is at that point with his signing day first haul when he arrived in Starkville, he used his platform as an opportunity to discredit the online recruiting services and in doing so, attempted to promote his coaches’ system of evaluating players.
“Nothing against Rivals and Scout and 247(sports), but we’re not taking their evaluation,” Mullen said Tuesday during his team’s media day. “We’re doing our own evaluation on these kids and whether it’s your newspaper, whoever is evaluating them, we trust ours. We have our own five stars in our deal.”
When Mullen stepped off the plane at Bryan Field in Starkville with then-athletic director Greg Byrne, the first and only objective at that point was being able to secure a top 2009 recruiting class that could have not only some impact talent for that first season but to lead into future building block classes toward successful seasons after the initial honeymoon period in Starkville.
The 2009 class, which some of the internet recruiting services Mullen scoffs at had the Bulldogs incoming talent in the Top 25 nationally, currently has 13 members on this MSU team but it’s the five National Football League draftees that have been the sell point nearly four years later.
Junior college transfers Pernell McPhee and Chris White along with 2012 NFL first round pick Fletcher Cox were part of the Bulldogs recruiting class and along with the likely future NFL picks of Johnthan Banks and Josh Boyd speak volumes to the eye for talent, especially in the state of Mississippi.
“There are kids who are very much overlooked in this state,” Mullen said. “There are in a lot of places, but Mississippi seems like a big place for (overlooked talent) and we want to make sure we evaluate the kids in this state the right way and show that they can come here and represent their state.”
The players still on the MSU roster from that first recruiting class started noticing the players that were coming to Starkville to possibly have one of the best four-year stretches in Bulldogs football history.
“I noticed it a lot back then where I go on my computer every day and see that this player decided to come to Mississippi State,” MSU tailback LaDarius Perkins said. “Coaches will tell you I would be calling them to say ‘did this player really commit to us today’ and they’d say ‘yeah’ and I’d be jumping up and down.”
Banks is a guy that wears that banner for being the player most talked about as a NFL-type player the minute his eligibility runs out this season. He garnered attention last year from professional scouts but the consensus among NFL player personnel managers, scouts and coaches is his decision to stay at MSU will pay off literally and figuratively in promotion by the school officials in 2012.
“He’s a guy who can play receiver, running back, cornerback. He plays all over the place on defense. In my mind, that’s a high school coach that looks and says ‘this is my best player (and) I’m going to make sure I spotlight him on our whole team. Wherever the action is going to be, I’m going to make sure he’s in the middle of it because he’s our star player’,” Mullen said. “Well, those are the guys you want. I want the star player. I want whomever the high school coach feels is their best football player, we want to evaluate him.”
Like mot coaches will tend to do, Mullen did bemoan the double-edged sword effect of having great talent and then seeing that talent walk out on your program as juniors for professional football before their eligibility is over at MSU. In reality, Cox was the first and only player since Mullen has taken the job in Starkville to declare for the NFL after his junior season but his loss cuts through a defensive line filled with players but no significantly experienced stars to consistently make negative plays in the backfield.
“Here’s the one thing about our program, it’s always been about putting our best guys in the best situation to make plays,” MSU defensive coordinator Chris Wilson said. “If that’s Nickoe Whitley, John Banks or whoever that veteran is – the production is relevant to me. Not the player.”
Four members of a senior-laden receiving core were in this recruiting class including projected starters Chris Smith and Chad Bumphis. The quarterback who will be delivering these wideouts the football consistently Tyler Russell was a Parade All-American selection to the 2009 class.
“That first year we came in and got those guys that were all on the top of our board that either nobody knew about or had to get reassured about Mississippi State,’ said Koenning, who came in with Mullen on that first MSU coaching staff in Dec. 2008. “Those guys are starting to get older and the mix of older and younger guys because that first class.”
The element of experience in the system, confidence in memories of making plays at the Division 1 level and the obvious downfield strengths of Russell lead State fans to believe MSU will be more adapting their play calling style to the pass in 2012.
“You have to be balance and if it were up to me, I’d love to sling it every down but some times the guy can’t hit the broad side of a barn or get open to save his life,” Koenning said. “I think we’ve got a possibility however in 2012 to chuck it around a little bit. With Tyler’s ability and the receivers being older will be something of a strength for us.”
The mystery for MSU fans and the coaching staff designing plans for the 2012 season is can this first recruiting class from Mullen lead to MSU being able to compete with the Southeastern Conference elite in a year where everybody around the program expect are more than hopeful for a return to a New Year’s Day bowl game.
“Time will tell where we are (but) if you look, we had a guy drafted in the first round last year and Alabama had four or five,” Mullen said. “I had that (depth) I guess at Florida when I had (Tim) Tebow, (Cam) Newton and (John) Brantley — that was depth. That’s a good room but we’re getting there (at MSU) in that aspect.”
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