I don't like Mullen. I think that he and Urban tried their best to help bring AU down in 2010, while acting as if they were disinterested and outside parties to all of the shenanigans. But, I have to hand it to him that he's been able to do more with less than many others at state. They may be still overrated, I guess we will see pretty soon. Still, they've done better over a longer period since his arrival.
http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-sports/2014/10/how_mississippi_states_recruit.htmlHow Mississippi State's recruiting strategy helped it become one of the big dogs of the SE
When Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen arrived in Starkville in Dec. 2008 he told anyone who would listen: "We can build something here."
Every new coach believes this, but behind the words, Mullen knew a lot of building needed to be done. A former hotshot offensive coordinator at Florida, he inherited a program that had gone to just two bowl games in eight seasons and gone a combined 21-38 under predecessor Sylvester Croom.
It wasn't a recent downturn, either. Mississippi State historically had been one of the SEC's bottom dwellers. If Mullen was to succeed where many others failed, he was going to have to build indeed -- with new materials.
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That meant better talent, period. Yet Mullen and his staff knew they weren't going to be able to sign five-star after five-star the way he had done under Urban Meyer in Gainesville. They determined that the best way to build long-term success at Mississippi State would was to excel at the early evaluation of middle-tier recruits, then develop these sometimes unfinished products into gems once they got to campus.
Their mantra: "You may not come in as a five-star, but you're going to leave as a five-star."
Now, in the midst of Mullen's sixth season, players such as Johnthan Banks, Vick Ballard and K.J. Wright epitomize the success of their strategy. All little-recruited out of high school, each is now playing in the NFL. They were parts of teams that helped Mississippi State reach bowl games in each of its last four seasons. Mississippi State coaches say they are following the Wisconsin method of strong evaluation and development as a way to compete in the SEC. The Badgers, under Bret Bielema, never signed one of the nation's top recruiting classes, but yet went to three consecutive Rose Bowls from 2010 to 2012.
Mullen gets giddy when he talks about molding an underweight offensive tackle who came from a small high school with no real weight room. He's like Michelangelo trying to mold a two-star into a David.
This is how Mullen transformed an SEC laughingstock into the nation's No. 3-ranked team.
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Being an SEC school in Mississippi isn't easy. Mississippi has the second smallest population in the SEC, approximately three million, ahead of only Arkansas. That's long fueled talk that the state should really have just one SEC school, not two. (Ole Miss being the other, of course.) This 2014 season is dispelling that notion, but the state's small population has traditionally made it difficult for the Mississippi schools to compete with the SEC elite when it comes to recruiting.
Mississippi's recruiting base is quite talented. Among all states, it produces the third-most NFL players per capita, according to a recent CBS Sports study. But talent pool isn't as varied or deep as it is in states like Florida, Georgia and Texas. Mississippi State battle Ole Miss for every top player in the state, but the duo must also contend with poachers like Alabama, LSU and Auburn. Bottom line: there simply aren't enough elite players to keep Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss in the mix at the national level.
Mullen relies on safeties coach and ace recruiter Tony Hughes to navigate the state. The saying goes that Mullen won't walk into a Mississippi home without Hughes by his side. Hughes has been recruiting the state for more than two decades and is well-versed in its challenges. "[Recruiting] goes in cycles so whatever it offers you have to capture it when it comes through," Hughes says. "There are some years you might not have defensive linemen, but you have offensive linemen. You have to grab them, even though you may not need o-linemen because the next cycle you might not have o-linemen for three or four years. That's part of being a small state."
Despite the difficulties, Mullen has made recruiting its backyard a priority. Sixty percent of MSU's roster comprises in-state players -- fourth-best in the conference behind Texas A&M, Georgia and Florida. The school focuses on recruiting within a five-hour drive of Starkville, then supplementing its Mississippi base with Alabama and Louisiana recruits. Mississippi State has also been successful recruiting nearby areas like West Point and establishing a base in the Mississippi Delta
Many of the program's most successful players under Mullen were lowly-rated in-state prospects. Banks and Gabe Jackson, members of Mullen's first recruiting class in 2009, came out of East Webster and Liberty, respectively, as three-stars or worse. Yet both were taken in the first three rounds of their respective NFL Drafts.
"We've recruited the state hard," Mullen says. "With our coaches I think there is a lot of confidence in their evaluations of players here in Mississippi. We've been evaluating lots of these guys for years."
Mississippi State has been building toward a big 2014 for years, powered by better than expected recruiting classes in 2010 and 2011. Those recruiting classes were ranked 10th and 11th in the SEC, according to 247Composite rankings. That usually doesn't put the shakes on opponents, but the staff has shown that those classes had more talent than others may have seen.
The 2010 class included current wide receiver Jameon Lewis (15 catches, 223 yards) and a trio of offensive linemen: Dillon Day, Blaine Clausell and Ben Beckwith. Beckwith, who went to Benton Academy, chose a walk-on offer at MSU over a junior college scholarship and has developed into a two-time SEC offensive lineman of the week this season. MSU beat out schools like Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette and Southern Miss for the offensive linemen, none of which were rated above two-stars.
In 2011, Mississippi State signed the nation's 34th best recruiting class. (Again, nothing to pound your chest about.) But it happened to include a Heisman frontrunner (quarterback Dak Prescott), the SEC's fourth-leading rusher (Josh Robinson), a future high NFL draft pick (linebacker Benardrick McKinney) a shutdown corner (Taveze Calhoun) and a defensive lineman (Preston Smith) who became the first player in SEC history to win three consecutive SEC defensive lineman of the week awards.
All were rated three-stars or lower.
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Signing a top-rated recruiting class will always be preferable to a lowly-rated one. Recruiting rankings are inexact, but they've been a valuable metric in determining future success. Those metrics may indicate that Mississippi State's current run is an aberration and that it will eventually correct itself. But Mullen and his staff have an ability to out-think and out-evaluate recruiting analysts. They've found the cliché "diamond in the rough" again and again; they've found the players that were billed as marginal-level prospects and turned them into All-SEC contributors.
"There are certain guys (when) it's easy," Mullen said. "I remember watching Percy Harvin in high school. That was pretty easy to turn on that film and say that's a five-star player. It might be a bit harder to go see a Chris Jones early on and say that guy can really play. Or a Dak Prescott, who was a two-star and not very highly recruited guy early on. But you see this guy is going to be better than people think."
And by "seeing" and recruiting enough of players others may overlook, Mississippi State has become better than many thought they would be. Far better.
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