Can Dan Mullen Get the Goods from the Coaching Staff?

The buzz word at Starkville this year is excitement. 

Players are excited to have a coach who has helped win two National Championships, fans are excited for a fresh start and showed up in record numbers for the spring game, and Dan himself is excited to start a new chapter in his life as a head coach and father.

Though the buzzword is excitement, to make all that excitement come to life and be meaningful, the fans should be take this word into account: cohesion.

For Mississippi State to harness all that excitement, the coaching staff will have to blend together, their styles will have to come together, and the egos all have to go out the window.

Mullen's staff has a strictly Southern flavor. That may be odd for a head coach from New Hampshire who played ball in Pennsylvania.

His two coordinators have had highs and lows in a checkered past.

Les Koenning was part of the crash-and-burn coaching staff that led Texas A&M into the dismal Franchione years.  That staff came in as a "Dream Team" after resurrecting the fortunes of Alabama, only to stink up the Aggies with only a few highlights in five seasons and leave with a losing record.

Following that stinker job, he moved on to South Alabama to take over as the offensive coordinator.  They were a developing team and have yet to play their first game.

His only noteworthy season was at Alabama, when he helped lead the Tide to a 10-win season.  For Koenning, this is his second stint at Mississippi State and perhaps his last chance to revive a career that has taken on more water than wins.

Like Les Koenning, I've met Carl Torbush a few times, and have had the opportunity to speak with him also.

Both men know their X's and O's, but both have recently sunk to low points in their careers.

Les is 50 years old and should have gas left in the tank. Carl will turn 58 this season. Like Koenning, this could be Torbush's last chance to shine.

Also like Les, Carl's had his ups, but it's been all downhill since leaving Alabama and that same 10-win season.  In fact, he's stunk it up terribly since then. 

He left with Les to stay with Dennis Franchione and was fired after two years at Texas A&M after earning the title, "Worst Defensive Coordinator in Texas A&M History."

After a stinking first-year effort at A&M, he followed that up with some of the most embarrassing defensive efforts in school history. 

He had his defenses giving up basketball-type scores to teams. That team has yet to recover.

His work was so bad that his next job was a mercy gig at his old alma mater.

Newman wouldn't dare trust him with the coordinator's job.  They gave him the linebackers to coach.

Mullen should have remembered just how much Torbush could possibly lose a game by. When Mullen was with Utah, he hung 41 points on Torbush's Texas A&M defense.

Both men can point to earlier successes, but now those are many years ago.

Another potential unsettling situation that could pop up is the naming of Mark Hudspeth as not only the reciever's coach, but the passing game coordinator. 

Remember last year how Les Miles had two coaches stirring the defense together?  It was a total disaster he fixed this year by placing John Chavis in charge of all things defensive.

Hudspeth is a young 40-year-old with a lot of energy and charisma.  The players are going to love him and his style. 

Les is a likable guy, I've met him and talked to him, but he could put a rabid alumni meeting to sleep with one of his speeches.  He's not the motivator Hudspeth seems to be.

Could this cause a rift within the offense?  I just see all kinds of problems coming from this.

Add all this to the fact that this is a first-year staff that has yet to gel itself and you can see why I think the real buzz word for this team should be "cohesion".

If it all comes together, it will be because Mullen was man enough to wring the best out of the two coordinators and get them back on their game, while still integrating Hudspeth and his youthful enthusiasm into the offensive mix.

That will be the game within the game to watch this year with Mississippi State.