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Fun Stat Nerd Tidbit: Mississippi State

Something clicked in 2009. After three years as Middle Tennessee defensive coordinator, Manny Diaz was an interesting young coach who had led some minor improvements in Murfreesboro, but he was not particularly sought after; that changed in '09, when Middle Tennessee suddenly turned into a Top 20 defense.  Diaz was hired away by Mississippi State and engineered an almost identical surge the next year.

Team Def. F/+ S&P+ DFEI Succ.
Rt+
PPP+ Rush.
S&P+
Pass.
S&P+
Std. Dwns
S&P+
Pass. Dwns
S&P+
Middle Tenn. 2005
(Pre-Diaz)
N/A 95th N/A 101st 84th 96th 92nd 100th 88th
Middle Tenn. 2006-08
(Early Diaz)
84th 83rd
87th 76th 88th 75th 89th 83rd 88th
Middle Tenn. 2009 20th 23rd 23rd 15th 35th 23rd 27th 23rd 33rd
Middle Tenn. 2010
(Post-Diaz)
72nd 108th 48th 101st 103rd 107th 100th 85th 114th
Miss. State 2005-09
(Pre-Diaz)
45th 47th 53rd 44th 50th 37th 60th 40th 49th
Miss. State 2010 7th 10th 10th 17th 12th 10th 21st 7th 14th

Dan Mullen is a good coach and will continue to build a solid program without Diaz, but it will be interesting to see just how much of their 2010 success was due to Diaz.