Fan goes at Dan Mullen for using old Urban Meyer Ploy
Urban Meyer used "Team Down South" for BYU, "Team Out West" for Florida State, and now Dan Mullen is enjoying a little heat for "The School Up North."
College football fans are renowned for their passion and their complete lack of good humor. Which makes goofing on them all the more easy and enjoyable. This is especially true in the South, where attaching an uninspired label to your rival actually manages to rile up the opposing fan base.
Mississippi State head football coach Dan Mullen sat in on the Paul Finebaum show on Wednesday and got "confronted" by a hot and bothered Ole Miss fan who clearly saw the term "The School Up North" as a personal affront. Unintentional hilarity ensued:
Caller Mike: Is that just some schtick you use to pump up the fan base or what are you trying to get out of that?
Mullen: No, I mean, geographically they're located up north of us so they're the school up north right up there. The last I looked on a map that's where they were located there, Mike. I don't know.
Caller Mike: It's kind of funny how you got your butt handed to you 45-nothing the year before and then you claim state championship by winning one game. You know, what comes around, goes around, Coach. You gotta remember that.
Mullen: Well, we're looking forward to going up there next Thanksgiving. I'll tell you what. Now we've got that Egg Bowl, it's on the bus with us right now. We enjoyed winning that one...
Paul: How's that spelled out, "the school up north."
Mullen: Just T-S-U-N.
Paul: Just for the record when the 45-nothing game was going on, Coach Mullen was still residing in Gainesville heading toward a national championship.
Mullen: Yeah, I missed that one.
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April 29th, 2010 - 14:40
Thanks for posting this. I think the Ole Miss fans who let “TSUN” really get under their skin are ones who don’t understand that its just a tactic that Urban…consequently Mullen…used in the past.
I’ll be posting the link to your story on my blog.
thanks
October 13th, 2010 - 07:39
Ohio State Coach Woody Hayes famously never used the word “Michigan” in reference to his main rivals. He always referred to “that school up north”. Woody coached at Ohio State from 1951-1978. I’m sure Urban Meyer picked up this approach from his Big Ten days…but he sure as heck didn’t come up with the idea.
October 13th, 2010 - 12:43
No one gave him credit for the original idea. He simply passed it on to Mullen.