In 2008, coming off an 8-5 season with a Liberty Bowl victory, 10,000 people attended the annual Maroon-White Spring Game, making it one of the lowest-attended spring games in the SEC. Just one year later, coming off a 4-8 season, the attendance for the scrimmage tripled to 31,606.
The increase was not a coincidence, and athletic director Scott Stricklin is working to ensure the increase was not an anomaly.
“We implemented a marketing plan and, instead of sitting back and saying ‘well, it’s just going to happen, people will come,’ there was a lot of work to put together a marketing plan and make sure there was a lot of fan awareness to how important it was to have a good crowd at the spring game,” Stricklin said.
That marketing campaign was, and still is, centered on head coach Dan Mullen. Now in his third offseason at MSU, Mullen has become the most recognizable figure of the university, with his face everywhere from a large banner on the southeast corner of the stadium to a series of billboards that read “Welcome to our State” on some of Mississippi’s main highways.
Although the athletic department has not yet reached its goal of having 40,000 fans at the spring game, they inched closer last year with an announced attendance of 34,127. Admission to the game is free, so the attendance numbers are estimates, but 34,127 is suspiciously similar to the 2009 Egg Bowl score of 41-27 — just another in a long line of jabs aimed at rival Ole Miss by Mullen and the athletic department in recent years.
The 241.27 percent increase in spring game attendance from the 2008 game to 2010 is the highest in the Southeastern Conference, while Georgia is second in the league with a 93.5 percent increase (from 19,874  in 2008 to 38,472 in 2010). Spring football had become somewhat of an afterthought in the final years of the Sylvester Croom era, but when Mullen was brought aboard, former athletic director Greg Byrne and his staff saw an opportunity to change the dynamics of Super Bulldog Weekend.
“It’s almost like Super Bulldog Weekend, which is a great event and has been around for over 20 years, was ready to be reinvented, and this was a great opportunity to reinvent it,” Stricklin said.
Despite the football scrimmage becoming the focal point of the weekend, the Saturday baseball game has also seen an increase in attendance. The Saturday baseball game on Super Bulldog Weekend is usually the highest-attended game of the season, and attendance for that game has gone from 7,753 in 2008 to 11,089 in 2010.
Even in a football-crazed conference like the SEC, MSU’s spring game attendance numbers stand out. MSU filled Davis-Wade Stadium to 61.9 percent of its 55,082 capacity for the 2010 game, which was behind only Alabama (89.6 percent) and Auburn (72.2 percent). Attendance numbers for Vanderbilt were unavailable, but the average for the other 11 conference schools was 46.76 percent of stadium capacity filled.
Some may wonder why there is such a buzz surrounding a glorified scrimmage, but Mullen said he views the game as most fans’ first chance to see the new team.
“We have some fans show up at practice, but really it’s their first opportunity to see this football team,” Mullen said. “They want to come out and get a little appetizer, and that’s what the spring game is.”
Mullen himself has become very involved in the marketing aspect of the football program. The former Florida offensive coordinator has been making the rounds on the MSU campus, speaking to various student groups in the weeks leading to the spring game.
Even more important than eating lunches at sorority houses and speaking in the honors residence hall, is Mullen’s speech circuit visiting alumni and boosters each offseason. Stricklin said he looks for a coach who can bring charisma and personality to the program, and although it sounds simple, it is not always easy to find.
“Dan has a passion for getting out in front of people and selling not just Mississippi State football, but selling our university,” Stricklin said. “He does a great job of painting the picture of where he wants the program to go, and when you have that kind of passion about a goal you’re trying to achieve, you’re excited about getting out and talking to people about it.”
The fans have bought into his vision for the program, setting season ticket sales records in Mullen’s first two seasons and increasing attendance to the point stadium expansion has become a front-burner issue. After a nine-win season and back-to-back Egg Bowl victories, fans and players are beginning to see the on-field results Mullen has anticipated.
For senior offensive lineman Addison Lawrence, who played in the final two years of the Croom era, there has been a drastic change in the attitude of both the fans and the team in the last two years.
“It’s a big difference,” Lawrence said. “The outlook and attitude is different. We have the attitude that everyone actually believes we can go far and win games. In the past some people doubted us. That’s not the case now.”
The quick turnaround at MSU has caught the eye of other schools, and Mullen’s name has come up in connection with coaching searches this past offseason. In late December, Stricklin signed Mullen to a 4-year, $10.6 million contract extension, making him one of the 20 highest-paid coaches in college football.