The most viewed For Whom the Cowbell Tolls posts of 2013: #'s ten through six

I always joke with the other writers here at For Whom the Cowbell Tolls that the posts you put the least amount of time and effort into are the ones that always draw the most traffic.  On the flip side, if you pour your energy and opinions and heart into something, then often times, it falls flat with readers.

While that theory does not prove true in all cases on either side, it did prove true for some of our top posts from 2013.  From girls on the field at the CWS to Michael Oher, our top posts for 2013 seem to have come from all over, and with many of them being on completely random happenings within the MSU athletics hemisphere.  So without wasting anymore time rambling, let's take a look back at the top ten posts -- according to page view counts -- for For Whom the Cowbell Tolls in 2013:

10. FWtCT obtains proof of Hugh Freeze's recruiting violations - July 23, 2013

One of our most serious* posts of 2013, FWtCT used a quiet summer day to blow the door wide open* on Hugh Freeze's 'cruitin misdeeds at Ole Miss.  Honestly, this post is what happens when summertime boredom reaches critical mass.  I hope most of you enjoyed it as a brief reprieve from a hot, boring summer, and to those of you who thought it was serious, well, I don't apologize.

9. Ole Miss' Michael Oher commits blatant recruiting violation - January 24, 2013

Twitter has become a place where recruiting violations can occur every day, and sometimes, those violations involve higher profile alumni of schools.  Metal Building Dawg observed one such incident early in 2013, and he decided to do a bit more to expose it.

8. The Death of the Davis Wade Atmosphere - October 27, 2013

One of the more powerful pieces that was written at FWtCT this year in my opinion, Metal Building Dawg laid bare the problems that transformed Davis Wade's atmosphere into an almost unbearable one in 2013 in his late October article.

7. Tired of the criticisms, Dan Mullen invites fans to call offensive plays for second half of Troy game - September 19, 2013

This is one of those posts that I half-dreamed up, put together in about fifteen minutes and posted, not thinking much about the repercussions or responses that it would get.  I also happened to check a button that we writers have as an option in the post editor called "promote beyond community." That was what cause this to happen, and probably made the article appear to some to be more serious than it ever was intended to.  In the words of Eurkel:

Did I do that?

Also some of the responses we got to that article, both in the posts' comments and especially on Facebook, were great.

6. Ranking the pose of every SEC football coach in this photo at the SEC Network announcement - May 2, 2013

Much like #7, this was a post that just came together as something fun to post real quick one day at lunch, and it took off like wildfire.  Imagine my surprise when I got on Twitter and saw that Bruce Feldman had retweeted the story!  SQUEEEE! What a weird feeling.  Anyways, I'm glad everyone enjoyed a bit of my insanity as a break from baseball talk in May.

Tune in tomorrow as we continue our countdown of the top posts of the year at FWtCT with #'s five through one.

And a few that just narrowly missed our list:

11. EA NCAA Football 2014 team ratings, top players revealed - June 11, 2013

12. Bo Wallace fumbles away the Egg Bowl: the more literal final play, in .GIF form - December 2, 2013

13. Bowl Projections 2013: The latest update on where MSU is projected to go bowling - December 2, 2013

14. Rivalry Week Game Times, TV Channels, SEC Implications, Bowls and More - November 30, 2013

15. "Get back in your place, Mississippi State" - September 6, 2013

16. Reliving the longest eight seconds in MSU history - June 16, 2013

17. Mississippi State vs. LSEAUX: The Big Preview - October 2, 2013

18. Five things you should know about recruiting - January 23, 2013

19. Mississippi State vs. Auburn: The Big Preview - September 11, 2013

20. Mississippi State to sell beer, hold rap concert in student section to keep students from leaving early - October 18, 2013