How much has our offense benefitted from

How much has our offense benefitted from and improved by having to play against Grantham and our nasty defense? I haven't seen much discussed on this but it would stand to reason that if our offense is going up against what appears to be one of the best defenses in the SEC at practice everyday they couldn't help but get better. Seeing the speed and aggressiveness everyday in practice has to prepare them for every game we play. And to me it seems like we have gotten our physicality back on offense. I rewatched the game against LSU and just watched our OL and they were manhandling LSU front 7 and it was across the board. Also, something else I noticed, our TE's and WR's are blocking their butts off(Justin Johnson isn't getting any targets but he has been relentless blocking). Keith Mixon for being small can seal an edge and Donald Gray as well. If you watch the whole field and not just the ball you will notice that we have an extremely unselfish team. Players just doing their job well. Just my thoughts. What do y'all think?

Competition amongst the O and D is always good. There are several other factors at play here too... our OL is very good. We have a great dual threat QB. We have a great offense-fitting RB. And a head coach who'd rather be an OC who no longer has to look over the shoulder of the DC.

The Todd Grantham hire is MSUs second best hire since 2000. Maybe you could argue Schaefer, but Grantham is going to change the trajectory of our program with ******* leading the way.

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Originally Posted by missouridawg

Competition amongst the O and D is always good. There are several other factors at play here too... our OL is very good. We have a great dual threat QB. We have a great offense-fitting RB. And a head coach who'd rather be an OC who no longer has to look over the shoulder of the DC.

The Todd Grantham hire is MSUs second best hire since 2000. Maybe you could argue Schaefer, but Grantham is going to change the trajectory of our program with ******* leading the way.

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Absolutely agree. Grantham was a game changer.

I think it certainly helps but I doubt the we are going 1 vs 1 all that often in practice.

That being said though, I believe Reese has ABSOLUTELY benefited from Chauncey Rivers being on scout team. Having the opportunity to practice & go 100% against a guy that is of similar quality to some of the best outside rushers this conference has to offer has no doubt helped.

I wonder how much our offense has benefited from Mullen not having to worry about defense.

Throughout the course of the week, does Granthams' presence give Mullen an extra couple hours to scheme & design?

Not sure, but it's an interesting though.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

I think it certainly helps but I doubt the we are going 1 vs 1 all that often in practice.

That being said though, I believe Reese has ABSOLUTELY benefited from Chauncey Rivers being on scout team. Having the opportunity to practice & go 100% against a guy that is of similar quality to some of the best outside rushers this conference has to offer has no doubt helped.

I wonder how much our offense has benefited from Mullen not having to worry about defense.

Throughout the course of the week, does Granthams' presence give Mullen an extra couple hours to scheme & design?

Not sure, but it's an interesting though.

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Yeah they don't go up against each other as much now as they did in the spring and fall camp. Reese has absolutely stepped his game up and Rivers no doubt had much to do with that. Good thoughts on Grantham/Mullen Combo. It's amazing what happend when you have a REAL DC and a REAL OC.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

I think it certainly helps but I doubt the we are going 1 vs 1 all that often in practice.

That being said though, I believe Reese has ABSOLUTELY benefited from Chauncey Rivers being on scout team. Having the opportunity to practice & go 100% against a guy that is of similar quality to some of the best outside rushers this conference has to offer has no doubt helped.

I wonder how much our offense has benefited from Mullen not having to worry about defense.

Throughout the course of the week, does Granthams' presence give Mullen an extra couple hours to scheme & design?

Not sure, but it's an interesting though.

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Not just Rivers but guys like Autry up front also. Odom playing that OLB/DE spot. Dunning at MLB. Cole & Tyler Williams at CB. Landrews at Safety. This is not the typical scout team defense.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

... we have an extremely unselfish team. Players just doing their job well. Just my thoughts. What do y'all think?

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Totally agree we have an unselfish team. These guys have made it fun to watch both the offense and defense.

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Originally Posted by Ifyouonlyknew

Not just Rivers but guys like Autry up front also. Odom playing that OLB/DE spot. Dunning at MLB. Cole & Tyler Williams at CB. Landrews at Safety. This is not the typical scout team defense.

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Those players on offense have no choice but to get better or get destroyed.

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

I think it certainly helps but I doubt the we are going 1 vs 1 all that often in practice.

That being said though, I believe Reese has ABSOLUTELY benefited from Chauncey Rivers being on scout team. Having the opportunity to practice & go 100% against a guy that is of similar quality to some of the best outside rushers this conference has to offer has no doubt helped.

I wonder how much our offense has benefited from Mullen not having to worry about defense.

Throughout the course of the week, does Granthams' presence give Mullen an extra couple hours to scheme & design?

Not sure, but it's an interesting though.

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I was wondering about this the other day. It would be the ultimate definition of teamwork if Rivers gave Reese some notes after plays in practice. "See how I did this? You can do this to stop it" type stuff.

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Originally Posted by Ifyouonlyknew

Not just Rivers but guys like Autry up front also. Odom playing that OLB/DE spot. Dunning at MLB. Cole & Tyler Williams at CB. Landrews at Safety. This is not the typical scout team defense.

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Great point. We darn near have in SEC defense on scout team.

That has to be huge help because the starters go against those guys everyday.

How many of our scout teammers would start on Ole Miss' defense?

Another plus is that this defense gets the other offense off the field, giving our guys more chances and better field position.

Our offense has benifited from having a steady RB we can rely on

I really don't think it's the talent level of the scout team, although I do think that has marginally improved (literally think about it--some of our starters were going in the scout team last year. We weren't that bad on scout team.) I think the truth is that vastly underrated point on ShotgunDawg's last thread:

This defense has opened up the playcalling for Mullen. He doesn't have to play conservatively in big games. He can trust and lean on the defense. Last year, Mullen had to use his offense has a handcuff for how bad our defense was. Think of the 2016 offensive mentality Dan had to know: "if I fail to burn some time on this clock, if I don't get a first down, and god forbid if I make a turnover, that's an automatic seven points for the other team." Having this defense and Grantham totally changes that offensive philosophy.

Now for what strategy literally changes, that's for people who are a lot smarter than me to figure out. If I'm speculating, I think Dan might be more comfortable spreading the field with the offense. You have riskier plays in a fully spread field--laterals in the option, screens to a receiver. Sometimes those go wrong. I also think Nick has taken leaps forward in the maturity in reading the RPO. His read isn't just a normal run option read--see the DE and make a decision on them. You add a wrinkle there, seeing one or maybe two routes as well. It takes a lot of maturity to make those reads.

I believe sacks and turnovers are good. I don't like a wholesale bend but don't break philosophy like Collins because while it may be effective in the red zone your basically costing your offense time and are basically hoping the other team screws up or that they kick a field goal.

What we are seeing now from Grantham is much more fun.

I think having good special teams helps out a lot too. Cooke is able to pin them deep. Our return guys are dangerous and we almost always have decent field position or better. We may have a kicker too which allows us to be a little more leeway as far as scoring points if a drive stalls.

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Originally Posted by BuckyIsAB****

Our offense has benifited from having a steady RB we can rely on

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This too.

This maybe the most well rounded team we have ever had.

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Originally Posted by Commercecomet24

This maybe the most well rounded team we have ever had.

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They have a chance to be up there with 1980, 1994, and 1998 as far as being the most well rounded teams we have had. I'm excited to see how this team stacks up at the end of the year.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

They have a chance to be up there with 1980, 1994, and 1998 as far as being the most well rounded teams we have had. I'm excited to see how this team stacks up at the end of the year.

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This team could be better than all three... just the overall talent level. Look what we have on the two /three deep in skill positions and as others have stated, what we have in the bullpen for next year... I'm gonna need shears if this continues. I wish we had a bunch of pork chop womaks though

I remember getting the "run-run-pass-punt" chant going during the JWS years. Now I get upset when we pass on first down.

What probably has helped them the most if the talent we are redshirting on D that they are facing as the scout team.

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Originally Posted by Political Hack

I remember getting the "run-run-pass-punt" chant going during the JWS years. Now I get upset when we pass on first down.

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I remember that chant. Amazing how times have changed.