Week 3 Random thoughts:

[Johnson85]

In no particular order:

1. Elijah Staley's pass looked beautiful. Don't know if he can do anything else, but he looks like a natural throwing a deep ball. I can see why Dan would be enamored with somebody his size, with his athleticism, that can put touch on a ball like that.

2. Myles knows how to play with the ball in his hands. I liked seeing him come in motion and then running the option out of basically a pro set. We're going to have to find more ways to get him and our other receivers touches if we're going to be primarily using Shumpert at RB.

3. Ross seems off to me. Last year, he was just a player that to me was calming. I know he had a drop of a sure long touchdown pass last year, but for the most part, I wasn't worried about him having drops, fumbling the ball, making poor decisions. I really thought he was going to have a special season this year. I don't think the stats back it up at all, but he just seems less sure of himself.

4. We have an embarassment of riches at WR. Out of Bear, Ross, Brown, Myles, Morrow, and Gray, I think you can take just about any combination of two or three players and be as good as our best two or three WR on any team since Moulds left. Outside of Bear and Ross (and maybe Myles if we start using him more), I'd happily RS any of them if it meant we could have them another year when we could use them more.

5. Dear is an intriguing player.

6. Lee is the only RB I saw that looked like he might be the answer running the ball. Shumpert, even when he was breaking good runs, just didn't look like he had a second gear, even playing against an FCS team. Williams looked a little better than Shumpert but looks like going to him would be giving up size without picking up enough in the speed/agility department. Of the three, Lee actually looked the most like he was on a different level from Northwestern St's players. Considering Lee was basically run as fourth string, I'm assuming this is a combination of wishful thinking and Lee running later in the game when people were tired. Not really related to this game, but Holloway has been way better than expected.

7. Offense played as cleanly as you can ask for. Not much more they could have gotten out of this game.

8. On Defense, a lot of people played. About all you can say. I feel like these games are a lot more useful to offenses than to defenses. If you're lucky, maybe the FCS team helps expose an area where your players need better communication or need work as far as alignments go.

9. I think we have enough playmakers on offense that we can be successful. The question is whether we can consistently get the ball to them. Shumpert is going to be our main back, so we're going to have to figure out how to extend our run game with handoffs to slots, screen passes, etc. Something to keep defenses honest so that Dak can be a running threat also. I'm not sure an "extended" running game is really going to be as effective as say a Dak and bowling back would be, so Dak will also really have to step up as a distributor. I think he can do that but it's definitely not what I expected our offense to look like this year.

10. If the offense isn't unstoppable, I'm not sure our D can get the job done. We did a good job against LSU, but I think they basically played into our strength. That said, Bama should play into our defense's strength too. So should Arkansas (and they don't look good regardless). Auburn looks bad right now. Mizzou looks bad. UK is UK and we play them at home. That's 5 games against offenses that either play to our D's strengths, or are just inept, and four of those games are should wins for us.

All in all, we have as easy a road to 4 SEC wins as I can remember seeing since Dan got here, so we still have a very good shot at 8 wins. We should have a puncher's chance against Bama. A&M is still an unknown to me. I'm hoping they are somewhat of a paper tiger like last year, but as of right now I expect a road loss there; that's more of a managing expectations than really thinking A&M turned a corner that quickly. I think people are giving UM way too much credit, but I also think they match up well against us. If nothing changes on our D, they are going to dink and dunk us down the field with the occasional big play deep b/c our safeties are out of position or just don't make a play. Not sure if home field will over come that or not.

[CadaverDawg]

Great post.

[Liverpooldawg]

I wouldn't argue with much if any of that. I would add I watched a bit of the A&M-ASU game and I thought they looked great. I thought they looked the best of any SEC team that week. That was when everybody thought ASU was going to be really good. Since then ASU has been pretty pedestrian. ASU plays USC this week.

[msstate7]

I wouldn't argue with much if any of that. I would add I watched a bit of the A&M-ASU game and I thought they looked great. I thought they looked the best of any SEC team that week. That was when everybody thought ASU was going to be really good. Since then ASU has been pretty pedestrian. ASU plays USC this week.

aTm was unimpressive vs Nevada

[War Machine Dawg]

Did you see Staley's option run? He's a physical monster heading downhill. I know Fitz is the popular choice, but it's going to be hell to keep Staley from overtaking him. Mullen likes physical runners at QB. That's not Fitz; he's an outside runner. We're in a great position with QB regardless. I think both of those guys could start for well over half the teams in the SEC right now and be an upgrade.

[smootness]

Did you see Staley's option run? He's a physical monster heading downhill. I know Fitz is the popular choice, but it's going to be hell to keep Staley from overtaking him. Mullen likes physical runners at QB. That's not Fitz; he's an outside runner. We're in a great position with QB regardless. I think both of those guys could start for well over half the teams in the SEC right now and be an upgrade.

Fitzgerald is plenty physical himself. I agree, though, that it will be tough to hold Staley off. He can do it, though. Staley's pass was beautiful, then Fitzgerald's was even better.

[chef dixon]

Anyone know a link where i can watch the 2nd half of our game? WatchESPN replay is only the first half for some reason.

[DownwardDawg]

Did you see Staley's option run? He's a physical monster heading downhill. I know Fitz is the popular choice, but it's going to be hell to keep Staley from overtaking him. Mullen likes physical runners at QB. That's not Fitz; he's an outside runner. We're in a great position with QB regardless. I think both of those guys could start for well over half the teams in the SEC right now and be an upgrade.

Fitz just looked like a natural running the ball to me. I don't care who wins the battle, but it looked to me like our offense would really click with Fitz. Staley looked very slow to me. Big and physical but slow.

[BrunswickDawg]

Trust me, Fitz can lower the boom on people. His main triple option run in HS was straight up the gut or off tackle. I watched him truck a couple of Sun Belt grade LB's all night 2 years ago.

[basedog]

Well said and I agree.

[missouridawg]

If you think Fitz can't bring the boom, you haven't been watching closely enough.

[Coach34]

We will be fine with either QB next year- I think they both will play because there wont be a nickel's worth of difference between the two

[Behrdawg]

I agree. We will see a lot of both QBs next year and I'm really excited about that.

[Johnson85]

We will be fine with either QB next year- I think they both will play because there wont be a nickel's worth of difference between the two

That actually works me a little looking forward. They both look really good right now. Hate to see either of them on th bench but it doesn't seem likely that either of the will improve the way they need to splitting snaps.

Pretty weird having a worry like that as a state fan.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I'd like to see a fresh legs in the backfield plan. Start Shump but rotate Williams and Lee in and out in different situations. Football is the ultimate team sport, so it's critical that any player in the game fulfill his role correctly on every play. If a guy can't play the position without the ball, he can't be in there very much.

[Johnson85]

I'd like to see a fresh legs in the backfield plan. Start Shump but rotate Williams and Lee in and out in different situations. Football is the ultimate team sport, so it's critical that any player in the game fulfill his role correctly on every play. If a guy can't play the position without the ball, he can't be in there very much.

Mullen clearly doesn't trust Williams or Lee and/or doesn't think they bring anything to the table. It is what it is at this point. We're either going to be successful without a running threat as our primary RB or we're not going to be successful this year.

[Ifyouonlyknew]

Mullen clearly doesn't trust Williams or Lee and/or doesn't think they bring anything to the table. It is what it is at this point. We're either going to be successful without a running threat as our primary RB or we're not going to be successful this year.

Mullen has already said you would see more of the young guys going forward.

[FISHDAWG]

Mullen clearly doesn't trust Williams or Lee and/or doesn't think they bring anything to the table. It is what it is at this point. We're either going to be successful without a running threat as our primary RB or we're not going to be successful this year.

there is a level at practice when you are hitting your own team mates that changes when you're in a game situation hitting opponents ... seems everything is elevated in a game situation ... maybe Williams and Lee step it up a notch in the games as opposed to the practice field ... only a thought here because I know I tended to step up my play during a game as opposed to practice .......... I know what is going through some of your minds that this shouldn't be, but that is reality for a lot of players ... not really saying this is the case but just maybe Dan hasn't seen their "game" play enough to compare against practice effort and now that he has maybe he is rethinking the situation - everyone has the right to change their minds at times