The Optimist's Post

[dawgday166]

We don't look disorganized to me. It just looks to me like our o-line is getting their ass beat.

We do at times. On one play tonight Deddrick Thomas was still looking at sidelines for play when ball was snapped and didn't move the whole play (it was busted cause he didn't block anyone). When we check and look towards sideline, we look very disorganized. There is so much confusion inherent in our offense right now it's unreal.

[Liverpooldawg]

We don't look disorganized to me. It just looks to me like our o-line is getting their ass beat.

Its the same line as last year. What changed? They rarely got whipped last year.

[Goldendawg]

We do at times. On one play tonight Deddrick Thomas was still looking at sidelines for play when ball was snapped and didn't move the whole play (it was busted cause he didn't block anyone). When we check and look towards sideline, we look very disorganized. There is so much confusion inherent in our offense right now it's unreal.

My thoughts exactly. How many plays per game are we averaging this year as opposed to years past. I have gone to every home game for 50 plus years and this looks like Croom and Woody demanding we try to run an O we don't have players for. It was painful sitting there tonight with no hope for the O.

[Todd4State]

Its the same line as last year. What changed? They rarely got whipped last year.

We lost Rankin and we're asking them to pass block more. It's very simple.

[Liverpooldawg]

We lost Rankin and we're asking them to pass block more. It's very simple.

Rankin only played about half the games last year. He was hurt the whole year remember. The drop off, if there was one, wasn't nearly this bad.

[dawgday166]

Eiland did move better IMO last year. In fact I was very surprised at how well he pass blocked when in there last year. He seems a lot more tentative and slow this year. Probably cause we're not going live in practice too much.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I'm ticked, I'm frustrated, I'm irate, and I'm scratching my head as to what has gone so wrong with this team. I'm not an Xs and Os guy and I'm not sure I completely agree with all I'm about to post, but here are some plausible explanations and thoughts.

1. At least our head coach isn't Matt Luke.

2. Our defense is fine. Half the team is good. I'm not worried there. We are a national top 15-20 defense. Shoop has done well this far.

3. Ok, now to the meat. Contrary to what my eyes currently see, he can't be this bad. He simply can't be. His resume is too accomplished. The Peter Principle would've gotten him 10 years ago if he were this bad. When you coach at the college level for years on end and produce great offenses everywhere you go, it's almost impossible to be this bad. It makes no sense.

So, what is going on?

1. Joe Moorhead is a good football coach but was not the right coach to maximize THIS 2018 team. We could've hired Greg Knox and likely been better off in the short term. But the long term, that's an entirely different question.

2. Think about where Moorhead has coached: Fordham, Penn State, U Conn, etc. Luke Getsy - Green Bay Marcus Johnson - Duke. Point is, these guys are accustomed to coaching different types of kids. They are accustomed to coaching prep school kids, catholic school kids, northeastern educated kids, etc. I think it's plausible to say that the learning curve, football IQ, and general ability change offenses on a dime may have steeper learning curve at MSU than those other places. I love Mississippi kids and believe you can win big with them, but they simply aren't the same as northeastern kids. They come from a different culture with different educational systems and different ways of dishing out punishment. Plainly, I believe this staff hasn't had the retention and instinctual understanding of the offense that they had hoped or are used to.

3. With the above in mind, the good news is that, if what I stated above is true, things should gradually get better as the players will slowly understand the offense better and eventually the older guys will be able to teach it too younger players. However, at this time our team is so engrained for 9 years into the Mullen scheme, that we are lost running anything else and I'm not sure it completely matters what that anything else is.

Just some thoughts. Mostly, I just can't imagine that a guy that fielded an offense that scored 40 points a week in the Big 10 vs Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, etc could be this bad. I refuse to believe that. Many people want to compare Moorhead to Croom, but that lacks logic because Croom was a running backs coach. He never ran or coordinated a damn thing before being MSU's coach. Felker the same. Moorhead's background and preparation for this job far exceeds those guys. I don't have all the answers, and I'm not sure Moorhead was the right coach for THIS team's personnel, but the guy's resume and background almost guarantees that he's a hell of a lot better than this.

Lastly, we must keep in mind how rare it is for a new coach to take over a team that has had as much success and talent as this MSU team, and therefore we don't have much to compare the job Moorhead is doing to others. Pruitt, Morris, Chip Kelly are all getting passes because they coach bad teams, but UCLA was way better on offense last year than this year. So was Arkansas. Point is, we all under estimated the learning curve. I'm pissed and frustrated but it literally makes no logic sense that Moorhead will be as bad in the future as he currently is.

Now, I know some will counter my theories with "why are Mullen and Fisher having success in year 1?" Well, maybe both guys teams were way more setup to run their offenses than Moorhead's was to run his. Heck, this year's Florida team has betters WRs than Mullen ever had at MSU.

Just some food for thought. This season is gonna be rough year but maybe we click at some point because we truly have a coach in which there was no evidence would ever field an offense remotely close to this poor.

I read the first paragraph and part of the 2nd and posted this. You can make whatever excuses you wanna make but the facts are this. Moorhead in 8 quarters has put up 13 points with a better team than who he was facing. All yall that love bartoo should know that he has gotten a solid -2 the last two weeks from him.

He aint got it. In this day and age if you cant put up 100 yards of TOTAL OFFENSE IN ONE HALF then you need to take a serious look at what you are doing and change it. Fitz looks like he is having to solve an algebra problem on just about every snap. We use about 4 formations ram and lion, nub lt and rt trips and spread. No getting Aeris and Kylin in at the same time, slim to no quick game and our RBs havent gotten a combined 20 carries the last two games. Moorhead has been a total failure and is the definition of ineptitude. Nobody has done less with Moor than he has. All yall getting on Taggart and Frost better wake TF up and see what Moorhead is doing.

Im done with him only the Egg saves him at this point

[Dawg2003]

Can he recruit good enough WRs to run his offense?

[MetEdDawg]

I'm ticked, I'm frustrated, I'm irate, and I'm scratching my head as to what has gone so wrong with this team. I'm not an Xs and Os guy and I'm not sure I completely agree with all I'm about to post, but here are some plausible explanations and thoughts.

1. At least our head coach isn't Matt Luke.

2. Our defense is fine. Half the team is good. I'm not worried there. We are a national top 15-20 defense. Shoop has done well this far.

3. Ok, now to the meat. Contrary to what my eyes currently see, he can't be this bad. He simply can't be. His resume is too accomplished. The Peter Principle would've gotten him 10 years ago if he were this bad. When you coach at the college level for years on end and produce great offenses everywhere you go, it's almost impossible to be this bad. It makes no sense.

So, what is going on?

1. Joe Moorhead is a good football coach but was not the right coach to maximize THIS 2018 team. We could've hired Greg Knox and likely been better off in the short term. But the long term, that's an entirely different question.

2. Think about where Moorhead has coached: Fordham, Penn State, U Conn, etc. Luke Getsy - Green Bay Marcus Johnson - Duke. Point is, these guys are accustomed to coaching different types of kids. They are accustomed to coaching prep school kids, catholic school kids, northeastern educated kids, etc. I think it's plausible to say that the learning curve, football IQ, and general ability change offenses on a dime may have steeper learning curve at MSU than those other places. I love Mississippi kids and believe you can win big with them, but they simply aren't the same as northeastern kids. They come from a different culture with different educational systems and different ways of dishing out punishment. Plainly, I believe this staff hasn't had the retention and instinctual understanding of the offense that they had hoped or are used to.

3. With the above in mind, the good news is that, if what I stated above is true, things should gradually get better as the players will slowly understand the offense better and eventually the older guys will be able to teach it too younger players. However, at this time our team is so engrained for 9 years into the Mullen scheme, that we are lost running anything else and I'm not sure it completely matters what that anything else is.

Just some thoughts. Mostly, I just can't imagine that a guy that fielded an offense that scored 40 points a week in the Big 10 vs Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, etc could be this bad. I refuse to believe that. Many people want to compare Moorhead to Croom, but that lacks logic because Croom was a running backs coach. He never ran or coordinated a damn thing before being MSU's coach. Felker the same. Moorhead's background and preparation for this job far exceeds those guys. I don't have all the answers, and I'm not sure Moorhead was the right coach for THIS team's personnel, but the guy's resume and background almost guarantees that he's a hell of a lot better than this.

Lastly, we must keep in mind how rare it is for a new coach to take over a team that has had as much success and talent as this MSU team, and therefore we don't have much to compare the job Moorhead is doing to others. Pruitt, Morris, Chip Kelly are all getting passes because they coach bad teams, but UCLA was way better on offense last year than this year. So was Arkansas. Point is, we all under estimated the learning curve. I'm pissed and frustrated but it literally makes no logic sense that Moorhead will be as bad in the future as he currently is.

Now, I know some will counter my theories with "why are Mullen and Fisher having success in year 1?" Well, maybe both guys teams were way more setup to run their offenses than Moorhead's was to run his. Heck, this year's Florida team has betters WRs than Mullen ever had at MSU.

Just some food for thought. This season is gonna be rough year but maybe we click at some point because we truly have a coach in which there was no evidence would ever field an offense remotely close to this poor.

Everything you posted was the hill I was willing to die on last night. Moorhead isn't this bad. But no matter what you say, the majority of this board thinks he is. They think no matter what changes if you have better players you should just be better.

I think Moorhead is better long term than short term. Mullen wins 9-10 with this group. Question is could he ever win more? I think moorhead can because again, you don't go from being a genius to being totally inept in two games. But our fan base literally does not care. If we underperform but still recruit well that will tell me all I need to know.

There's a lot to sift through right now and it doesn't look good. But the majority on here would rather say Moorhead sucks than try and understand what might be going on. Moorhead didn't become stupid two weeks ago. So think logically people. Maybe offensively we aren't as talented as we thought and the change in offense didn't exactly help us. We've got weaknesses Mullen knew how to cover up after 7 years. Moorhead wants to run his offense but he can't. That must suck. I bet the majority of us would not like to go to work every day and have to do things differently than we are accustomed to.

[msstate7]

Everything you posted was the hill I was willing to die on last night. Moorhead isn't this bad. But no matter what you say, the majority of this board thinks he is. They think no matter what changes if you have better players you should just be better.

I think Moorhead is better long term than short term. Mullen wins 9-10 with this group. Question is could he ever win more? I think moorhead can because again, you don't go from being a genius to being totally inept in two games. But our fan base literally does not care. If we underperform but still recruit well that will tell me all I need to know.

There's a lot to sift through right now and it doesn't look good. But the majority on here would rather say Moorhead sucks than try and understand what might be going on. Moorhead didn't become stupid two weeks ago. So think logically people. Maybe offensively we aren't as talented as we thought and the change in offense didn't exactly help us. We've got weaknesses Mullen knew how to cover up after 7 years. Moorhead wants to run his offense but he can't. That must suck. I bet the majority of us would not like to go to work every day and have to do things differently than we are accustomed to.

You think Moorhead can win 9-10 in the next few seasons? LSU, bama, and auburn are gonna continue to be really good. aTm is joining their group. All of the above will finish with a top 10 class. Meanwhile, we're gonna be late 20s at BEST. If Moorhead can't compete with that group above while we have comparable talent, how in the world will he with lesser talent?

[Dawg496]

1. At least our head coach isn't Matt Luke.

He has the same record as us and has played three teams better than any team we've played and will have a record at least as good as us if not better not to mention beat us head to head AGAIN with a worse roster.

So what's your point?

[msstate7]

He has the same record as us and has played three teams better than any team we've played and will have a record at least as good as us if not better not to mention beat us head to head AGAIN with a worse roster.

So what's your point?

Matt Luke has an awful roster too. We don't

[Dawgs87]

He has the same record as us and has played three teams better than any team we've played and will have a record at least as good as us if not better not to mention beat us head to head AGAIN with a worse roster.

So what's your point?

Couldn't have said it better myself. Hope y'all are masochists because the rest of the season will be pure pain and embarrassment. Possibly one of the most disgraceful in our long and storied history of disgraceful seasons. Including the season when Mike Henig literally single-handedly got Craig Steltz drafted.

[bulldawg28]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Hope y'all are masochists because the rest of the season will be pure pain and embarrassment. Possibly one of the most disgraceful in our long and storied history of disgraceful seasons. Including the season when Mike Henig literally single-handedly got Craig Steltz drafted.

That LSU game was hilarious. Unreal how bad Croom did this team.

[ShotgunDawg]

Matt Luke has an awful roster too. We don't

Matt Luke has a much better offensive roster than we do.

It's clear that Mullen covered up tons of weaknesses that Moorhead may not have known existed.

[msstate7]

Matt Luke has a much better offensive roster than we do.

It's clear that Mullen covered up tons of weaknesses that Moorhead may not have known existed.

So we hired a much worse coach than we had? Great, I feel better. Maybe this 30ish ranked recruiting class will catch us up to bama, LSU, auburn, aTm, and Kentucky... spit

[Dawgs87]

The opponents we have wins over have a combined record of 4-9.

[msstate7]

The opponents we have wins over have a combined record of 4-9.

Be proud of those wins... they may be our only ones.

[Dawgfan77]

Everything you posted was the hill I was willing to die on last night. Moorhead isn't this bad. But no matter what you say, the majority of this board thinks he is. They think no matter what changes if you have better players you should just be better.

I think Moorhead is better long term than short term. Mullen wins 9-10 with this group. Question is could he ever win more? I think moorhead can because again, you don't go from being a genius to being totally inept in two games. But our fan base literally does not care. If we underperform but still recruit well that will tell me all I need to know.

There's a lot to sift through right now and it doesn't look good. But the majority on here would rather say Moorhead sucks than try and understand what might be going on. Moorhead didn't become stupid two weeks ago. So think logically people. Maybe offensively we aren't as talented as we thought and the change in offense didn't exactly help us. We've got weaknesses Mullen knew how to cover up after 7 years. Moorhead wants to run his offense but he can't. That must suck. I bet the majority of us would not like to go to work every day and have to do things differently than we are accustomed to.

You cannot be serious... GTFOH with this. based on this post I?m gonna say you were in the it takes time camp with Croom. No joe didn?t become dumb over night. But he hasn?t coached against teams this talented ever and refuses to model his system around what he has. Of all the coaches hired he walked into the best situation and to not put up 300 yds a game and only one TD in two weeks is unacceptable. Oh and that?s against UK and UF. Not Bama. Your post are the best examples of some of our fans who still think we are poor ol MSU. Get your head out of the sand. We made a terriable hire

[ShotgunDawg]

So we hired a much worse coach than we had? Great, I feel better. Maybe this 30ish ranked recruiting class will catch us up to bama, LSU, auburn, aTm, and Kentucky... spit

For this team's personnel, yes we hired a much worse coach than what we hired