Sunday Morning QB- Excitement Has Returned Edition

[Coach34]

1. Happy Opening Day everyone!!! Little Wool and I celebrated opening day by procuring a dozen boiled blue crabs and a couple pounds of large gulf shrimp after he got done with practice. Made for some good eating on a fine rainy day.

2. Excitement returns to Scott Field!!! You could hear it on TV and almost feel it. The Twitter posts. Facebook posts. The texts. It was great to see some legit excitement back in that stadium after about 5 years of meh.

3. Really enjoyed watching Shapen play. Having a real QB playing with passion and a sense of urgency was refreshing. pushing the ball down the field. Scrambling to keep the chains moving. 12.4 yards per completion. Granted- EK had a terrible secondary but the attempts to push the ball were there. Catches by our RB's??? ONE. Thank you. No more having the RB's be your leading pass catchers. Watchable offense

4. OL was just ok. Wasnt as physical as I was hoping. They will gel better with more time of course. Always takes time for new guys working together. But that is something to watch moving forward.

5. Need to work on ball security this week. I know it was wet but too many dropped footballs.

6. White Legs with a nice run for a TD. Showed good vision plus we already knew he had good speed. Nice to see some imagination also. The WR room is legit

7. D-Line is a huge concern. We looked soft here. We played very vanilla yesterday for sure. It was also very wet. But def watch this bunch next week against ASU. I think we have a problem here.

8. LB's and Secondary looked ok. EK had a little success against our zone coverage hitting some shots in the middle. EK's playcalling helped us out alot tho. I know we only gave up 7 points but the D just didnt look all that good to me. The DB's did play physical and that looked like a bright spot.

9. Florida is not very good. Sunbelt Billy gonna enjoy that $25MM or so to not show up for work next year. Very winnable game for us. Lame Kitten's agent has already been contacted as have others. Only question about Fla is when they pull the trigger. When your players are tweeting out pics of "F this team" your time as coach is done. UPig looked pretty good so we will see if Pittman keeps his job. Beating us will play a big part in that. That game will be big for both of our programs.

10. Good start by Lebbo. Excitement. Sense of urgency by the staff and players. Intensity. Program looks to be headed in the right direction. Go Dawgs!!

[DEDawg]

11. We got our selves a kick and punt returner

[Choctaw Dawg]

Didn't get much pressure on the QB for pass rush during any point of the game. Only had two sacks and the one I definitely remember was a coverage sack by Dinkins. Can't remember the other one.

Thats the only thing I will bitch about, thought we moved very well on offense. Seeing a scrambling QB is very nice to see back.

[TrapGame]

Good post 34.

Hard to really disagree with anything you said. However, I think the defense is a little better than expected, but the DL at this point does seem a little concerning.

Sunbelt Billy is gone. He might as well start packing and talk to a real estate agent. I had that Florida game circled for a reason.

Best case scenario for us is Lane takes the Florida job and leaves OM in limbo with a mediocre head coach for 3 or 4 seasons.

I wish we were playing South Carolina instead of Georgia. Old Dominion was embarrassing them.

Next week's game will be tougher and a good measuring stick.

[chef dixon]

Let's not forget our expectations as the season goes along. We are projected to be bad. I think in general we are playing with house money.

I don't think Lane is leaving Oxford at this point. He's invested his children in the community. It was either Auburn 2 years ago or not for another few years now

[Pancho]

I expect the plantation owners to keep lame financially happy and increase his pay. question then is simply who can florida get that has the ability to get them where they feel they belong?

[RockyDog]

Let's not forget our expectations as the season goes along. We are projected to be bad. I think in general we are playing with house money.

I don't think Lane is leaving Oxford at this point. He's invested his children in the community. It was either Auburn 2 years ago or not for another few years now

Maybe. But his daughter is in college at scUM. That doesn’t matter if he lives there or not. His son isn’t coming to Oxpatch until next year. So those plans could change and he could just as easily follow daddy Lane to Gainesville.

[TrapGame]

Lane ain't turning down Florida. If they offer him the job, he's gone.

[RockyDog]

Coach is totally wrong on the defense. The DL is stout and Coleman is going to be Nick Saban Jr

[Todd4State]

Let's not forget our expectations as the season goes along. We are projected to be bad. I think in general we are playing with house money.

I don't think Lane is leaving Oxford at this point. He's invested his children in the community. It was either Auburn 2 years ago or not for another few years now

So a guy called the portal king wants to settle down in one place? That's kind of ironic.

It's about money and ceiling. Kiffin screwed up the Auburn job when he got blown out by Arkansas and followed that up losing the Egg Bowl in 2022.

[Todd4State]

1. Happy Opening Day everyone!!! Little Wool and I celebrated opening day by procuring a dozen boiled blue crabs and a couple pounds of large gulf shrimp after he got done with practice. Made for some good eating on a fine rainy day.

2. Excitement returns to Scott Field!!! You could hear it on TV and almost feel it. The Twitter posts. Facebook posts. The texts. It was great to see some egit excitement back in that stadium after about 5 years of meh.

3. Really enjoyed watching Shapen play. Having a real QB playing with passion and a sense of urgency was refreshing. pushing the ball down the field. Scrambling to keep the chains moving. 12.4 yards per completion. Granted- EK had a terrible secondary but the attempts to push the ball were there. Catches by our RB's??? ONE. Thank you. No more having the RB's be your leading pass catchers. Watchable offense

4. OL was just ok. Wasnt as physical as I was hoping. They will gel better with more time of course. Always takes time for new guys working together. But that is something to watch moving forward.

5. Need to work on ball security this week. I know it was wet but too many dropped footballs.

6. White Legs with a nice run for a TD. Showed good vision plus we already knew he had good speed. Nice to see some imagination also. The WR room is legit

7. D-Line is a huge concern. We looked soft here. We played very vanilla yesterday for sure. It was also very wet. But def watch this bunch next week against ASU. I think we have a problem here.

8. LB's and Secondary looked ok. EK had a little success against our zone coverage hitting some shots in the middle. EK's playcalling helped us out alot tho. I know we only gave up 7 points but the D just didnt look all that good to me. The DB's did play physical and that looked like a bright spot.

9. Florida is not very good. Sunbelt Billy gonna enjoy that $25MM or so to not show up for work next year. Very winnable game for us. Lame Kitten's agent has already been contacted as have others. Only question about Fla is when they pull the trigger. When your players are tweeting out pics of "F this team" your time as coach is done. UPig looked pretty good so we will see if Pittman keeps his job. Beating us will play a big part in that. That game will be big for both of our programs.

10. Good start by Lebbo. Excitement. Sense of urgency by the staff and players. Intensity. Program looks to be headed in the right direction. Go Dawgs!!

Anything looks better than Barbay's offense. 7 points against UNLV for his offense. He's simply not very good.

[Todd4State]

And as far as DL we need some freshmen to step up unfortunately like Tevion Williams, Kai McClendon, Terrance Hibbler, and Joseph Head. They're going to be good players in time but hard to ask young guys like that to contribute like we need them to.

[Offshore Dawg]

Another observation: that was the most excitement I have seen from the team on the sidelines in a loooooong time.

[Offshore Dawg]

Anything looks better than Barbay's offense. 7 points against UNLV for his offense. He's simply not very good.

Todd, I think time will show that our last years coaching staff as a whole was one of the WORST ever.

[BeardoMSU]

Another observation: that was the most excitement I have seen from the team on the sidelines in a loooooong time.

They know

[TrapGame]

Another observation: that was the most excitement I have seen from the team on the sidelines in a loooooong time.

Oh yeah, you can tell the team has bought in. It had an early Mullen feel to it. And the coaching is night and day from last year.

[coastratdog]

Maybe. But his daughter is in college at scUM. That doesn?t matter if he lives there or not. His son isn?t coming to Oxpatch until next year. So those plans could change and he could just as easily follow daddy Lane to Gainesville.

A degree from UF is lights years better than UMiss.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

To me Shapen is the biggest bright spot on the team. Followed by the WRs. We're going to have a lot of fun games where we sling it all over and Shapen scrambles for big gains. I bet we'll see a game or 2 live SC last year. I'm not sure we can run it though. If we can't we'll be on the wrong side of some ugly blowouts vs teams with the athletes to stop our recievers and spy Shapen.

Defense seemed decently coached... but I didn't see much talent pop out at me at any spot. Thats on Leach and Arnett. I could see us being able to hold mediocre offenses to 20 and give us a chance to win, and also be unable to force a punt vs teams with high end talent just because we're so outclassed.

6-6 seems likely. I think the offense will be exciting and generate more NIL. Then we need the defensive staff to have a good eye for underrated talent. Very Mullen type of rebuild I think is our path forward, but NIL makes it harder to do today because every player is up for auction every year so when we can't really out evaluate our opponents anymore

[Todd4State]

Todd, I think time will show that our last years coaching staff as a whole was one of the WORST ever.

Agree 110% percent. The people that signed off on that staff should just stay the hell out of the way next time.

[Coach34]

Anything looks better than Barbay's offense. 7 points against UNLV for his offense. He's simply not very good.

and the Airbone

[Commercecomet24]

Good assessment 34. Hard to argue with any of that. It was nice to see a mobile qb who could stretch the field and the energy from the players, coaches and fans. Great atmosphere and nice to see the effort and hustle all 3 phases played with. Outside of the bad snap on the fg the special teams were special last night, good to see!

[Activated Alpha]

Go visit the Washington's football forum and read their gameday page. They are ripping apart WR. Someone even called him checkdown charlie within the first 20 minutes of their game

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Go visit the Washington's football forum and read their gameday page. They are ripping apart WR. Someone even called him checkdown charlie within the first 20 minutes of their game

I mean he was 20/26 for 250 yards (9.6 ypr) but as we know, his decent stats can hide all the meat he leaves on the bone

[KOdawg1]

Play the young guys on defense

[CaptainObvious]

I am pretty excited about the team as a whole. I have concerns about our fans not showing up. But, Lebby praised the fans and their support, he didn't call out the ones who stayed away like Saban did!

[Homedawg]

Let's not forget our expectations as the season goes along. We are projected to be bad. I think in general we are playing with house money.

I don't think Lane is leaving Oxford at this point. He's invested his children in the community. It was either Auburn 2 years ago or not for another few years now

I agree. I don't think he's leaving either. But who knows. He's a different cat.

[Homedawg]

Play the young guys on defense

What young guys did we not play??

[bulldawg28]

What young guys did we not play??

#24 defensive back should play more...lol

[Ranchdawg]

I am pretty excited about the team as a whole. I have concerns about our fans not showing up. But, Lebby praised the fans and their support, he didn't call out the ones who stayed away like Saban did!

Yes he did praise the fans that did show up and get drenched. Sure it wasn’t packed but a lot of other things going on this weekend and who we played didn’t exactly draw excitement. I was there and I was most impressed by the student body packing in there sections and being really excited. With that said how do keep them into the game in the second half.

[SPMT]

Let's not forget our expectations as the season goes along. We are projected to be bad. I think in general we are playing with house money.

I don't think Lane is leaving Oxford at this point. He's invested his children in the community. It was either Auburn 2 years ago or not for another few years now

He?s like Mullen. Guarantee if Mullen had it to do over again he?d have stayed here.

[Cooterpoot]

We kept it close to the vest and still looked good. DL is a turd, missing a few injured guys this week too. I expect to win the first three and maybe four.
We need recruiting to pick up.

[PMDawg]

Is Dinkins ok?

[Jack Lambert]

Blanton did not play from about the halfway point in the second half. Did he get hurt?

[Coach34]

I agree. I don't think he's leaving either. But who knows. He's a different cat.

He will be faced with a crossroads decision for the rest of his career. Lame Kitten loves the state of Florida but:

Go to Fla where he could possibly win a Natty but they also have unrealistic expectations where he could be fired after 4 years.

OR

Stay at Mississippi living in Mississippi where he can be pretty good and keep his job another decade while waiting on another op with another Blue Blood.

[Todd4State]

and the Airbone

I'll take the Airbone that set a SEC passing record in a win on the road over LSU, was the offense we ran in the biggest comeback in school history against Auburn, helped us get a 9 win season over Barbay's 12 PPG in SEC play if we're talking about excitement here.

[R2Dawg]

My quick thoughts from the game.

First great to be in DWS. Great energy in the building; nothing better than a cowbell wild crowd in DWS. The students really set the tone heading to kickoff; great job again students.

Showtime is here. Like the new hype. We have as much O skill as we've had since Dak and company. Dang Coleman is a freak. Craver is super freshman, Booth is a really good back. Shapen is best QB since Dak by far.

The D impressed me. As typical we got some athletes on that side of ball. Really like the physicality in the secondary. I think the D may be better than some think. We played a lot of guys too. Hope Dinkins is OK. We need him. We got some dudes on D side, some are young but there is some talent. We played vanilla most of game and later started trying some different looks.

Really like the turnover cowbell. Great new tradition; can't believe someone hasn't thought of that yet. That new tradition needs to stay.
This team has a nice feel. It just feels like MSU football is back after 5 years in the desert. I think we can win between 5-7 games. We made a good hire and are headed in the right direction.


Negatives - Shapen wish he had picked another # besides 2. Missed FG but not worried, he is a proven kicker; they will figure that out.

Students stuck out thru the rain but didn't stay till the end. We need that energy to stay with the team.

All in all, great opening weekend in Starkvegas. Hail State!

[CoachT14]

To me Shapen is the biggest bright spot on the team. Followed by the WRs. We're going to have a lot of fun games where we sling it all over and Shapen scrambles for big gains. I bet we'll see a game or 2 live SC last year. I'm not sure we can run it though. If we can't we'll be on the wrong side of some ugly blowouts vs teams with the athletes to stop our recievers and spy Shapen.

Defense seemed decently coached... but I didn't see much talent pop out at me at any spot. Thats on Leach and Arnett. I could see us being able to hold mediocre offenses to 20 and give us a chance to win, and also be unable to force a punt vs teams with high end talent just because we're so outclassed.

6-6 seems likely. I think the offense will be exciting and generate more NIL. Then we need the defensive staff to have a good eye for underrated talent. Very Mullen type of rebuild I think is our path forward, but NIL makes it harder to do today because every player is up for auction every year so when we can't really out evaluate our opponents anymore

There's some truth too that some of our running issues Saturday were because they were stacking the box and daring us to throw. I thought it was a very odd strategy for a team that lacks talent, but hey that was them. I am still concerned about running though, simply pointing out that there was a reason for some of the issues.

[Coach34]

I'll take the Airbone that set a SEC passing record in a win on the road over LSU, was the offense we ran in the biggest comeback in school history against Auburn, helped us get a 9 win season over Barbay's 12 PPG in SEC play if we're talking about excitement here.

throwing it 50 times per game with alot of dump downs to the RB is some of the most boring crap of offense I've watched. Notice we didnt set any scoring records and were no better than alot of Mullen's offenses even with all the passing.

[Santiago]

It is not 1997, blue collar MSU football though ***

[confucius say]

throwing it 50 times per game with alot of dump downs to the RB is some of the most boring crap of offense I've watched. Notice we didnt set any scoring records and were no better than alot of Mullen's offenses even with all the passing.

But we were competent and had an identity. And there were at least times of excitement. There is no comparison between the AR years and whatever we were doing last year.
But I like the lebby offense way more than both.

[Todd4State]

throwing it 50 times per game with alot of dump downs to the RB is some of the most boring crap of offense I've watched. Notice we didnt set any scoring records and were no better than alot of Mullen's offenses even with all the passing.

Most of that is on the QB. Much like when Dan's offense was effective but not fully utilized when he started out with Relf. Once Dak took over it peaked. Will mentally can not push the ball down the field and or lacks the confidence to do so.

[gtowndawg]

I was there with my family and friends (tailgated) and had a great time. If you are not at the games, buy some cheap tickets (who cares if it's in the deck) and bring your family. It's fun.

[Coach34]

But we were competent and had an identity. And there were at least times of excitement. There is no comparison between the AR years and whatever we were doing last year.
But I like the lebby offense way more than both.

Oh I agree that last year was awful. But it was just another year of awful from a 5 year stretch. Saturday was an actual offense with some excitement. EK actually ran multiples types of looks as well instead of just sitting in a 3 man drop 8 defense. That was just unwatchable boring ass shit on both sides of the ball during the Airbone Era

[Count Istvan Teleky]

Personally, I do not want Billy Napier fired before our game. If that happens, they have a chance to get some energy for the new coach. Scott, let's keep him around about three more weeks, shall we?

[Pancho]

they won't make him step down til they lose to A&M and state in a row.

[TrapGame]

they won't make him step down til they lose to A&M and state in a row.

Yep, if Napier loses to us and A&M he's done.

He's feeling the heat too. He had a Bob from Bogue Chitto moment in his presser yesterday.

[Tripp McNeely]

Hearing some rumors that Billy might get the axe as early as this week...for cause!

[BrunswickDawg]

Hearing some rumors that Billy might get the axe as early as this week...for cause!

Cause? What are they ginning up to try to take him out? Book store credit card scams or shark-frikken photos? We've seen this movie before.

[Tripp McNeely]

Cause? What are they ginning up to try to take him out? Book store credit card scams or shark-frikken photos? We've seen this movie before.

Something about some unapproved auction or something...there was a UF beat writer who tweeted about it.

[Cooterpoot]

The only way Napier gets fired early season is if FL can get out of the buyout. $30MM is crazy money even for FL, especially if they've got to buyout a sitting HC and pay him $10MM plus per year. Stricklin gave Sunbelt Billy a crazy contract. FL isn't A&M money.

[Pancho]

That is being discussed currently by the Florida brain trust. It'll be a royal pile of dung if they do lose to A&M and State.

[PGHBulldogBG]

Florida picked the wrong Sun Belt coach to hire. They picked Napier based on his over record and recruiting. He was winning first with Huds players and then he recruited well enough to have a talent advantage over all the teams. Chadwell on the other hand started with the worst roster in the Sun belt and a couple years later won the conference with far less talent and then kept going strong. Napier no longer had a talent advantage so he is losing to teams with equal or greater talent because he is not a good X and O coach. They might still beat us because they do have a talent advantage, but hopefully it being at home and Lebbys coaching will get us the win. I have no doubt if they lose to us and start 1-3 he will be gone after that.

[sandjunky]

A degree from UF is lights years better than UMiss.

Maybe if you are some unknown but not if you are born on 3B like Kiffin was

[MrCoachKlein]

throwing it 50 times per game with alot of dump downs to the RB is some of the most boring crap of offense I've watched. Notice we didnt set any scoring records and were no better than alot of Mullen's offenses even with all the passing.

Usually a PPG vs YPG fan of stats. Doesn't matter in this case unless you put up straw man Barbay...Leach's O was not good at PPG and mediocre at YPG. Granted he was still building his team. It was Moorehead level. Look it up.

[MrCoachKlein]

But we were competent and had an identity. And there were at least times of excitement. There is no comparison between the AR years and whatever we were doing last year.
But I like the lebby offense way more than both.

Leach was a good FB coach (accountability, responsibility, weight/fitness training, etc)...offense I think had passed him by. When you only run for 40 ypg average, you're never gonna hit the highs of a 2014 Mullen offense with 513.8 ypg.

Passing Rushing Total Offense First Downs Penalties Turnovers
Split G Cmp Att Pct Yds TD Att Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg Pass Rush Pen Tot No. Yds Fum Int Tot
Offense 13 20.1 32.5 61.7 280.7 2.4 44.5 233.1 5.2 2.2 77.0 513.8 6.7 12.2 12.3 1.2 25.7 5.2 39.5 0.8 0.9 1.8