Grade the job Lebby did as head coach in 2024.

[Quaoarsking]

Ridiculous to give him any higher than an F. 2-10 (worse than any year Croom ever had), 0-8 in the SEC (never even had a single-digit loss), got completely dominated and humiliated by a 7-5 MAC team, full of moments of incredible stupidity, low football IQ, and boneheadedness. There's just not a single positive to take away from this season, not a single glimmer of hope or optimism looking at the future.

I get that Arnett left him in a bind with the talent, but there's no excuse to be this disgraceful. NIL and the Portal are leading to non-prestigious programs all over the country being much more competitive with the Elites and reinventing themselves over one offseason. It could have been us too, but instead we are the worst Power Conference team by a significant margin (other than maybe Purdue?).

And why are we in this situation? Because our lazy Athletic Director promised us a national search and then just hired his buddy who no head coaching experience, a guy that our fans already disliked from his years at Ole Miss, and who had some ... baggage ... that prevented any other school from ever hiring him as a head coach.

We're stuck with him for one more year, but without some kind of shocking turnaround, we'll be looking for a new head coach a year from now.

[Quaoarsking]

Reminder that preseason polls showed that most posters here expected us to win 7 or 8 games this year. So while maybe we should have seen this coming, most of us didn't.

[Dawgface]

F-

[State82]

Really cannot give it anything but an F. Maybe a D- at best. Awful and unacceptable. Not worthy of six figures much less several million.

[Quaoarsking]

Extra question: If you disagree with me and don't give him an F, what would it have taken for him to get an F? Lose to UMass too? Why are your standards so low?

[parabrave]

F with an */ Now go out and recruit some talent and position coaches.

[sandjunky]

F

[CarolinaDawgs]

Not to defend Lebby but we looked 200% more competitive with -200% talent than we did last year.

[DEDawg]

C

Just keeping the team from quitting this season with the amount of talent on this roster was impressive. Everyone giving him an F, I just don?t get it. What do you expect when you have this defensive roster and you lose your starting QB and have to throw a true freshmen in there for 75% of the year

[CarolinaDawgs]

WE EXPECT TO BE 6-6 is the most loser BS of all time

[Quaoarsking]

Not to defend Lebby but we looked 200% more competitive with -200% talent than we did last year.

We went 5-7 last year with wins over Arizona and Arkansas. And we beat our MAC opponent (Western Michigan). So no, we were definitely less competitive this year.

[DawgFromOxford]

You could talk me into a D- at best only because there's glimpses of what the offense can be and the roster is devoid of talent

But yeah overall an absolute failure of season.

[Quaoarsking]

C

Just keeping the team from quitting this season with the amount of talent on this roster was impressive. Everyone giving him an F, I just don?t get it. What do you expect when you have this defensive roster and you lose your starting QB and have to throw a true freshmen in there for 75% of the year

I expect to not be in this situation in the first place.

I'll concede that losing Shapen was unlucky, but it's not like Shapen hasn't had injury problems his whole career, and I also doubt we would have finished better than 2-10 if he hadn't gotten hurt anyway.

[HoopsDawg]

Definitely an F. That was Tech and 10, we just had the benefit of playing an FCS team.

Oddly enough, I'm still behind Lebby. I think he can turn it around but it starts now.

[tcdog70]

The fact he didn’t put Booth in the wildcat on the 1 yard and push him in. Makes me go F

[Brobi-wan]

D, but I?m letting him use his academic forgiveness since it?s his first year and has very few of his own recruits. We will really see where we are next year.

But if he brings Hutz back as DC and goes winless in conference again, I think the admin will have to fire him or call all of the shots for him going forward.

[DEDawg]

I expect to not be in this situation in the first place.

I'll concede that losing Shapen was unlucky, but it's not like Shapen hasn't had injury problems his whole career, and I also doubt we would have finished better than 2-10 if he hadn't gotten hurt anyway.
Dude thats fine, but direct your anger where it?s due. Lebby was hired late Nov 2023, not much you can do to build a roster then. I would agree with you if its year 2, but you have to give him a chance to build a roster to even know if he can coach

[StarkVegasSteve]

D

He was handed a shit roster from Leach and Arnett. But he did miss on some portal targets where we were the top offer(Yam Banks comes to mind). Shapen going down and having to turn to a true freshman who was, and still is, nowhere near ready was also death sentence in and of itself. We should have won 4 games so that is why I go D. His offense and their slow starts against ASU and Toledo were the reasons we lost those games. You can say what you want about Hutzler and the D and they do deserve some blame, but we had the D out there FAR too long in those games. Add in to that we have no talent on D and less depth and it is very easy to see why 2-10 was the end result.

[parabrave]

What makes everyone think we would've been better under Shapen?? He won a game against E Kentucky and nothing else. Then he got hurt, again. I think MVB did a hella of a job this year. No oline to speak of and only One true gifted receiver. Get him a OLine capable of stopping a bull rush and a big TE and and he will be better next year. And to add a QB Coach who can teach him because Lebby can't/

[HailState2008]

Ridiculous to give him any higher than an F. 2-10 (worse than any year Croom ever had), 0-8 in the SEC (never even had a single-digit loss), got completely dominated and humiliated by a 7-5 MAC team, full of moments of incredible stupidity, low football IQ, and boneheadedness. There's just not a single positive to take away from this season, not a single glimmer of hope or optimism looking at the future.

I get that Arnett left him in a bind with the talent, but there's no excuse to be this disgraceful. NIL and the Portal are leading to non-prestigious programs all over the country being much more competitive with the Elites and reinventing themselves over one offseason. It could have been us too, but instead we are the worst Power Conference team by a significant margin (other than maybe Purdue?).

And why are we in this situation? Because our lazy Athletic Director promised us a national search and then just hired his buddy who no head coaching experience, a guy that our fans already disliked from his years at Ole Miss, and who had some ... baggage ... that prevented any other school from ever hiring him as a head coach.

We're stuck with him for one more year, but without some kind of shocking turnaround, we'll be looking for a new head coach a year from now.


Due to the hand he was given, It was a solid C until 1st and goal inside the 1 tonight. Now, it?s a F

[Coursesuper]

C, kept the team together in the middle of a shit storm he was handed. Had to deal with an undersized freshman QB and patchwork line. Almost no talent at all on Defense with zero d line. Hard to coach that up in the SEC. Now he has to go get players. Still two years away from competing.

[Todd4State]

I think F is fair as a grade honestly. I don't care how bad our talent is we shouldn't be losing to Toledo. And I don't care who did what during Leach and Arnett's time there is no way our talent is 130th in the country bad on defense.

But that said Lebby is going to get a chance to correct this in the offseason and that's critical for him to get it right.

1. First and foremost we need more talent. This isn't an either or with coaches and talent. It's both. The only way to fix it is to recruit well out of the portal. This is the most critical thing Lebby needs to do right because if he doesn't he could be 2 and done here. He needs to bring in enough to at least get to 6-6 next year.

2. And because it's not either or with coaches and talent he needs to address his coaching staff. We need a legit DC and a new defensive staff. We need a new offensive line coach. Defense and offensive line killed this team.

3. Lebby may want to consider hiring an OC to help like Dan did with Les Koenning and Brian Johnson. Even Leach had Spurrier, Jr helping at times.

[Quaoarsking]

Dude thats fine, but direct your anger where it?s due. Lebby was hired late Nov 2023, not much you can do to build a roster then. I would agree with you if its year 2, but you have to give him a chance to build a roster to even know if he can coach

That's pre-Portal/NIL thinking. The world is different now.

[Quaoarsking]

C, kept the team together in the middle of a shit storm he was handed. Had to deal with an undersized freshman QB and patchwork line. Almost no talent at all on Defense with zero d line. Hard to coach that up in the SEC. Now he has to go get players. Still two years away from competing.

No, if we aren't "competing" next year he won't get a third year.

[Todd4State]

That's pre-Portal/NIL thinking. The world is different now.

If Lebby doesn't make the correct decisions in the offseason we could be looking at a Chad Morris situation here.

[EdwardDrayton]

Don't want it to be for his sake but it's an F.

And there are multiple reasons. But the results certainly top the list. 2-10, 0-8 is just impossible to explain away. And if it's gone unnoticed, Toledo lost to JoMo this week. 17 me.

[HoopsDawg]

Don't want it to be for his sake but it's an F.

And there are multiple reasons. But the results certainly top the list. 2-10, 0-8 is just impossible to explain away. And if it's gone unnoticed, Toledo lost to JoMo this week. 17 me.

All 8 SEC losses by double digits.

[Ranchdawg]

A “F” for no other reason than losing and losing badly at home to Toledo! Wow that was bad.

[parabrave]

I think F is fair as a grade honestly. I don't care how bad our talent is we shouldn't be losing to Toledo. And I don't care who did what during Leach and Arnett's time there is no way our talent is 130th in the country bad on defense.

But that said Lebby is going to get a chance to correct this in the offseason and that's critical for him to get it right.

1. First and foremost we need more talent. This isn't an either or with coaches and talent. It's both. The only way to fix it is to recruit well out of the portal. This is the most critical thing Lebby needs to do right because if he doesn't he could be 2 and done here. He needs to bring in enough to at least get to 6-6 next year.

2. And because it's not either or with coaches and talent he needs to address his coaching staff. We need a legit DC and a new defensive staff. We need a new offensive line coach. Defense and offensive line killed this team.

3. Lebby may want to consider hiring an OC to help like Dan did with Les Koenning and Brian Johnson. Even Leach had Spurrier, Jr helping at times.

1. Next season grades start tomorrow. Want to see what positions he prioritizes and what coaches he fires.

3. At least hire a QB Coach who can teach.

[Goldendawg]

F and I saw this coming after Toledo, as I predicted Tech and 10 to my late SuperDog Dad. What, if anything was the building of a foundation in this joke of a season? Arnett and his merry band went 5-7 and were less incompetent than this. First season since 2002 without a SEC win. Every team on our schedule in 2025 will have us circled as a win including OOC foes and why shouldn't they? Going to be plenty of season tickets available next year in prime seating areas.

[Walkerhill]

Incomplete. We outperformed our talent level in many games but never pulled any out. Team has to learn how to win and the Toledo game was the biggest stinker in years.

Based on the what we know right now it is F. But, one way or the other, most of the portal activity going into next year is likely complete but not yet public. If he laid the foundation to keep most of our core returning talent and add the right portal pieces then I would give him a solid B for holding it together through multiple fronts through the crap storm we have experienced.

He needs 6 next year in a tough schedule. He has already put himself in position to do it or he hasn’t. We will know in the next few weeks.

[Goldendawg]

1. Next season grades start tomorrow. Want to see what positions he prioritizes and what coaches he fires.

3. At least hire a QB Coach who can teach.

He will fire no one. Glancing at him on the sideline, I see JoMo 2.0. A good OC when he has talent , but no wy a SEC HC and certainy not a "On the Job Training" one who hires a friend to be an "On the Job Training" DC. Got an "On the Job Training" AD again also. Who signs off on this decade after decade?

[CarolinaDawgs]

We went 5-7 last year with wins over Arizona and Arkansas. And we beat our MAC opponent (Western Michigan). So no, we were definitely less competitive this year.

We won those games with players on the defensive side which we have 0 of. You cannot be that dense? We looked uncompetitive last year in every game other than our ?big wins? (which btw are shat looking back)

This team competed their ass off with no ****ing reason to do so. He can catch a D at worst for that

[CarolinaDawgs]

Oh and by the way Quasorqueen

Stick to basketball. You are goated at that.

[Goldendawg]

Incomplete. We outperformed our talent level in many games but never pulled any out. Team has to learn how to win and the Toledo game was the biggest stinker in years.

Based on the what we know right now it is F. But, one way or the other, most of the portal activity going into next year is likely complete but not yet public. If he laid the foundation to keep most of our core returning talent and add the right portal pieces then I would give him a solid B for holding it together through multiple fronts through the crap storm we have experienced.

He needs 6 next year in a tough schedule. He has already put himself in position to do it or he hasn’t. We will know in the next few weeks.

Tell me who our "core returning talent" is? Outside of Coleman and Smith who could start for another SEC team?

[Walkerhill]

He will fire no one. Glancing at him on the sideline, I see JoMo 2.0. A good OC when he has talent , but no wy a SEC HC and certainy not a "On the Job Training" one who hires a friend to be an "On the Job Training" DC. Got an "On the Job Training" AD again also. Who signs off on this decade after decade?

Multiple parts of this seem like a bad take. Totally different demeanor on the sideline from JoeMo. JoeMo had outstanding talent - imo they were a top 10 team with elite talent in defense and maybe a dark horse in the national title conversation. And they vastly underperformed that talent level, and at times effort and toughness were questionable. That is not what we saw this year.

And I would be absolutely shocked and disappointed if we see no changes at all on the staff. No reason to do it in-season but there will be some staff turnover. Hutzler is a good recruiter and linebacker coach so maybe you can roll with that especially if you are paying for it anyway but we have to see an experienced coordinator that can scheme and call plays at an SEC level. The DL and OL line coaches should not feel too comfortable right now either.

[Walkerhill]

MVB was extraordinary as a true freshman imo, especially given the porous line in front of him. You can build around him and we should. He has that ‘it factor’. - he will shine somewhere as a college qb and I hope it is at State. He Will’s definitely have other offers. Other folks will shout portal qb but I disagree.
I am good with Luke Work and Albert Reese in the rotation.

You want to keep Jackson and Pounders in the rotation at OLine - if they take a step forward developmentally they can really help you and if not they are battle tested depth/rotation guys.

On defense you need an entirely new D Line but Jennings and Blanton at LB and Smith and Pollock are pieces you can build on.

Traore with continued development especially as a blocker.

Those players plus Coleman and Smith are the core I was thinking of.

[viverlibre]

Overall, F-. As OC, C-.

[Coach34]

Dude thats fine, but direct your anger where it?s due. Lebby was hired late Nov 2023, not much you can do to build a roster then. I would agree with you if its year 2, but you have to give him a chance to build a roster to even know if he can coach

Certainly was an F

To your point- every school in the country starts with NIL in acquiring free agents. He had already been apart of seeing payers while at OU. Recruiting transfers after the season is short term recruiting for 98% of players. Terrible job in Y1 for Lebbo

[Bothrops]

C- First time HC is tough. It's really ****ing tough at Mississippi State. Now it's tougher than ever. The good- Lebby brought in a decent transfer QB, won out for a coveted HS qb, and brought in WRs we aren't used to having here..which could be a one time deal here. But he's generally a good playcaller.

The bad- the OL attempt failed, and the transfer qb is injury prone. That kneecapped us for sure. The defensive front was handicapped all season. No pass rush. No posers even. Schematically not a match with personnel. Hiring a position coach to first time DC is never going to work in the SEC. Never going to work that first year. Defensive recruiting was a glaring failure in 2024.

We will see if he can reboot the team after the portal season but I give him some leeway on the grade because most coaches would fall flat on their face with this defensive roster.

[NCDawg]

Tell me who our "core returning talent" is? Outside of Coleman and Smith who could start for another SEC team?

Probably Stone Blanton, but I agree with you. We didn't need to hire an "on the job training" AD, and an "on the job training" Head Football coach..

[MoreCowbell]

Delete

[maroonmania]

F and I saw this coming after Toledo, as I predicted Tech and 10 to my late SuperDog Dad. What, if anything was the building of a foundation in this joke of a season? Arnett and his merry band went 5-7 and were less incompetent than this. First season since 2002 without a SEC win. Every team on our schedule in 2025 will have us circled as a win including OOC foes and why shouldn't they? Going to be plenty of season tickets available next year in prime seating areas.

I would grade the whole university from the President down with an F relative to football. Everybody involved is doing on the job training and just trying to figure things out. No wonder we are such a cluster. I would call us "Training Wheels" university. We have a President that hires an AD who has never been an AD before. Then that AD hires a head football coach who has never been a college head coach before. And then that head coach hires a defensive coordinator who has never been a defensive coordinator before. And that's just on top of having the most inexperienced overall football coaching staff in the SEC (and maybe the country). We really aren't even acting like a school that has any serious intention of trying to win.

[Quaoarsking]

Guys, it's Lebby's fault that the roster was as "bad" as it is. Who cares how well a better coach would have done with this roster? A "better coach" wouldn't have had this bad of a roster in the first place.

That's like me saying that, sure I got an F on my exam, but I didn't study, and not many people would have done better without studying. Who cares? It's my own fault that I didn't study and put myself in that position to begin with!

I know that a lot of you don't like the NIL and the portal, but that doesn't mean you can just wish it away and pretend that the only way to turn a bad roster into a good one is to spend years recruiting and developing. That's just not the world we live in anymore, and there are plenty of examples of teams doing a one-offseason turnaround by using those tools.

[MoreCowbell]

I was not concerned with W/L this year because we were going to be awful no matter what. I wanted to see buy in and improvement. Find your young guys on offense you want to build around. Get better and do the same in 2025 on defensive side of ball. Then get to 6 wins in 2026. That needs to be the realistic big picture goal and I am sure that is close to his plan.

He did step 1 for the most part.

[Coach34]

SC was supposed to suck and people questioned their talent even saying their best LB transferred to us. People were saying he was most likely to be fired this year. Their coach is a Clemson win away from SEC coach of the year. They have a freshman QB also

Our talent level falls on Lebby also

[Quaoarsking]

I was not concerned with W/L this year because we were going to be awful no matter what. I wanted to see buy in and improvement. Find your young guys on offense you want to build around. Get better and do the same in 2025 on defensive side of ball. Then get to 6 wins in 2026. That needs to be the realistic big picture goal and I am sure that is close to his plan.

He did step 1 for the most part.

He damn well better be at 6-6 in 2025 if he wants to be the coach in 2026. We all have to adjust to the new college football reality.

[Coach34]

He damn well better be at 6-6 in 2025 if he wants to be the coach in 2026. We all have to adjust to the new college football reality.

Unless he pulls another 2-10, he will be the HC in 2026. 3 years min outside another cluster. AD is not firing his buddy after 2 years

[Quaoarsking]

AD is not firing his buddy after 2 years

Well, that may be true, but he needs to be bowling next year to deserve another year as our coach. Can you imagine how dead our atmosphere will be in 2026 if Lebby flops again in 2025 and is brought back for 2026 anyway?

[MoreCowbell]

Well, that may be true, but he needs to be bowling next year to deserve another year as our coach. Can you imagine how dead our atmosphere will be in 2026 if Lebby flops again in 2025 and is brought back for 2026 anyway?

That is not realistic though. He will have done a great job to get us to 6 wins in 2026 if he can pull it off. The program is in a terrible position. The timing of things and landscape of college football has made it even more of an uphill battle for us. He will get 3 years minimum.

[Pinto]

Yall are retarded if you think a coach can come in one week before the portal opens and get the pick of the litter. Portal deals for next season are already done. It?s all back room deals.

This season is an audit for Lebby. No grade given, and the class is to learn the material to be ready for next year when it actually counts.

This portal class, off season, high school recruiting class, and 2025 season is the material he will be graded upon.

[Walkerhill]

This is year 4 for Shane Beamer. He has had multiple years to build a roster and had the full cycle to influence their recruiting and transfer portal classes over multiple years. That is totally different, right?

[Coach34]

Well, that may be true, but he needs to be bowling next year to deserve another year as our coach. Can you imagine how dead our atmosphere will be in 2026 if Lebby flops again in 2025 and is brought back for 2026 anyway?

No more dead than it will next August. There is no reason to be excited about next year right now. I've been saying NIL killed this program. Prices are only going up. We arent going to pull some big portals to generate any excitement for 2025

[Coach34]

This is year 4 for Shane Beamer. He has had multiple years to build a roster and had the full cycle to influence their recruiting and transfer portal classes over multiple years. That is totally different, right?

The point was he was supposed to suck this year in Y4 which is why people said he had the hottest seat in the SEC this season. What did he do under that pressure?

[schddog72]

Due to the hand he was given, It was a solid C until 1st and goal inside the 1 tonight. Now, it?s a F

THIS!! Even if he'd been an A or B before, I would have dropped him down at least 2 grades based on that goal-line sequence today. Three straight crappy play calls after first and goal got stuffed.

[MBDawg601]

People acting like we have shit talent.

Since Leach - top 25-30 recruiting classes. Similar talent level to Arkansas. Please stop acting like we have had classes in the 50s and 60s. There is some talent on this roster - plenty enough to compete in the SEC and plenty enough to run Toledo out of our own stadium. Coaching and evaluating the current roster is why we went 2-10.

[DEDawg]

That's pre-Portal/NIL thinking. The world is different now.

Nah man. You're wrong. You can't flip a roster in Dec after going through 2 coaching changes in 12 months, 1 of which was a one and done and the other built the roster for an offense nobody else in the country runs.

[Activated Alpha]

Coaching staff get an F. Don't know much about Sermon to give a grade, but Keenum deserves to be sent to alternative school or expelled for his incompetence.

[Quaoarsking]

That is not realistic though. He will have done a great job to get us to 6 wins in 2026 if he can pull it off. The program is in a terrible position. The timing of things and landscape of college football has made it even more of an uphill battle for us. He will get 3 years minimum.

Every Power Four non-elite program's fanbase except us loves the NIL and the Portal because it's closing the gap between them and the elites. What are we not figuring out that everyone else is?

[DEDawg]

Certainly was an F

To your point- every school in the country starts with NIL in acquiring free agents. He had already been apart of seeing payers while at OU. Recruiting transfers after the season is short term recruiting for 98% of players. Terrible job in Y1 for Lebbo

Wrong, but what's new.

[MBDawg601]

Every Power Four non-elite program's fanbase except us loves the NIL and the Portal because it's closing the gap between them and the elites. What are we not figuring out that everyone else is?

Head coaches and coordinators.

[DEDawg]

People acting like we have shit talent.

Since Leach - top 25-30 recruiting classes. Similar talent level to Arkansas. Please stop acting like we have had classes in the 50s and 60s. There is some talent on this roster - plenty enough to compete in the SEC and plenty enough to run Toledo out of our own stadium. Coaching and evaluating the current roster is why we went 2-10.

We literally do. If you can't see that, sit this one out because you don't understand football.

If you want to go by the recruiting rankings that Leach did, go look at 21, 22, and 23. I assume it's also Lebby's fault that Leach's recruits all either sucked and left the team before he got here, or transferred out when Leach passed and we made the laziest hire in the history of CFB.

[EdwardDrayton]

Every Power Four non-elite program's fanbase except us loves the NIL and the Portal because it's closing the gap between them and the elites. What are we not figuring out that everyone else is?

We've seen examples that seem to suggest, even though we have the money to compete, Starkville just is not a relevant destination.

[MBDawg601]

We literally do. If you can't see that, sit this one out because you don't understand football.

If you want to go by the recruiting rankings that Leach did, go look at 21, 22, and 23. I assume it's also Lebby's fault that Leach's recruits all either sucked and left the team before he got here, or transferred out when Leach passed and we made the laziest hire in the history of CFB.

We have the same talent level as Arkansas and more than likely better talent than Vanderbilt. They are not 2 and 10 and have not gotten ran out of Fayetteville or Nashville by Toledo.

Sure it's Lebby's first year, but he did a shit job.. and that IS his fault. He can control that. We have better talent than 4 teams on our schedule without a doubt and equal talent to 1 or 2 more.

5-6 wins was the expectation, with 4 being the floor and he wasn't even close.

[Todd4State]

We've seen examples that seem to suggest, even though we have the money to compete, Starkville just is not a relevant destination.

Starkville is pretty much the same as any other college town. Auburn and Tuscaloosa aren't exactly meccas of partying.

[Bothrops]

Well, that may be true, but he needs to be bowling next year to deserve another year as our coach. Can you imagine how dead our atmosphere will be in 2026 if Lebby flops again in 2025 and is brought back for 2026 anyway?

Not with our schedule

[mparkerfd20]

His final grade was a 17. He flunked with flying colors. Worse than any Croom coached team by a mile. Major ****up hiring him. Overall F-!

[Todd4State]

Nah man. You're wrong. You can't flip a roster in Dec after going through 2 coaching changes in 12 months, 1 of which was a one and done and the other built the roster for an offense nobody else in the country runs.

This CAN happen IF we make the right decisions. Even where we are at this point- if we do a 3-4 year rebuild it's because we did it wrong.


Every Power Four non-elite program's fanbase except us loves the NIL and the Portal because it's closing the gap between them and the elites. What are we not figuring out that everyone else is?

Honestly, I think it goes back to the old days when MSU had administrators that wouldn't stand up to the NCAA when we were being investigated. So instead of playing the game paying players was strongly discouraged because the program was getting hit hard by probation.

I think the portal and NIL are good for MSU. Look at the parity in the SEC this year. Georgia Tech was a team that was getting blown out by Georgia just a year or two ago and now look at them. There is no Nick Saban monster coach in the SEC anymore basically meaning that IF we get our act together we can have a chance against anyone- similar to the SEC of the 1990's where we pretty much beat everyone at a respectable clip except for LSU and even then we beat them twice in the 1990's. The other thing is the portal allow us you to rebuild fairly quickly. You can flip a roster in an offseason. And sure the first season may be a complete dumpster fire like we had but Vanderbilt became a 6-6+ team by raiding New Mexico State. If they can do that I'm sure we could do the same or something similar.

Could you imagine our 2015 team if there was the portal culture? We could have easily replaced Josh Robinson with some other RB and built a decent defense. That season could have been completely different with the portal. The portal probably would have helped Hevesy's recruiting failures as well.

[EdwardDrayton]

Starkville is pretty much the same as any other college town. Auburn and Tuscaloosa aren't exactly meccas of partying.

Partying is only a subset of the conversation. And this is a national spectrum now with NIL and the portal, not just the SEC map.

[Todd4State]

Not with our schedule

We should win our four OOC games. We almost beat Arizona State and had them on the ropes until Hutzler inexplicably decided to go back to what wasn't working. I imagine we have a better chance of beating them in Starkville.

We could very easily catch up to Mizzou and Arkansas with a good portal haul even though those are on the road. As we saw today the Egg Bowl is unpredictable. There is always the possibility of upsetting someone as well.

Just need to see what we get in the portal.

[Todd4State]

Partying is only a subset of the conversation. And this is a national spectrum now with NIL and the portal, not just the SEC map.

Football is literally the only sport that has trouble recruiting. Basketball and baseball don't. And neither do the women's sports.

[Lord McBuckethead]

F and I saw this coming after Toledo, as I predicted Tech and 10 to my late SuperDog Dad. What, if anything was the building of a foundation in this joke of a season? Arnett and his merry band went 5-7 and were less incompetent than this. First season since 2002 without a SEC win. Every team on our schedule in 2025 will have us circled as a win including OOC foes and why shouldn't they? Going to be plenty of season tickets available next year in prime seating areas.

And they are raising the prices on the boxes.

[MoreCowbell]

Every Power Four non-elite program's fanbase except us loves the NIL and the Portal because it's closing the gap between them and the elites. What are we not figuring out that everyone else is?

Now you are asking the right questions

[MoreCowbell]

We've seen examples that seem to suggest, even though we have the money to compete, Starkville just is not a relevant destination.

Ding ding ding

[MoreCowbell]

Starkville is pretty much the same as any other college town. Auburn and Tuscaloosa aren't exactly meccas of partying.

Tuscaloosa is on a different planet and Auburn is far ahead of Starkville. Fair or not Starkville has a stigma around it that is hard to shake.

There is just A LOT going against us right now.

[parabrave]

Have you ever been to Fayetteville Ark and Columbia MO. Talk about being in the middle of nowhere but Arky is recruiting alot of OOS students. Hell for that Matter Clemson is in the sticks. But Arkys marketing is huge esp on Texas. Clemson recruits heavily in the NE US. We used to call Clemson New Jersey school of engineering. It's always about what the schools do in the marketing dept and now social media.

[BuckyIsAB****]

D and only because I do think the kids tried to continue to play hard for he most part. But hes not the guy and im pretty much out and have been since Toledo. There is way too much smoke to the discipline issues and keeping Hutzler

[BuckyIsAB****]

Ridiculous to give him any higher than an F. 2-10 (worse than any year Croom ever had), 0-8 in the SEC (never even had a single-digit loss), got completely dominated and humiliated by a 7-5 MAC team, full of moments of incredible stupidity, low football IQ, and boneheadedness. There's just not a single positive to take away from this season, not a single glimmer of hope or optimism looking at the future.

I get that Arnett left him in a bind with the talent, but there's no excuse to be this disgraceful. NIL and the Portal are leading to non-prestigious programs all over the country being much more competitive with the Elites and reinventing themselves over one offseason. It could have been us too, but instead we are the worst Power Conference team by a significant margin (other than maybe Purdue?).

And why are we in this situation? Because our lazy Athletic Director promised us a national search and then just hired his buddy who no head coaching experience, a guy that our fans already disliked from his years at Ole Miss, and who had some ... baggage ... that prevented any other school from ever hiring him as a head coach.

We're stuck with him for one more year, but without some kind of shocking turnaround, we'll be looking for a new head coach a year from now.

Correct. The nepotism has been so strong at State since Leach passed. It?s why we are here. Laziness and nepotism

[BuckyIsAB****]

If Lebby doesn't make the correct decisions in the offseason we could be looking at a Chad Morris situation here.

It?s definitely a chad morris situation. He only suspended craver because he had no choice. Craver embarrassed him at Tennessee and missed workouts the week after and nothing was done. It leaked out and he had no choice. I?m just telling y?all, he is a frat boy and our practices are as close to a party as you can get

[DownwardDawg]

Easy F

[Apoplectic]

all the team hated shapen

[AROB44]

I'm just glad that message boards don't make athletic decisions.

[maroonmania]

I'm just glad that message boards don't make athletic decisions.

Why? Things certainly couldn't be much worse at least as it pertains to football.

[msstate7]

I'm just glad that message boards don't make athletic decisions.

For real. We'd probably be 2-10 now.

[Activated Alpha]

Lebby gets an D- mainly for keeping the team together even though we lost all our SEC games. Art Briles gets a D for not coming down from the stands and coach like I wanted him too

[Dawgface]

F

[DEDawg]

Have you ever been to Fayetteville Ark and Columbia MO. Talk about being in the middle of nowhere but Arky is recruiting alot of OOS students. Hell for that Matter Clemson is in the sticks. But Arkys marketing is huge esp on Texas. Clemson recruits heavily in the NE US. We used to call Clemson New Jersey school of engineering. It's always about what the schools do in the marketing dept and now social media.

Columbia is light years ahead of Starkville unfortunately. Fayetteville has Walmart money/influence. We are what Auburn was in the late 90s as a town, it's a pretty damning indictment on Starkville's leadership and head in our ass approach to not changing.

[Bothrops]

Guys, it's Lebby's fault that the roster was as "bad" as it is. Who cares how well a better coach would have done with this roster? A "better coach" wouldn't have had this bad of a roster in the first place.

That's like me saying that, sure I got an F on my exam, but I didn't study, and not many people would have done better without studying. Who cares? It's my own fault that I didn't study and put myself in that position to begin with!

I know that a lot of you don't like the NIL and the portal, but that doesn't mean you can just wish it away and pretend that the only way to turn a bad roster into a good one is to spend years recruiting and developing. That's just not the world we live in anymore, and there are plenty of examples of teams doing a one-offseason turnaround by using those tools.

Every P4 school in the country has more money than us. Every One. Forget about athletic budgets, this program is not going to dish out 10- 20 million every year for a bunch of dipshit players.

[Tater]

I'll grade it a LLLLL0LLLLL

10 Ls. 0 SEC wins.

As the Hives said - Hate to say I told you so.


I'll give lebby two redeeming things about this year. No Art Briles appearances that I saw. No internal scandals. I'm man enough to admit when he's proving me wrong about his personal character. For that I apologize. I hope to continue to be wrong here.

Now as for being an actual head coach... Please start proving me wrong.

[Tater]

Every P4 school in the country has more money than us. Every One. Forget about athletic budgets, this program is not going to dish out 10- 20 million every year for a bunch of dipshit players.

Indiana doesn't have an outrageous budget. Good coaching, smart spending, and high effort can get us to the playoffs. Ole Miss spent an obscene amount and still ****ed it up. It's not about the money shpidaman. It's about the Mets baby.

[Wink&aPrayer]

F