Arnett signs 3 year deal

[Coach34]

That tells me Lebby is not on the hotseat for 2026 unless its a complete failure. A 2 year deal would have sufficed

[msstate7]

My sources say arnett is the heir apparent for Lebby.






Haha, I really hope Todd and kb21 believed this for a second

[EdwardDrayton]

My sources say arnett is the heir apparent for Lebby.






Haha, I really hope Todd and kb21 believed this for a second

The real Bert Stare is unmasked!!

[Dawgface]

My sources say we’re bringing back the air raid to better utilize KT’s short passing skills.

[War Machine Dawg]

That tells me Lebby is not on the hotseat for 2026 unless its a complete failure. A 2 year deal would have sufficed

That may be true, but the rest of the college football world thinks Lebby is a dead man walking. There's no other reason every DC candidate on our short list would turn us down, resulting in us crawling back to Arnett. And frankly, he should be on the hot seat. One SEC win in 2 years isn't good enough...and he has an extra SEC game on the schedule starting next season. I understand the reasons we are waiting, but bringing back Arnett does nothing to convince me that we won't be doing a head coaching search this time next year.

[cheewgumm]

This hire will most likely save Libby?s job as our D will be vastly improved.

Our fans are wrong?.,

Again

[EdwardDrayton]

This hire will most likely save Libby?s job as our D will be vastly improved.

Our fans are wrong?.,

Again

But those who say differently may not be wrong. No one knows for sure. One thing is for sure. We hired him and what comes will be. I hope you're right because we've tolerated suck enough. I will say the path that got us Arnett does not inspire confidence in the decision.

[BeardoMSU]

If there are Lebby decisions that make me question his sanity....choosing to stick with #2 while the clear future sat on the bench...while watching the other guy take sack after sack, throw picks, and just look horrid and pathetic in general....

Yeah...that'd be the one. I actually think changing DC to Arnett is a good decision, and one that could pay off greatly. Certainly can't be any worse on that side of the ball....

That being said, unless we SPEND THE MONEY on talent in the portal, we could've hired Saban to be our DC and wouldn't have mattered.

Bring in some dudes!

[Maroon Glasses]

My sources say arnett is the heir apparent for Lebby.






Haha, I really hope Todd and kb21 believed this for a second

7.... that was a loooooow blow. Lol

[Maroon Glasses]

Anyone know what the money is for 3 years?... If I was a betting man I bet its on the lower end with whatever is leftover going toward the portal.

[Coach34]

That may be true, but the rest of the college football world thinks Lebby is a dead man walking.

Totally disagree. Everywhere you look there is optimism and positive vibes about our program. We werent going to hire a name because we dont have the NIL other programs do. That is now the #1 thing coaches look at when viewing jobs. Why would a DC put his name on the line for a weak NIL budget?

[Coach34]

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

[Rawdawg]

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

Indiana back to back playoffs, SMU playoffs last year, Vandy this year, Virginia is on the cusp of a playoff because of NIL, Ole Miss. The name of the game is players and to get them is to pay them.

[DownwardDawg]

My sources say arnett is the heir apparent for Lebby.






Haha, I really hope Todd and kb21 believed this for a second

Hahaha!!! That's an outstanding troll job!!!

[Coach34]

Indiana back to back playoffs, SMU playoffs last year, Vandy this year, Virginia is on the cusp of a playoff because of NIL, Ole Miss. The name of the game is players and to get them is to pay them.

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

[TrapGame]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

And what Lebby did with a team bought off Temu is pretty good. We were literally two plays from being 7-5 this season. I wonder what he and Arnett could do with a $25mil team?

[STATEBALLIN]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

Sooo many hardheaded, unable to accept the change of NIL era football.

[Maroon Glasses]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

Agree with you but it doesn't matter what the fans think. It's up to our boosters and administration to come up with the money. If we keep spending 15 mil then it's a huge failure on their part and that's what worries me.

[Quaoarsking]

Totally disagree. Everywhere you look there is optimism and positive vibes about our program. We werent going to hire a name because we dont have the NIL other programs do. That is now the #1 thing coaches look at when viewing jobs. Why would a DC put his name on the line for a weak NIL budget?

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby."

Outside our program, nobody thinks he's doing a good job either. Try asking about him on CFB reddit - no one is impressed.


Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

Everyone understands this. Everyone is extremely aware that we have less money than the rest of the SEC and probably will. That's why it's so important to have a coach whose strong suit is in-game coaching. Unfortunately, we have the opposite of that. A good gameday coach would have won 7 or 8 games this year even with our $15M roster.

If Lebby had done that, there really would be optimism and positive vibes all around the program.

[Maroon Glasses]

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby."

Outside our program, nobody thinks he's doing a good job either. Try asking about him on CFB reddit - no one is impressed.



Everyone understands this. Everyone is extremely aware that we have less money than the rest of the SEC and probably will. That's why it's so important to have a coach whose strong suit is in-game coaching. Unfortunately, we have the opposite of that. A good gameday coach would have won 7 or 8 games this year even with our $15M roster.

If Lebby had done that, there really would be optimism and positive vibes all around the program.

Spot on. Unless something drastically changes.. we will never be able to consistently spend 30 mill a year. Coaching still matters for programs like ours.

At Ohio St, Texas, A&M, TT, etc.... maybe coaching doesn't matter as much. Those schools can spend 30-40 mill every year and not think twice. We unfortunately can't.

[Coach34]

Sooo many hardheaded, unable to accept the change of NIL era football.

Right. We lost on DC applicants because of our NIL- literally nothing to do with Lebby or where he stands at State. DC's want dudes and in this era you need money to buy dudes.

[Quaoarsking]

Right. We lost on DC applicants because of our NIL- literally nothing to do with Lebby or where he stands at State. DC's want dudes and in this era you need money to buy dudes.

Everything you keep saying makes Lebby an even worse fit for us. If our NIL situation is as permanently hopeless as you always say, then gameday coaching is the only thing that will let us steal a few extra wins over the years.

[Coach34]

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby..

I'm in Louisiana and literally everyone I come on contact with talks about how they see us on the rise. Liked our offense.

Our AD doesnt look down on our coach when he is coaching a bottom tier budget team. Neither does other people. That 3 yr contract Arnett got tells me Lebby will be our coach in 2027

[Quaoarsking]

I'm in Louisiana and literally everyone I come on contact with talks about how they see us on the rise. Liked our offense.

LSU fans loved when we had Croom too. Always praised him.

[sandjunky]

I'm in Louisiana and literally everyone I come on contact with talks about how they see us on the rise. Liked our offense.

Our AD doesnt look down on our coach when he is coaching a bottom tier budget team. Neither does other people. That 3 yr contract Arnett got tells me Lebby will be our coach in 2027

Let?s revisit this when we win 3-4 games next year

[Rawdawg]

Everything you keep saying makes Lebby an even worse fit for us. If our NIL situation is as permanently hopeless as you always say, then gameday coaching is the only thing that will let us steal a few extra wins over the years.

Our NIL situation isn?t permanently hopeless but it is the number 1 investment we need to make on campus. I?m talking academics too. Keenum needs to encourage as much money to be donated to NIL as we absolutely can. Everything will benefit from it. Selmon understands this he?s just been playing catch up since he took the job.

[EdwardDrayton]

NIL + Donor Contributions had us ranked 34th in the country at $23M. We are not poor so stop with the bullshit narrative.

[Coach34]

NIL + Donor Contributions had us ranked 34th in the country at $23M. We are not poor so stop with the bullshit narrative.

That is in no way factual

[Coach34]

Let?s revisit this when we win 3-4 games next year

The portal will decide all of this. Dolla bills ya'll

[EdwardDrayton]

That is in no way factual

Total Contributions Rank in SEC -- National ranking in (parenthesis)

1. Texas - $77,974,073 (#1)

2. LSU - $75,929,827 (#2)

3. Georgia - $74,315,945 (#3)

4. Florida - $61,364,272 ((#7)

5. Texas A&M - $54,204,110 ((#9)

6. Alabama - $53,113,300 (#11)

7. Oklahoma - $43,180,134 (#13)

8. Auburn - $36,372,783 (#18)

9. Tennessee - $35,483,274 (#19)

10. Ole Miss - $34,409,478 (#20)

11. South Carolina - $33,833,869 (#21)

12. Missouri - $29,555,704 (#24)

13. Kentucky - $27,938,279 (#29)

14. Mississippi State - $22,612,228 (#34)

15. Arkansas - $22,165,941 (#35)

16. Vanderbilt - N/A (Private School)

[Quaoarsking]

The portal will decide all of this. Dolla bills ya'll

It also can come down to in-game decision making. We were good enough at every position except HC to be 7-5 this year.

It's completely plausible that it happens again next year and we Lebby ourselves into 1 or 2 or 3 fewer wins than we're capable of.

[BeardoMSU]

The portal will decide all of this. Dolla bills ya'll

What i said....

[PGHBulldogBG]

Two things can be true at the same time. Our NIL is not bad in the scope of college football but it is compared to other SEC team. At the same time, Lebby made some bad coaching decisions against UF and Texas. Our NIL is more on the lines of an above average ACC and big 12 team. If we want to compete in this league we need our boosters to open up the pocket book

[Coach34]

Total Contributions Rank in SEC -- National ranking in (parenthesis)

1. Texas - $77,974,073 (#1)

2. LSU - $75,929,827 (#2)

3. Georgia - $74,315,945 (#3)

4. Florida - $61,364,272 ((#7)

5. Texas A&M - $54,204,110 ((#9)

6. Alabama - $53,113,300 (#11)

7. Oklahoma - $43,180,134 (#13)

8. Auburn - $36,372,783 (#18)

9. Tennessee - $35,483,274 (#19)

10. Ole Miss - $34,409,478 (#20)

11. South Carolina - $33,833,869 (#21)

12. Missouri - $29,555,704 (#24)

13. Kentucky - $27,938,279 (#29)

14. Mississippi State - $22,612,228 (#34)

15. Arkansas - $22,165,941 (#35)

16. Vanderbilt - N/A (Private School)

Link? And the fact that you cant even include Vandy makes it ridiculous

[Coach34]

Two things can be true at the same time. Our NIL is not bad in the scope of college football but it is compared to other SEC team. At the same time, Lebby made some bad coaching decisions against UF and Texas. Our NIL is more on the lines of an above average ACC and big 12 team. If we want to compete in this league we need our boosters to open up the pocket book

You can blame Lebby for Texas 100%

The Tenn/Fla blame is based on maybe's. He could have bled the clock and won the Texas game maybe in spite of our stupidity hitting the QB late. Lebby didnt hit the QB I'll remind you.

But the Tenn and Fla games were tooth and nail. We didnt make the plays when needed. It happens

[EdwardDrayton]

Link? And the fact that you cant even include Vandy makes it ridiculous

Hurts to get called out, huh.

[KB21]

It also can come down to in-game decision making. We were good enough at every position except HC to be 7-5 this year.

It's completely plausible that it happens again next year and we Lebby ourselves into 1 or 2 or 3 fewer wins than we're capable of.

No we weren't. We were in a position to win 7 games because of the head coach.

[Coach34]

Hurts to get called out, huh.

No- it makes you look dumb when you cant provide a link or even understand that Candy pays their QB 2MM while our QB entire room makes less than that

[CaptainObvious]

Now do B1G and Indiana specifically!

[PGHBulldogBG]

You can blame Lebby for Texas 100%

The Tenn/Fla blame is based on maybe's. He could have bled the clock and won the Texas game maybe in spite of our stupidity hitting the QB late. Lebby didnt hit the QB I'll remind you.

But the Tenn and Fla games were tooth and nail. We didnt make the plays when needed. It happens

I don?t really blame Lebby for the Tenn game. They clearly had a talent advantage and just had a better team. I actually thought he did the best he could there. His decision to not kick the field goal against UF though was clearly on him and his decision in the 2nd quarter to run the same QB run over and over was poor coaching.

[CaptainObvious]

No- it makes you look dumb when you cant provide a link or even understand that Candy pays their QB 2MM while our QB entire room makes less than that

So you think if we over-paid our QBs we would have been better? 😳😳

[PGHBulldogBG]

Now do B1G and Indiana specifically!

Indiana is an outlier because they struck gold with Cignetti. Selmon turned me off when he didn?t hire him when he had the chance, but the chance of finding a Cignetti really is a needle in a haystack and we have never been able to do that with coaching in any sport outside of maybe Vic Schaefer

[TrapGame]

It also can come down to in-game decision making. We were good enough at every position except HC to be 7-5 this year.

It's completely plausible that it happens again next year and we Lebby ourselves into 1 or 2 or 3 fewer wins than we're capable of.

Are you high?!

This is the dumbest thing I think you've ever posted.

[EdwardDrayton]

No- it makes you look dumb when you cant provide a link or even understand that Candy pays their QB 2MM while our QB entire room makes less than that

Show us your numbers big guy. I sure as hell didn't make mine up.

[vv83]

It also can come down to in-game decision making. We were good enough at every position except HC to be 7-5 this year.

It's completely plausible that it happens again next year and we Lebby ourselves into 1 or 2 or 3 fewer wins than we're capable of.

hahahahahaha

[Todd4State]

If we're going to make a terrible hire at DC we might as well double down and give him a terrible contract to go with it.

[vv83]

Are you high?!

This is the dumbest thing I think you've ever posted.

spit out my drink when i saw that. delusional

[Rawdawg]

So you think if we over-paid our QBs we would have been better? 😳😳

No, I think he?s saying we got what we could afford. I would much prefer to drink single malt scotch every night but as is I drink a lot of domestic beer?

[PGHBulldogBG]

If we're going to make a terrible hire at DC we might as well double down and give him a terrible contract to go with it.

We do tend to fall into a pattern of making some bizarre decisions where if our first couple choices don?t work out that we make a panic hire, but there are other good DCs out there who don?t have the resume of Durkin but could still be good options. I still think we should?ve went after Jessie Bobbit or someone who is young and energetic that has been successful at every stop he has been instead of settling and making a panic decision

[Quaoarsking]

Are you high?!

This is the dumbest thing I think you've ever posted.

You deny that we should have won the Texas and Florida games, but Lebby choked them away with questionable decisions?

[EdwardDrayton]

No, I think he?s saying we got what we could afford. I would much prefer to drink single malt scotch every night but as is I drink a lot of domestic beer?

He's always saying we can't be better cuz we're poor and we need more money. That's bullshit. We're not poor AND we're not getting value for the money we are spending. We're low in the SEC but not overall.

[Coach34]

Show us your numbers big guy. I sure as hell didn't make mine up.

https://www.essentiallysports.com/ncaa-college-football-news-diego-pavias-four-five-m-nil-story-takes-surprising-turn-as-industry-insider-refutes-sec-offer-claim/

aGAIN- post your numbers

[Quaoarsking]

It's pretty wild how Lebby supporters will almost always admit that he's not a very good "gameday coach" but when you point out that if he were a good one instead of a bad one we would have gone 7-5 instead of 5-7, they start flailing and namecalling.

[Rawdawg]

He's always saying we can't be better cuz we're poor and we need more money. That's bullshit. We're not poor AND we're not getting value for the money we are spending. We're low in the SEC but not overall.

He?s not wrong. The thing that everyone has trouble with understanding is how bad the roster was in Lebby?s first year. It has taken an entire portal cycle to field a team that is competitive in the SEC. We spent $15 million this year on a roster that can at least play competitively for 3 quarters in most sec games. Thats where the other $10?$15 million we didn?t spend comes in. The 4th quarter of sec games. We didn?t have the depth to play a sec schedule. And we didn?t have the star power on the d line either.

We got the value for what we paid we didn?t pay enough to finish the job.

[BeardoMSU]

You can blame Lebby for Texas 100%

The Tenn/Fla blame is based on maybe's. He could have bled the clock and won the Texas game maybe in spite of our stupidity hitting the QB late. Lebby didnt hit the QB I'll remind you.

But the Tenn and Fla games were tooth and nail. We didnt make the plays when needed. It happens

He should've benched #2 and started the kid...

[Quaoarsking]

He?s not wrong. The thing that everyone has trouble with understanding is how bad the roster was in Lebby?s first year. It has taken an entire portal cycle to field a team that is competitive in the SEC. We spent $15 million this year on a roster that can at least play competitively for 3 quarters in most sec games. Thats where the other $10?$15 million we didn?t spend comes in. The 4th quarter of sec games. We didn?t have the depth to play a sec schedule. And we didn?t have the star power on the d line either.

We got the value for what we paid we didn?t pay enough to finish the job.

We didn't need a better roster to go 7-5. I mean, sure it would have helped, but Lebby choked that away.

[EdwardDrayton]

https://www.essentiallysports.com/ncaa-college-football-news-diego-pavias-four-five-m-nil-story-takes-surprising-turn-as-industry-insider-refutes-sec-offer-claim/

aGAIN- post your numbers

Why are you trying to divert attention with Pavia. So Vandy spends more than us. So we're 35th in the country instead of 34. Again, we're low in the SEC but we're not poor. More money will help but we're not getting value for what we're already spending.

[TrapGame]

You deny that we should have won the Texas and Florida games, but Lebby choked them away with questionable decisions?

LOL!

Bruh, there's a missed field goal and three 15 yard penalties not on Lebby.

And I'll do you one better. We make the field goal vs Tennessee and we win without going into over time.

Hell, if we didn't have a defense in bottom three of the SEC we would have won 7 games.

[Rawdawg]

We didn't need a better roster to go 7-5. I mean, sure it would have helped, but Lebby choked that away.

A better roster allows you to be imperfect and still win. With the roster we have there is very little room for error, especially when every conference game but 1 we?re playing a more talented team.

[Quaoarsking]

LOL!

Bruh, there's a missed field goal and three 15 yard penalties not on Lebby.

And I'll do you one better. We make the field goal vs Tennessee and we win without going into over time.

Hell, if we didn't have a defense in bottom three of the SEC we would have won 7 games.

And despite everything you listed, if he just lines up and kicks the FG instead of calling a questionable pass play against Florida, we probably win. Or at least everyone doesn't blame him so hard for the loss if we miss the FG.

Similarly, all he had to do was run out the clock against Texas and he kept snapping it with 10-20 seconds left on the clock.

Are those the only reasons we lost the games? No. We could have spent more money on a better roster and maybe we could have won those games in spite of Lebby. (Of course, then maybe we're close enough against Missouri and Ole Miss for Lebby to choke those away.) But I don't know if the money problem is ever going to be fixable. The "head coach makes bad decision" problem is fixable, and it's up to Lebby whether it's fixable with him or fixable with a new coach.

[Coach34]

Why are you trying to divert attention with Pavia. So Vandy spends more than us. So we're 35th in the country instead of 34. Again, we're low in the SEC but we're not poor. More money will help but we're not getting value for what we're already spending.

because we spent $15MM. The rest of the SEC spent way more than us. We are Vandy now circa 1980. We arent spending like the rest of the SEC does

[Quaoarsking]

A better roster allows you to be imperfect and still win. With the roster we have there is very little room for error, especially when every conference game but 1 we?re playing a more talented team.

Sure, but I think it's a lot easier to fix a problem of in-game decision making than it is to fix the problem that Mississippi is a poor and low-population state. The question is whether Lebby can fix it, or if we'll have someone else fix it in 2027.

[Quaoarsking]

because we spent $15MM. The rest of the SEC spent way more than us. We are Vandy now circa 1980. We arent spending like the rest of the SEC does

Everyone understands this. That's why we have to find other ways to win, including not choking away the games we do have a chance to win. We aren't going to out-talent anyone.

[DEDawg]

I think it is a brain dead take to say any coach besides Lebby has us 7-5. I guess the assumption would be we win 2 out of 3 of Florida Texas and Tenn. We averaged 31 points in those 3 games. So Qs argument is that while Lebby had us competitive in those 3 games against much more talented rosters, everything that went wrong was on Lebby but everything that went right to have us competitive against much more talented rosters is disregarded. Doesnt make sense to me.

[Rawdawg]

Everyone understands this. That's why we have to find other ways to win, including not choking away the games we do have a chance to win. We aren't going to out-talent anyone.

But what you?re missing is that in this era of college football non traditional schools are out talenting their way to wins and the playoffs. And they are doing it by buying rosters.

[Rawdawg]

Sure, but I think it's a lot easier to fix a problem of in-game decision making than it is to fix the problem that Mississippi is a poor and low-population state. The question is whether Lebby can fix it, or if we'll have someone else fix it in 2027.

7-5 and the liberty bowl is great and all but does that really make shit? Given our current talent it will not matter who the coach is to coach us from 5 and 7 to 10 and 2.

[Quaoarsking]

I think it is a brain dead take to say any coach besides Lebby has us 7-5. I guess the assumption would be we win 2 out of 3 of Florida Texas and Tenn. We averaged 31 points in those 3 games. So Qs argument is that while Lebby had us competitive in those 3 games against much more talented rosters, everything that went wrong was on Lebby but everything that went right to have us competitive against much more talented rosters is disregarded. Doesnt make sense to me.

Nobody has said that any coach besides Lebby gets us to 7-5. I said a good coach would have gone 7-5. That's a monumentally different point.

[Quaoarsking]

7-5 and the liberty bowl is great and all but does that really make shit? Given our current talent it will not matter who the coach is to coach us from 5 and 7 to 10 and 2.

I think given the last 2 years, I would have been very happy with Lebby if we'd made it to 7-5, and damn, we were so close...

[Coach34]

But what you?re missing is that in this era of college football non traditional schools are out talenting their way to wins and the playoffs. And they are doing it by buying rosters.

Aka Texas Tech spent $35MM and is now Top 4.

It really doesn’t matter who the coach is. What is your budget for playas???

[Cowbeller]

How does every thread turn into Q just rambling about we were talented enough to be 7-5. Dude typing a bunch of words over and over do not make you right, rest your bell

[Quaoarsking]

Aka Texas Tech spent $35MM and is now Top 4.

It really doesn’t matter who the coach is. What is your budget for playas???

It absolutely matters who your coach is. Good players have overcome bad coaching sometimes, but you're still seeing good coaches outperform their talent level and bad coaches underperform over the course of seasons and longer.

[maroonmania]

Whether or not you are in favor of bringing Arnett back, can someone explain to me why you would need to give someone a 3 year contract that currently is not even actively coaching anywhere? And didn't he leave UNLV under some supposedly disturbing circumstances?? Just asking.

[confucius say]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

There are numerous playoff teams that didn't spend 25 million unh?

[confucius say]

because we spent $15MM. The rest of the SEC spent way more than us. We are Vandy now circa 1980. We arent spending like the rest of the SEC does

Please list what each of the 16 teams spent, for clarity.

[confucius say]

Whether or not you are in favor of bringing Arnett back, can someone explain to me why you would need to give someone a 3 year contract that currently is not even actively coaching anywhere? And didn't he leave UNLV under some supposedly disturbing circumstances?? Just asking.

For perceived continuity and recruiting.
He can be on a 10 year deal. The only thing that matters is the buyout.

[Activated Alpha]

**** C34, give it a rest. We know State is poor. Unless some alumni hits the life lottery and invents the cure for cancer, we will not consistently have 25mm+ rosters every year. It?s just not financially feasible to rely on the limited millionaire boosters we have to continue doing that

[Rawdawg]

There are numerous playoff teams that didn't spend 25 million unh?

Tulane didn?t.

[HoopsDawg]

Aka Texas Tech spent $35MM and is now Top 4.

It really doesn’t matter who the coach is. What is your budget for playas???

Ehh, coaching still matters

[EdwardDrayton]

because we spent $15MM. The rest of the SEC spent way more than us. We are Vandy now circa 1980. We arent spending like the rest of the SEC does

We are low in the SEC. However, where did we end up, outside the top fifty in the overall rankings. We rank better than that from a spending standpoint. Now not allocating the same percentage of the funds to football as other schools would affect it but I highly doubt we're doing that. Bottom line: more money will help but we need better value from what we're already spending.

[HoopsDawg]

I think given the last 2 years, I would have been very happy with Lebby if we'd made it to 7-5, and damn, we were so close...

You said you would be happy if we beat Arkansas. You lied.

[confucius say]

**** C34, give it a rest. We know State is poor. Unless some alumni hits the life lottery and invents the cure for cancer, we will not consistently have 25mm+ rosters every year. It?s just not financially feasible to rely on the limited millionaire boosters we have to continue doing that

We're actually going to be close to 25 million.
Which is almost double what Indiana spent this year per 247

[Quaoarsking]

You said you would be happy if we beat Arkansas. You lied.

Cry me a river.

[EdwardDrayton]

We're actually going to be close to 25 million.
Which is almost double what Indiana spent this year per 247

Is that total for all sports or just for football? Is that just NIL or includes donor contributions also? For 23-24 we were at $23MM total. So if we spent $15MM on football then $8MM went to other sports. That ranked us 34th in total spending. We sure did not realize that kind of performance value last year.

[confucius say]

Is that total for all sports or just for football? Is that just NIL or includes donor contributions also? For 23-24 we were at $23MM total. So if we spent $15MM on football then $8MM went to other sports. That ranked us 34th in total spending. We sure did not realize that kind of performance value last year.

We will spend over 20 million on just football.
15-16 million of that will be rev share, meaning State Excellence Fund. The rest will be NIL, meaning from the collective.

[ArrowDawg]

If we're going to make a terrible hire at DC we might as well double down and give him a terrible contract to go with it.

Makes sense......for us.

[CadaverDawg]

Total Contributions Rank in SEC -- National ranking in (parenthesis)

1. Texas - $77,974,073 (#1)

2. LSU - $75,929,827 (#2)

3. Georgia - $74,315,945 (#3)

4. Florida - $61,364,272 ((#7)

5. Texas A&M - $54,204,110 ((#9)

6. Alabama - $53,113,300 (#11)

7. Oklahoma - $43,180,134 (#13)

8. Auburn - $36,372,783 (#18)

9. Tennessee - $35,483,274 (#19)

10. Ole Miss - $34,409,478 (#20)

11. South Carolina - $33,833,869 (#21)

12. Missouri - $29,555,704 (#24)

13. Kentucky - $27,938,279 (#29)

14. Mississippi State - $22,612,228 (#34)

15. Arkansas - $22,165,941 (#35)

16. Vanderbilt - N/A (Private School)

Kinda proving Coach's point on this. We beat literally everyone we outspent this season. 4 non con's and Arkansas, and lost to everyone that outspent us. (Assuming Arizona State didn't outspend us, which they may have)

Arguing that "we may be at the bottom of the SEC but not the country!", when 9 of our games every year going forward are SEC GAMES, is not a good argument. We are poor overall bc we play in the SEC and are dead last, or second to last.

So Lebby actually did a jam up job to have us in nail biters with #1, #4, and #9.

Especially with a bottom tier budget and a nincompoop as DC. Matter of fact, the Hutzler hire may be his only negative at this point considering the budget and cupboard he took over.

[Turfdawg67]

I think it is a brain dead take to say any coach besides Lebby has us 7-5. I guess the assumption would be we win 2 out of 3 of Florida Texas and Tenn. We averaged 31 points in those 3 games. So Qs argument is that while Lebby had us competitive in those 3 games against much more talented rosters, everything that went wrong was on Lebby but everything that went right to have us competitive against much more talented rosters is disregarded. Doesnt make sense to me.

Exactly. Totally ignores the fact that we were IN position to beat TX and UF was because of Lebby to begin with... and stand toe to toe with TN and beat ASU.

[Quaoarsking]

Exactly. Totally ignores the fact that we were IN position to beat TX and UF was because of Lebby to begin with... and stand toe to toe with TN and beat ASU.

Florida was a bad team this year! There's nothing impressive about a close loss to them. Not only did they fire their coach, 2 teams who beat them also fired their coaches.

I can get the argument that playing Texas close is at least something in Lebby's favor, but I still go back to the fact that all he had to do is run out the clock, and he just couldn't do it.

[bulldawg28]

Kinda proving Coach's point on this. We beat literally everyone we outspent this season. 4 non con's and Arkansas, and lost to everyone that outspent us. (Assuming Arizona State didn't outspend us, which they may have)

Arguing that "we may be at the bottom of the SEC but not the country!", when 9 of our games every year going forward are SEC GAMES, is not a good argument. We are poor overall bc we play in the SEC and are dead last, or second to last.

So Lebby actually did a jam up job to have us in nail biters with #1, #4, and #9.

Especially with a bottom tier budget and a nincompoop as DC. Matter of fact, the Hutzler hire may be his only negative at this point considering the budget and cupboard he took over.

Money wasn't the reason we lost to Texas, Florida, or TN. Our coach wet the bed.

[The Federalist Engineer]

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

The kid on the left, looking up to the Pirate is the TTU NIL King. He is something like 25M of the 35M they spend.

https://dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/v2/H2U6EPGC766R2GEUXMCBJ2I4NI.jpg?auth=45b3b7ff1b011d bdae85b0466ba8f22077c8daf394de3057a43a83d772f22ea9&quality=80&width=830

[DownwardDawg]

Aka Texas Tech spent $35MM and is now Top 4.

It really doesn?t matter who the coach is. What is your budget for playas???

So how much will it cost us to get to top 25? That's where the playoff is headed.

[DownwardDawg]

How much are we paying Zach?

[confucius say]

Total Contributions Rank in SEC -- National ranking in (parenthesis)

1. Texas - $77,974,073 (#1)

2. LSU - $75,929,827 (#2)

3. Georgia - $74,315,945 (#3)

4. Florida - $61,364,272 ((#7)

5. Texas A&M - $54,204,110 ((#9)

6. Alabama - $53,113,300 (#11)

7. Oklahoma - $43,180,134 (#13)

8. Auburn - $36,372,783 (#18)

9. Tennessee - $35,483,274 (#19)

10. Ole Miss - $34,409,478 (#20)

11. South Carolina - $33,833,869 (#21)

12. Missouri - $29,555,704 (#24)

13. Kentucky - $27,938,279 (#29)

14. Mississippi State - $22,612,228 (#34)

15. Arkansas - $22,165,941 (#35)

16. Vanderbilt - N/A (Private School)

What are these numbers exactly? And from where?

They aren't roster prices for 2025.

[Turfdawg67]

Florida was a bad team this year! There's nothing impressive about a close loss to them. Not only did they fire their coach, 2 teams who beat them also fired their coaches.

I can get the argument that playing Texas close is at least something in Lebby's favor, but I still go back to the fact that all he had to do is run out the clock, and he just couldn't do it.

Their roster had better players, they spent more in NIL and it was on the road. Were they playing bad, yes. Were they the better team in paper, also yes. Was it Lebby's play calling that got us in position to win, yes. Was it a dumb decision to throw the ball at the end of the game? Yes. Should Shapen had thrown it away so we could kick the FG instead of throwing it to a D lineman? Yes

[Bdawg]

That may be true, but the rest of the college football world thinks Lebby is a dead man walking. There's no other reason every DC candidate on our short list would turn us down, resulting in us crawling back to Arnett. And frankly, he should be on the hot seat. One SEC win in 2 years isn't good enough...and he has an extra SEC game on the schedule starting next season. I understand the reasons we are waiting, but bringing back Arnett does nothing to convince me that we won't be doing a head coaching search this time next year.

I think our portal recruiting has way more bearing than the DC, if Lebby and crew will be here next year. Not that DC doesn?t count but the good players will count more.

[R2Dawg]

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

That is one example; name another.

Also can you explain Indiana with a 49 and 36 ranked last two signings?

[Rawdawg]

Florida was a bad team this year! There's nothing impressive about a close loss to them. Not only did they fire their coach, 2 teams who beat them also fired their coaches.

I can get the argument that playing Texas close is at least something in Lebby's favor, but I still go back to the fact that all he had to do is run out the clock, and he just couldn't do it.

Florida was a bad team this year. They were also more talented than us. Florida also won the national championship in basketball last year because of the transfer portal and NIL.

[Rawdawg]

That is one example; name another.

Also can you explain Indiana with a 49 and 36 ranked last two signings?

Indiana signed a high 4 star qb transfer who is the odds on favorite to win the Heisman.

[Coursesuper]

That is one example; name another.

Also can you explain Indiana with a 49 and 36 ranked last two signings?

Indiana built a solid foundation last year and was able to use the portal to fill immediate needs, not trying to completely overhaul a roster like we have to do. So ranking don’t always tell the whole story. I’m not saying the guy can’t coach because they are tight and gelled. Play fast hard and together.

[KOdawg1]

Tough day for the Air Raid cult who seemingly doesn't have the brain capacity to understand that we're bringing back Arnett to be our DC, which he was quite good at, and not our HC.

[BB30]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

Ive rarely agree with your takes in the past but this one seems like the easiest thing to understand and yet our fanbase just can't wrap their heads around it.

We had no talent on the defensive line, the amount of giving up certain things and taking certain risks in our scheming this year was to cover up a pretty bad DL that lost its only legit D lineman two games in. It's hard to field a competent D when you don't have horses in the trenches.

Bottom line is if you want to see an improved defense you have to go out and buy the dudes.

Arnett will do his job well if we get him the horses, if we don't we'll be singing the same song and dance.

Lebby is the guy we just need to get a few more dudes on both lines. We don't have the talent to survive bad in game decisions that all coaches make.

[Jarius]

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

Our 2025 roster was 17 million and we did not spend all of our money because we couldn't get players that were worth the money we had left to accept it. You have to show proof of concept to players. I think we have done that and should be able to get better players this go round. It was not easy to get players with options to agree to come here after a 2-10 season.

[Coursesuper]

Ive rarely agree with your takes in the past but this one seems like the easiest thing to understand and yet our fanbase just can't wrap their heads around it.

We had no talent on the defensive line, the amount of giving up certain things and taking certain risks in our scheming this year was to cover up a pretty bad DL that lost its only legit D lineman two games in. It's hard to field a competent D when you don't have horses in the trenches.

Bottom line is if you want to see an improved defense you have to go out and buy the dudes.

Arnett will do his job well if we get him the horses, if we don't we'll be singing the same song and dance.

Lebby is the guy we just need to get a few more dudes on both lines. We don't have the talent to survive bad in game decisions that all coaches make.

Yes, this is on point and it’s just this simple.

[BankerDog]

People are beating up Lebby because they had no expectations for him this year. Literally every single one on this board thought he?d only win 3 games this year. You all thought that. However he went out and put together a team that had us four plays away from winning 8. The problem? He was never suppose to be in that situation per our fans. We got to see some of the younger HC shortcomings, which given time he will learn from. Look everyone hooted and holler about him getting some former DCs with experience on staff: he did that. You all wanted Hutzler gone: he let his best recruiter go.

Jimmies and Joes mixed with good coaching win. Obviously we have some good coaching but need more Jimmies and Joes along the line on both sides. We need about $14MM invested in the lines alone. We need more analyst off field. Vandy has more analysts then we do?

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

[Rawdawg]

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

You factor in that the #35 NIL ranking is for this team and not compounding over a few years and it shows how low the talent level and depth truly is. Because we were no where close to 35 last year.

[Quaoarsking]

People are beating up Lebby because they had no expectations for him this year. Literally every single one on this board thought he?d only win 3 games this year. You all thought that.

That's just a rewriting of history. Plenty of posters were expecting 5, 6, 7, etc., wins.

And (I can't believe I have to say this again) you have to change your expectations when you learn more about the opponents. If we'd known that Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Tennessee would all be significantly worse than their preseason expectations, we all would have picked more wins.

[Brobi-wan]

I don?t really blame Lebby for the Tenn game. They clearly had a talent advantage and just had a better team. I actually thought he did the best he could there. His decision to not kick the field goal against UF though was clearly on him and his decision in the 2nd quarter to run the same QB run over and over was poor coaching.

Hard to blame Lebby when Shapen through a pick six and had a strip sack

[BlackSailsDawg]

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

Yep.One of their billionaire boosters did an interview. Stated plainly they saw an opportunity and knew it could be limited in the future by new laws/rules. That the time was now why there are no rules to go out and "BUY" the team we need. Literally his word.

As a result, they just landed a 5 star DE out of the state of Georgia. The #2 player in the state of Georgia.

MSU fans thought that this would make us all even. I specifically remember MSU beat guys selling that point. But we all knew that we will never out spend a lot of teams and that the pecking order was going to change.

[BlackSailsDawg]

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

Agree on some points. But I disagree on the lucky part. I think we over achieved to be in positions to win.

[Turfdawg67]

That's just a rewriting of history. Plenty of posters were expecting 5, 6, 7, etc., wins.

And (I can't believe I have to say this again) you have to change your expectations when you learn more about the opponents. If we'd known that Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Tennessee would all be significantly worse than their preseason expectations, we all would have picked more wins.

You don't have to keep saying this. We've read it all 500 times. Just because you repeat something over and over doesn't make it true. YOU believe it and that's fine, but believing we all think that way is projecting.

[Quaoarsking]

You don't have to keep saying this. We've read it all 500 times. Just because you repeat something over and over doesn't make it true. YOU believe it and that's fine, but believing we all think that way is projecting.

You're fussing at the wrong person. The problem is that people keep saying over and over and over that Lebby was actually good because "nobody expected us to be as good as 5-7." You can't blame me for responding to something people put out there that I think is objectively wrong. Get mad at the people who keep starting the conversation.

I'd be perfectly happy not to discuss Lebby again until August, but if other people keep bringing him up and keep making the same old bad arguments, then I'll join in just to represent the other side of the debate.

[Coach34]

Ehh, coaching still matters

I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

[HoopsDawg]

I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

Glad you brought up Indiana. If Billy Napier was coaching this exact same team, they would be 7-5.

[BuckyIsAB****]

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby."

Outside our program, nobody thinks he's doing a good job either. Try asking about him on CFB reddit - no one is impressed.



Everyone understands this. Everyone is extremely aware that we have less money than the rest of the SEC and probably will. That's why it's so important to have a coach whose strong suit is in-game coaching. Unfortunately, we have the opposite of that. A good gameday coach would have won 7 or 8 games this year even with our $15M roster.

If Lebby had done that, there really would be optimism and positive vibes all around the program.

Lebby underachieved

[BuckyIsAB****]

I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

So Shapen threw and fumbled as many TDs to the other team as Indianas WRs did? But he played the entire year? Tell me more how 35 mil could have changed that

[Coursesuper]

So Shapen threw and fumbled as many TDs to the other team as Indianas WRs did? But he played the entire year? Tell me more how 35 mil could have changed that

I know you’re gonna say “no way”, I mean you are a coach. But it just might have bought enough of an O line to keep him from ending up on his ass more often than not. Maybe be able to run the ball effectively when we needed to, and to possibly have quality depth.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I know you’re gonna say “no way”, I mean you are a coach. But it just might have bought enough of an O line to keep him from ending up on his ass more often than not. Maybe be able to run the ball effectively when we needed to, and to possibly have quality depth.

Show me the OL that made him fumble the ball or made him the all time leader in pick 6s in school history

[BuckyIsAB****]

Will rogers fumbled on the foot line vs ole miss (the last time we beat them) and it was totally 100000 percent on him

[Coursesuper]

Show me the OL that made him fumble the ball or made him the all time leader in pick 6s in school history

You know it’s not that simple, you know it’s a 22 man game, that’s a straw man argument. 74 was a lookout block waiting to happen that lead directly to a scoop and score just in that game. That’s just one example. You know exactly why. But hey don’t let that get in the way. I thought you were “out” anyway?

[Coach34]

Show me the OL that made him fumble the ball or made him the all time leader in pick 6s in school history

Well just maybe if the RT could have at least slowed down the DE it wouldnt have been a fumble. Let's make sure and remember even our freshman phenom was sacked 3 times in the Egg and Tenn's DL was alot better at getting to the QB than Mississippi's

[DEDawg]

That's just a rewriting of history. Plenty of posters were expecting 5, 6, 7, etc., wins.

And (I can't believe I have to say this again) you have to change your expectations when you learn more about the opponents. If we'd known that Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Tennessee would all be significantly worse than their preseason expectations, we all would have picked more wins.

This is insane. EVERYONE here said 6-6 would be a great year and 7-5 would be coach of the year territory with 5 wins being a decent year. And of the 6 teams you listed we beat 2, took 2 to OT, and lost 1 on a last second play so what even is your point

[War Machine Dawg]

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby."

Outside our program, nobody thinks he's doing a good job either. Try asking about him on CFB reddit - no one is impressed.



Everyone understands this. Everyone is extremely aware that we have less money than the rest of the SEC and probably will. That's why it's so important to have a coach whose strong suit is in-game coaching. Unfortunately, we have the opposite of that. A good gameday coach would have won 7 or 8 games this year even with our $15M roster.

If Lebby had done that, there really would be optimism and positive vibes all around the program.

Nailed it. 💯

[BuckyIsAB****]

Well just maybe if the RT could have at least slowed down the DE it wouldnt have been a fumble. Let's make sure and remember even our freshman phenom was sacked 3 times in the Egg and Tenn's DL was alot better at getting to the QB than Mississippi's

Yeah and he didnt fumble it or throw a pick 6. Point exactly

[Quaoarsking]

This is insane. EVERYONE here said 6-6 would be a great year and 7-5 would be coach of the year territory with 5 wins being a decent year. And of the 6 teams you listed we beat 2, took 2 to OT, and lost 1 on a last second play so what even is your point

I don't understand why this concept is so alien to people. Regardless of what you thought at the beginning of the year, if you thought 4-8 would be great, 5-7, 6-6, 8-4, whatever, any threshold to be a "great" year has to be adjusted once you learn that the schedule wasn't nearly as hard as most people thought it would be.

I, like MANY people, thought that 6-6 would be decent, and 5-7 was a minimum to keep his job, but if I'd known the schedule was weaker than I thought, I would have said 7-5 was decent, 6-6 minimum, and 8-4 to be a good season.

[BlackSailsDawg]

Yeah and he didnt fumble it or throw a pick 6. Point exactly

You act as if a pick 6 is all on the QB. LOl.. BTW.. KT threw an INT. He gets sacked on average with Shapen. He passed for a whopping 48%...

[DEDawg]

I don't understand why this concept is so alien to people. Regardless of what you thought at the beginning of the year, if you thought 4-8 would be great, 5-7, 6-6, 8-4, whatever, any threshold to be a "great" year has to be adjusted once you learn that the schedule wasn't nearly as hard as most people thought it would be.

I, like MANY people, thought that 6-6 would be decent, and 5-7 was a minimum to keep his job, but if I'd known the schedule was weaker than I thought, I would have said 7-5 was decent, 6-6 minimum, and 8-4 to be a good season.
Our current SOS now that the season is over is 13. Idk where this notion came from we played an easy schedule. Everyone knew Arkansas and UF were shaky going into the year. USM, Ole Miss, and A&M were all better than expected. The only team you can really argue is Texas and they still were a 9-3 team

[Quaoarsking]

Our current SOS now that the season is over is 13. Idk where this notion came from we played an easy schedule. Everyone knew Arkansas and UF were shaky going into the year. USM and A&M were both better than expected. The only team you can really argue is Texas and they still were a 9-3 team

No one said we have an "easy" schedule. I said that the predictions of 3-9, 4-8, etc., were based on the idea that Florida, Tennessee, Arizona State, and Missouri were going to be ranked teams and Arkansas would at least be a bowl team. Everyone would have added a win or 2 to their predictions if they had known that they would all underperform.

No one would have changed their predictions over A&M because no one expected us to win anyway. No one would have changed their predictions over Southern Miss because everyone still knew we would win.

[Cowbeller]

Dont worry guys. My parlay hit today and we should see results come portal time

[EdwardDrayton]

It absolutely matters who your coach is. Good players have overcome bad coaching sometimes, but you're still seeing good coaches outperform their talent level and bad coaches underperform over the course of seasons and longer.

A&M has spent more money than anyone on everything. They've won one championship. In 1939. Money is not the end all be all.

[EdwardDrayton]

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

You're assuming there is a one to one correlation between spending and performance. There is not.

[EdwardDrayton]

Our current SOS now that the season is over is 13. Idk where this notion came from we played an easy schedule. Everyone knew Arkansas and UF were shaky going into the year. USM, Ole Miss, and A&M were all better than expected. The only team you can really argue is Texas and they still were a 9-3 team

No one can rationally argue we played an easy schedule. I can't even remember the last time we had what anyone would call an easy schedule.

[Homedawg]

Will rogers fumbled on the foot line vs ole miss (the last time we beat them) and it was totally 100000 percent on him

Omg. Totally different. He wasn't knock cold from the blind side. Nor was he when he funlems earlier in the game. Some fumbles are on the qb. Some are on the OL. We had more than our fair share this year that were on the OLine. But glad to see you admit Will did something wrong 3 years later.

[Homedawg]

Nailed it. ��

80 percent or more say fire Lebby? Wow. That's some scientific shit there. But if true proves how damn stupid our fan base is.

[Homedawg]

Yeah and he didnt fumble it or throw a pick 6. Point exactly

But we only scored 19 pts. Is t that the name of the game and the qb's job?? Score points ??

[BuckyIsAB****]

But we only scored 19 pts. Is t that the name of the game and the qb's job?? Score points ??

How many did Shapen score for our opponents? More than any other QB in the history of our school. Lebby hitched his wagon to that. The only time it paid off was vs an Arkansas team that was the only one worse than us. Dude was awful in lebbys signature win too, just got bailed out by their DB tripping and falling. He missed just as many deep balls to Thompson as he hit. The Florida game would be over at half if it wasnt for Blake Lebby

[The Federalist Engineer]

Indiana signed a high 4 star qb transfer who is the odds on favorite to win the Heisman.

Isn't Kromenhoek a 5-Star?

Ole Miss snagged a Ferris State Guy, Vandy has a New Mexico guy, Tennessee was good with a City College of San Francisco guy. Auburn "beat" MSU for Jackson Arnold, turned out to be garbage. LSU snagged MSU's freshman QB, Kiffin is cutting that dude by reflex in Spring. LK's entire reputation is on-the-hook in 2025.

MSU is not that far behind, got to get the right dude. Compare Blake Shapen and Bryce Underwood too laugh. Imagine Shapen with an elite OL, like Underwood has.