Todd4State
11-29-2014, 11:10 PM
Today was a bad day for us. No two ways about it. Today reminds me a lot of 1997 in that while yes, we lost a LOT more today than we did that year, losing cost us a bowl, which for us was a big deal at that time. What I want to remind everybody is after that year, our team used that loss as motivation and it led to us winning the SEC West in 1998 and then going 10-2 in 1999. I say that because prior to this year under Dan we had been a 6-8 win team. This was our first year to be nationally relevant in terms of winning a championship. And to win a championship, I think it's a process. And a lot of times that process includes having something "trying" happen like what happened to us today and in 1997. A team has to learn what kind of level of intensity that they have to have to win. The good thing about this year is we had success in winning at LSU in a huge game, so we know how to win and that we can win- which is important too. I fully expect today to motivate our players and our coaches to focus on crossing that championship hurdle.
But part of that process is making some necessary changes and improvements. Dan HAS to change some things for us to get over the top. On offense, I want to see us be more creative. We run the spread option. Well, where is the option? We need to run the option a lot more than we do instead of relying on our QB to just plow into the line all the time. What about the wishbone some? Or the diamond formation? I sincerely hope we play Georgia Tech in a bowl so that maybe Dan can get some ideas for next year. We should have thrown at least twice as many screen passes as we did this year. Another thing I want to see is us actually run up the score on some people. This is not Upward Football- it's the SEC. We don't have to play everyone half the game (cough, 1B's). Now, I understand the importance of getting back-ups playing time, but I don't understand playing them to the point where it's detrimental to the outcome of the game or treating the Egg Bowl like it's UAB. If the back-ups (let's stop the 1B non-sense and save it for the YMCA) are allowing yards, take them OUT of the game at around the 35 yard line and then shut down the threat.
QB- Dak had a great year and he is the best QB I've ever seen at MSU. We need to HELP him out by calling more option plays and allowing him to pitch the ball rather than run the ball up the middle. He does need to work on his passing some. I think this offseason he will get to the next level in that regard. I think calling more screen passes will also help him (and his completion percentage and thus his Heisman chances). Speaking of which, the blessing of him going through the Heisman stuff this year is he will be able to handle it better next year. I don't know if he will win it- and I don't really care about that when compared to say, winning the SEC and the playoffs- but him being in the discussion is good for MSU.
RB- Josh SHOULD come back. Shumpert has emerged lately, and that's really good to see with regards to next year. Having a backfield of Josh and Shumpert will probably be our best tandem since Davis/Bouie. IF DAN WILL LET THEM RUN THE BALL. Having Josh and Shump in a two back set with Dak is pretty scary. Josh needs to work on his pass blocking BAD though. And then there is Aeries Williams who will hopefully get some carries. Of course Holloway will see a good bit of time even though he really should be a KR only guy.
WR- I think Bear is a three year guy. He's going to get even better next year. I like Fred Ross, Fred Brown, and Morrow. Morrow probably starts since he is a senior. I don't have very many complaints about these guys.
SLOT- We need to use whomever more in the pass and run game. Losing Jameon probably hurt in terms of creativity a little bit because I think we kind of forgot about this position. Gray and Myles are both pretty good, and then there is Graham who needs to catch the ball more consistently. These guys should be hauling in at least 5-6 touches a game with at least 3 on screens. The spread was invented for athletes like this so that they can get into space and create individual mismatches. See Percy Harvin.
TE- I guess we'll get a JUCO guy, but I would push Rashun Dixon and Walley to get better. Walley showed decent promise and he's only a sophomore. And sure, he may be nothing more than a possession WR that's big. Dixon to me is a wild card because he is similar to Malcolm Johnson, but he has been playing baseball and has been out of football for awhile. Sallach needs to earn his paycheck and try to get Dixon up to speed. BJ Hammond might surprise some people next year too.
OL- I won't miss Clausell after his poor showing today. He has been kind of a liability for awhile. Day and Beckwith were really good. We must find a LT. I think Clayborn and Desper will be fine at C and G respectively. Both have started SEC games before and did OK. Malone will be good. We need Senior to surprise and improve at LT. Can Damien Robinson come back healthy and will his light switch go on? Someone needs to tell Damien that he has NFL size and ability but he must find a way to get meaner. We need to be more athletic on the o-line. If we get Rankin can he be the answer at LT or is he another JUCO that we have to redshirt?
As far as the defense, Collins I think is the main culprit of the 1A's and 1B's. Again, I get why we need to play the back-ups. I don't get why we have to allow them to fail in terms of allowing points, and I also don't get why we have to play them all as a unit rather than mixing and matching. Like the offense, we need to be a LOT more creative on this side of the ball and more aggressive. We must focus more on tackling fundamentals this offseason. Especially if we insist on being "bend but don't break." We did a good job getting sacks, but not a great job of getting and creating turnovers. If we get more aggressive, we should be able to create some TO's.
DL- Chris Jones is another three year guy. And he will get to start next year! Nick James has to continue what he is doing, and then Nelson Adams is a pretty good player. Quay Evans is a total wild card. It would be nice if he comes back and turns things around. I want to see Jones lose some weight and then move to DE. Again, won't happen. I like AJ Jefferson, and then Ryan Brown is a solid player. This group MUST get better at tackling QB's that are good at scrambling and getting them down on the ground. I like the JUCO DE that's coming in as well- Calvin.
LB- I'm assuming McKinney is gone. Richie has to get bigger and more physical without losing speed. Beniquez is a good player who needs to work on covering receivers a little bit better. Gerri Green is another freak of nature. Zach Jackson belongs on special teams. The JUCO from Holmes, Jung is probably going to be pretty good as well.
CB- Redmond has to learn how to tackle better. Then again, it's not his fault that we keep asking our best cover guy to blitz. WTF? Calhoun is pretty good as well. Cleveland had his moments both good and bad. Hopefully Giles will get to come back healthy.
S- Wow. Awful. Coman and Evans should be 1B's the rest of their lives. Jamal Peters and Brandon Bryant are both freshmen, but I think they will be an upgrade over those two. JT Gray may figure in here if he is not a LB. Market would start, and I would be fine with that, but with his Achilles tendon injury, who knows if he will be available at this point? I wouldn't mind it if Jay Hughes put off law school for a year either.
Special teams has been mediocre ever since Dan has been our head coach. I'm not sure where he gets his ideas from, but it's borderline insane. One of our return guy is a designated blocker. We kick KO's short intentionally- and it has led to us giving up valuable field position on many occasions. We have issues in the return game that has cost us field position time and time again, and then you throw in some inconsistent kicking. DISASTER. HIRE A SPECIAL TEAMS COACH!!!!!!!! Both of our losses, we lost in part because of field position. We need to make special teams a priority rather than Dan Mullen's football chemistry set. Anyone remember the "Mad Dawgs" special teams unit when Jackie was here? BRING THAT BACK!
K- Sobiesk has been good. He will be even better next year.
P- Bell, Cooke, what's the difference? Bell needs to be a little bit more consistent. With a good special teams coach rather than a grad assistant, I bet he will be.
KR- Let's give Gray a shot along with Holloway. I know it's conventional, but it just might work.
PR- Ross did OK. If Gray is better, we should go with him. I'd like to see Redmond get a shot at returning kicks as well.
And then the administration- Scott, enough with the BS. Tell Adidas to give us the 100 year anniversary uniforms and to come up with a road version as well. And then fix the speaker system.
Hail State!
But part of that process is making some necessary changes and improvements. Dan HAS to change some things for us to get over the top. On offense, I want to see us be more creative. We run the spread option. Well, where is the option? We need to run the option a lot more than we do instead of relying on our QB to just plow into the line all the time. What about the wishbone some? Or the diamond formation? I sincerely hope we play Georgia Tech in a bowl so that maybe Dan can get some ideas for next year. We should have thrown at least twice as many screen passes as we did this year. Another thing I want to see is us actually run up the score on some people. This is not Upward Football- it's the SEC. We don't have to play everyone half the game (cough, 1B's). Now, I understand the importance of getting back-ups playing time, but I don't understand playing them to the point where it's detrimental to the outcome of the game or treating the Egg Bowl like it's UAB. If the back-ups (let's stop the 1B non-sense and save it for the YMCA) are allowing yards, take them OUT of the game at around the 35 yard line and then shut down the threat.
QB- Dak had a great year and he is the best QB I've ever seen at MSU. We need to HELP him out by calling more option plays and allowing him to pitch the ball rather than run the ball up the middle. He does need to work on his passing some. I think this offseason he will get to the next level in that regard. I think calling more screen passes will also help him (and his completion percentage and thus his Heisman chances). Speaking of which, the blessing of him going through the Heisman stuff this year is he will be able to handle it better next year. I don't know if he will win it- and I don't really care about that when compared to say, winning the SEC and the playoffs- but him being in the discussion is good for MSU.
RB- Josh SHOULD come back. Shumpert has emerged lately, and that's really good to see with regards to next year. Having a backfield of Josh and Shumpert will probably be our best tandem since Davis/Bouie. IF DAN WILL LET THEM RUN THE BALL. Having Josh and Shump in a two back set with Dak is pretty scary. Josh needs to work on his pass blocking BAD though. And then there is Aeries Williams who will hopefully get some carries. Of course Holloway will see a good bit of time even though he really should be a KR only guy.
WR- I think Bear is a three year guy. He's going to get even better next year. I like Fred Ross, Fred Brown, and Morrow. Morrow probably starts since he is a senior. I don't have very many complaints about these guys.
SLOT- We need to use whomever more in the pass and run game. Losing Jameon probably hurt in terms of creativity a little bit because I think we kind of forgot about this position. Gray and Myles are both pretty good, and then there is Graham who needs to catch the ball more consistently. These guys should be hauling in at least 5-6 touches a game with at least 3 on screens. The spread was invented for athletes like this so that they can get into space and create individual mismatches. See Percy Harvin.
TE- I guess we'll get a JUCO guy, but I would push Rashun Dixon and Walley to get better. Walley showed decent promise and he's only a sophomore. And sure, he may be nothing more than a possession WR that's big. Dixon to me is a wild card because he is similar to Malcolm Johnson, but he has been playing baseball and has been out of football for awhile. Sallach needs to earn his paycheck and try to get Dixon up to speed. BJ Hammond might surprise some people next year too.
OL- I won't miss Clausell after his poor showing today. He has been kind of a liability for awhile. Day and Beckwith were really good. We must find a LT. I think Clayborn and Desper will be fine at C and G respectively. Both have started SEC games before and did OK. Malone will be good. We need Senior to surprise and improve at LT. Can Damien Robinson come back healthy and will his light switch go on? Someone needs to tell Damien that he has NFL size and ability but he must find a way to get meaner. We need to be more athletic on the o-line. If we get Rankin can he be the answer at LT or is he another JUCO that we have to redshirt?
As far as the defense, Collins I think is the main culprit of the 1A's and 1B's. Again, I get why we need to play the back-ups. I don't get why we have to allow them to fail in terms of allowing points, and I also don't get why we have to play them all as a unit rather than mixing and matching. Like the offense, we need to be a LOT more creative on this side of the ball and more aggressive. We must focus more on tackling fundamentals this offseason. Especially if we insist on being "bend but don't break." We did a good job getting sacks, but not a great job of getting and creating turnovers. If we get more aggressive, we should be able to create some TO's.
DL- Chris Jones is another three year guy. And he will get to start next year! Nick James has to continue what he is doing, and then Nelson Adams is a pretty good player. Quay Evans is a total wild card. It would be nice if he comes back and turns things around. I want to see Jones lose some weight and then move to DE. Again, won't happen. I like AJ Jefferson, and then Ryan Brown is a solid player. This group MUST get better at tackling QB's that are good at scrambling and getting them down on the ground. I like the JUCO DE that's coming in as well- Calvin.
LB- I'm assuming McKinney is gone. Richie has to get bigger and more physical without losing speed. Beniquez is a good player who needs to work on covering receivers a little bit better. Gerri Green is another freak of nature. Zach Jackson belongs on special teams. The JUCO from Holmes, Jung is probably going to be pretty good as well.
CB- Redmond has to learn how to tackle better. Then again, it's not his fault that we keep asking our best cover guy to blitz. WTF? Calhoun is pretty good as well. Cleveland had his moments both good and bad. Hopefully Giles will get to come back healthy.
S- Wow. Awful. Coman and Evans should be 1B's the rest of their lives. Jamal Peters and Brandon Bryant are both freshmen, but I think they will be an upgrade over those two. JT Gray may figure in here if he is not a LB. Market would start, and I would be fine with that, but with his Achilles tendon injury, who knows if he will be available at this point? I wouldn't mind it if Jay Hughes put off law school for a year either.
Special teams has been mediocre ever since Dan has been our head coach. I'm not sure where he gets his ideas from, but it's borderline insane. One of our return guy is a designated blocker. We kick KO's short intentionally- and it has led to us giving up valuable field position on many occasions. We have issues in the return game that has cost us field position time and time again, and then you throw in some inconsistent kicking. DISASTER. HIRE A SPECIAL TEAMS COACH!!!!!!!! Both of our losses, we lost in part because of field position. We need to make special teams a priority rather than Dan Mullen's football chemistry set. Anyone remember the "Mad Dawgs" special teams unit when Jackie was here? BRING THAT BACK!
K- Sobiesk has been good. He will be even better next year.
P- Bell, Cooke, what's the difference? Bell needs to be a little bit more consistent. With a good special teams coach rather than a grad assistant, I bet he will be.
KR- Let's give Gray a shot along with Holloway. I know it's conventional, but it just might work.
PR- Ross did OK. If Gray is better, we should go with him. I'd like to see Redmond get a shot at returning kicks as well.
And then the administration- Scott, enough with the BS. Tell Adidas to give us the 100 year anniversary uniforms and to come up with a road version as well. And then fix the speaker system.
Hail State!