Position rankings vs Preseason T25 rankings from ESPN

[blacklistedbully]

So, with QB, RB, WR/TE, OL, DL, & LB rankings in, ESPN has us with an average SEC ranking of 6.8, and Ole Miss with an average ranking of 9.

At the most critical position, QB, they have us as #1 and Ole Miss at #12.

If we disregard differences of only 1 spot, MSU has significantly higher rankings (3 spots or more) in 3 areas (LB, RB, QB), while Ole Miss has just 1 (DL). I think most of us agree that our DL ranking may be a little under-valued, given we are returning guys who weren't technically starters, but were, in fact, legit starter-quality, who happened to be on the "1B unit". We know those guys got playing time equal to starters due to our unique substitution patterns last season.

So, ESPN's "Way Too Early Top 25" (Mark Schlabach) has TSUN at #11 nationally, and MSU unranked. Their FPI poll has TSUN at #8, with us at #22. Makes sense****

[dawgs]

I'd be interested to see how we compare to some of the other ranked sec teams.

[TrapGame]

Well, you know a bat shit crazy QB that doesn't know your system is worth 10 or 12 spots.**

[Coach34]

Not to mention Ole Missus has 4 certain losses @Bammer, @Aubarn, @Fla, and@State- they have to hold serve at home vs A&M, UPig, and LSU

[West Houston Dog]

O

Lost starter at LT/C/RG/TE/SLOT/TB

Slot- we didn't have our starter most of the year. Myles filled in nicely.
TE-hard to replace Johnson with what returns.
OL- the big worry. especially C/RG....we THINK Rankin should win one of the tackle spots. As the OL goes, so goes MSU next season.
TB-to me Schumpert more of a FB, lots of new talent for the TB position but no experience.

D

Lost DE/ 2 DT/2 LB/1 CB, 2 safeties

Smith at DE blossomed and hard to see us initially replacing what he gave us last year. But he stepped up last year so maybe someone else will too:?
DT- we have 3 returning with experience and we must find 2 for a 5 man rotation. Who will that be??
LB- lost 2 studs. R Brown very capable with 2 promising guys to take over Wells spot but with little(Gray) SEC experience.
CB, lost Love but have 2 very good senior CB's. who will be the nickel back(Giles?) ?....I could see both freshman CB's getting playing experience this year.
S-our weakest position last year. 3 very promising talents but no experience to compete for playing time. Cleveland moved to safety? A big question mark.More talent less experience.

Field Goal Kicker- will be someone new. could be crucial 2-3 times a game.

Hard for me to project next year.... TOUGH schedule....we could go 6-6 or 7-5 would not surprise me. So many starters lost but some decent experience with the projected new starters.
But still we lost A LOT

[smootness]

Hard for me to project next year.... TOUGH schedule....we could go 6-6 or 7-5 would not surprise me. So many starters lost but some decent experience with the projected new starters.
But still we lost A LOT

Prescott alone, if healthy, will ensure we do better than 7-5.

We lost some important players, no doubt. But we didn't lose any more than most teams lose every year. The only reason people are discussing us losing so much is because when a program like State loses a couple of 1st-2nd round guys, everyone assumes we were lucky to have them and don't have guys to replace them.

In terms of real impact guys (from this past year), here's what we lost: Preston Smith, Benardrick McKinney, Josh Robinson, Blaine Clausell, Dillon Day, Ben Beckwith, Kaleb Eulls, Matt Wells, PJ Jones. That's a good number of guys, but it's not overwhelming.

We return: Dak Prescott, De'Runnya Wilson, Fred Ross, Ashton Shumpert, Chris Jones, AJ Jefferson, Ryan Brown, Beniquez Brown, Richie Brown, Taveze Calhoun, Will Redmond, and Kendrick Market in terms of impact guys. And we have plenty of talent and experience replacing the guys we lost.

We will probably take a step back initially on defense (from what we were most of the year, not the last 2 games), but hopefully Diaz can come up with a scheme to at least give us an adequate defense. And we should be even better on offense.

[BeardoMSU]

O

Lost starter at LT/C/RG/TE/SLOT/TB

Slot- we didn't have our starter most of the year. Myles filled in nicely.
TE-hard to replace Johnson with what returns.
OL- the big worry. especially C/RG....we THINK Rankin should win one of the tackle spots. As the OL goes, so goes MSU next season.
TB-to me Schumpert more of a FB, lots of new talent for the TB position but no experience.

D

Lost DE/ 2 DT/2 LB/1 CB, 2 safeties

Smith at DE blossomed and hard to see us initially replacing what he gave us last year. But he stepped up last year so maybe someone else will too:?
DT- we have 3 returning with experience and we must find 2 for a 5 man rotation. Who will that be??
LB- lost 2 studs. R Brown very capable with 2 promising guys to take over Wells spot but with little(Gray) SEC experience.
CB, lost Love but have 2 very good senior CB's. who will be the nickel back(Giles?) ?....I could see both freshman CB's getting playing experience this year.
S-our weakest position last year. 3 very promising talents but no experience to compete for playing time. Cleveland moved to safety? A big question mark.More talent less experience.

Field Goal Kicker- will be someone new. could be crucial 2-3 times a game.

Hard for me to project next year.... TOUGH schedule....we could go 6-6 or 7-5 would not surprise me. So many starters lost but some decent experience with the projected new starters.
But still we lost A LOT

For a guy not wanting to sound pessimistic, that was a great 44th post**

[BeardoMSU]

Prescott alone, if healthy, will ensure we do better than 7-5.



17'n aye. This^^^

Having an elite QB is the most important thing. Not to mention we return some studs at WR, and I'll never worry about MSU having to replace a RB.

[GreenheadDawg]

O

Lost starter at LT/C/RG/TE/SLOT/TB

Slot- we didn't have our starter most of the year. Myles filled in nicely.
TE-hard to replace Johnson with what returns.
OL- the big worry. especially C/RG....we THINK Rankin should win one of the tackle spots. As the OL goes, so goes MSU next season.
TB-to me Schumpert more of a FB, lots of new talent for the TB position but no experience.

D

Lost DE/ 2 DT/2 LB/1 CB, 2 safeties

Smith at DE blossomed and hard to see us initially replacing what he gave us last year. But he stepped up last year so maybe someone else will too:?
DT- we have 3 returning with experience and we must find 2 for a 5 man rotation. Who will that be??
LB- lost 2 studs. R Brown very capable with 2 promising guys to take over Wells spot but with little(Gray) SEC experience.
CB, lost Love but have 2 very good senior CB's. who will be the nickel back(Giles?) ?....I could see both freshman CB's getting playing experience this year.
S-our weakest position last year. 3 very promising talents but no experience to compete for playing time. Cleveland moved to safety? A big question mark.More talent less experience.

Field Goal Kicker- will be someone new. could be crucial 2-3 times a game.

Hard for me to project next year.... TOUGH schedule....we could go 6-6 or 7-5 would not surprise me. So many starters lost but some decent experience with the projected new starters.
But still we lost A LOT

You're an idiot

[FlabLoser]

Looking at our schedule...

LSU, Alabama, Ole Miss at home. I'll take it.

Auburn on the road, Auburn anywhere, will be tough.

aTm on the road is a question mark I think. I don't know if they'll be good or not.

We've got Mizzou on the road too. They've been decent the last couple years. SEC East champs last year, and probably the weakest SEC East champ I've ever seen.

I'll take this schedule. I think we have a shot at repeating last year's success.

[Coach34]

O

Lost starter at LT/C/RG/TE/SLOT/TB

Slot- we didn't have our starter most of the year. Myles filled in nicely.
TE-hard to replace Johnson with what returns.
OL- the big worry. especially C/RG....we THINK Rankin should win one of the tackle spots. As the OL goes, so goes MSU next season.
TB-to me Schumpert more of a FB, lots of new talent for the TB position but no experience.

D

Lost DE/ 2 DT/2 LB/1 CB, 2 safeties

Smith at DE blossomed and hard to see us initially replacing what he gave us last year. But he stepped up last year so maybe someone else will too:?
DT- we have 3 returning with experience and we must find 2 for a 5 man rotation. Who will that be??
LB- lost 2 studs. R Brown very capable with 2 promising guys to take over Wells spot but with little(Gray) SEC experience.
CB, lost Love but have 2 very good senior CB's. who will be the nickel back(Giles?) ?....I could see both freshman CB's getting playing experience this year.
S-our weakest position last year. 3 very promising talents but no experience to compete for playing time. Cleveland moved to safety? A big question mark.More talent less experience.

Field Goal Kicker- will be someone new. could be crucial 2-3 times a game.

Hard for me to project next year.... TOUGH schedule....we could go 6-6 or 7-5 would not surprise me. So many starters lost but some decent experience with the projected new starters.
But still we lost A LOT

Allow me to retort:

Slot- Myles filled in very well and we are adding a 4-star juco AA who was the #1 rated player coming out of Tenn in HS

TE- Walley returns and was a good role player. Hutchinson needs to step up. at 6'7-260- I think he will

OL- return 3 guys that have made starts- and added the top rated juco OT in the nation. Only 2 players in the top 12 will not be in the 3rd year of college- so there is no real youth movement

WR- Two future NFL football players backed up by solid SEC players

QB- best QB in the SEC and top 3 in the country

RB- Shumpert and 4-star Aeris Williams will be solid in the run game- plus Prescott will run for another 800 yards

Defense:

DL- 2 future NFL players plus AJ Jefferson, Nick James, Redshirt Cory Thomas, the Adams brothers...some juco help brought in to back-up also

LB- Talent out the ass- a top 5 SEC group easy

CB- Redmond is projected as a 1st-2nd rounder...Calhoun has been a good SEC player

Safety- lost a starter in Hughes- but return some guys. Experience here plus incoming young talent. Our staff felt good enough here that a juco wasnt recruited to play here.


If this team goes 6-6- there's a problem. With the best QB in the SEC and one of the top WR groups- this offense will likely be better than last year's school-record setting offense that was the 6th best in SEC history

[Barking 13]

You're an idiot

:D

[Liverpooldawg]

Our offense will go as the offensive line goes, everything else is there and pretty much proven. Don't worry about running back, there is a reason Robinson left. On defense we won't have as much depth as we did last year but the front 7 still should be very solid. The determining factors here are two: the secondary and Diaz. The schedule is set up a bit different. Last year it was set up for the really good run we had but not a great one. This year it's going to be harder to have that really good run if that's the ceiling for this team. It's kind of weird but if the ceiling is higher than that it might be easier to have the truly great run than it was last year.

[Johnson85]

Prescott alone, if healthy, will ensure we do better than 7-5.

We lost some important players, no doubt. But we didn't lose any more than most teams lose every year. The only reason people are discussing us losing so much is because when a program like State loses a couple of 1st-2nd round guys, everyone assumes we were lucky to have them and don't have guys to replace them.

In terms of real impact guys (from this past year), here's what we lost: Preston Smith, Benardrick McKinney, Josh Robinson, Blaine Clausell, Dillon Day, Ben Beckwith, Kaleb Eulls, Matt Wells, PJ Jones. That's a good number of guys, but it's not overwhelming.

We return: Dak Prescott, De'Runnya Wilson, Fred Ross, Ashton Shumpert, Chris Jones, AJ Jefferson, Ryan Brown, Beniquez Brown, Richie Brown, Taveze Calhoun, Will Redmond, and Kendrick Market in terms of impact guys. And we have plenty of talent and experience replacing the guys we lost.

We will probably take a step back initially on defense (from what we were most of the year, not the last 2 games), but hopefully Diaz can come up with a scheme to at least give us an adequate defense. And we should be even better on offense.

You're leaving out that we lost Hughes, Cox, and will presumably be getting a worse version of Market 9 months after an achilles tear. None of those three were superstars, but we obviously didn't have anything behind them. If we just have a few young guys suprise us at the right positions, we could have a very special year. By the same token, we have some pretty significant question marks and play in a ridiculously tough conference. Who is going to be weak next year in the West? UM is going to have a good defense even if Kelly limits them. A&M? Possibly but they'll be returning a true sophomore QB that did pretty well as a true freshman, so they could make a good jump. LSU? Maybe this will be the year that Miles finally fails to bounce back, but so far he's always managed to.

It just doesn't take a very big step back to have a big drop-off in record in this league. I feel pretty good about next year but not nearly as confident as some other posters.

[TrapGame]

I'm telling you guys ole miss's defense will take a serious step back next year after losing LB coach Tom Allen to USF. Wommack was a horrible DC at every school he's coached at except for two: Arky State and ole miss. Tom Allen was hired by Freeze when he went to Arky State. Several people on local Jackson sports radio have said Allen was very hands on with schemes and in game defensive changes. Wommack will be exposed again next year.

[missouridawg]

Not to mention Ole Missus has 4 certain losses @Bammer, @Aubarn, @Fla, and@State- they have to hold serve at home vs A&M, UPig, and LSU

I can fully support an Ole Miss bashing thread... but @Florida is not a certain loss for them. A toss up, at worst.

[maroonmania]

So, with QB, RB, WR/TE, OL, DL, & LB rankings in, ESPN has us with an average SEC ranking of 6.8, and Ole Miss with an average ranking of 9.

At the most critical position, QB, they have us as #1 and Ole Miss at #12.

If we disregard differences of only 1 spot, MSU has significantly higher rankings (3 spots or more) in 3 areas (LB, RB, QB), while Ole Miss has just 1 (DL). I think most of us agree that our DL ranking may be a little under-valued, given we are returning guys who weren't technically starters, but were, in fact, legit starter-quality, who happened to be on the "1B unit". We know those guys got playing time equal to starters due to our unique substitution patterns last season.

So, ESPN's "Way Too Early Top 25" (Mark Schlabach) has TSUN at #11 nationally, and MSU unranked. Their FPI poll has TSUN at #8, with us at #22. Makes sense****

True, but OM gets extra brownie points for having "The Grove" and for having higher recent recruiting rankings than us.

[mic]

I can fully support an Ole Miss bashing thread... but @Florida is not a certain loss for them. A toss up, at worst.

The only LOCK SEC wins for them next year is Vandy .
The only LOCK SEC win for us is UK..

Saying that I would much rather have our team and our schedule next year compared to them and theirs..
We will be a better team next year ( baring major injuries ) but may not have a better record... 10-2 for any team in the west outside Bama is tough..

[smootness]

You're leaving out that we lost Hughes, Cox, and will presumably be getting a worse version of Market 9 months after an achilles tear. None of those three were superstars, but we obviously didn't have anything behind them. If we just have a few young guys suprise us at the right positions, we could have a very special year. By the same token, we have some pretty significant question marks and play in a ridiculously tough conference. Who is going to be weak next year in the West? UM is going to have a good defense even if Kelly limits them. A&M? Possibly but they'll be returning a true sophomore QB that did pretty well as a true freshman, so they could make a good jump. LSU? Maybe this will be the year that Miles finally fails to bounce back, but so far he's always managed to.

It just doesn't take a very big step back to have a big drop-off in record in this league. I feel pretty good about next year but not nearly as confident as some other posters.

I left them out on purpose. I don't see any of our safeties from last year as true impact players. They were just guys, and they got beat often. Even if our young guys aren't experienced, they won't be a step back there.

I'm not extremely confident that we can repeat what we did last year, but I am extremely confident we'll win at least 8 games. Again, we have Dak Prescott. He's far and away the best QB in the conference. That goes a very, very, very long way. We've never had this before at QB, so it's hard for us to evaluate our team with this, but a QB like that covers a lot of inexperience and mistakes.

The SEC will be very tough, but there's not going to be another offense that can compete with us.

[Coach34]

I can fully support an Ole Miss bashing thread... but @Florida is not a certain loss for them. A toss up, at worst.

Fla has players and will be coached better. And they are at home- new coach and excitement will be huge for them. Fla gonna take em down. Fla will run straight at them- not sideways like Mullen did for 2 quarters before realizing that shit ain't gonna work

[missouridawg]

Fla has players and will be coached better. And they are at home- new coach and excitement will be huge for them. Fla gonna take em down. Fla will run straight at them- not sideways like Mullen did for 2 quarters before realizing that shit ain't gonna work

I certainly hope they beat them.

[TrapGame]

Fla has players and will be coached better. And they are at home- new coach and excitement will be huge for them. Fla gonna take em down. Fla will run straight at them- not sideways like Mullen did for 2 quarters before realizing that shit ain't gonna work

Yep, this will be a statement game for Florida. The bears will look a lot like we did during the EB last year - inept and clueless.

(Freeze will throw MGK under the bus post presser and have to be escorted to the plane in a bullet proof vest.)

[Tbonewannabe]

I left them out on purpose. I don't see any of our safeties from last year as true impact players. They were just guys, and they got beat often. Even if our young guys aren't experienced, they won't be a step back there.

I'm not extremely confident that we can repeat what we did last year, but I am extremely confident we'll win at least 8 games. Again, we have Dak Prescott. He's far and away the best QB in the conference. That goes a very, very, very long way. We've never had this before at QB, so it's hard for us to evaluate our team with this, but a QB like that covers a lot of inexperience and mistakes.

The SEC will be very tough, but there's not going to be another offense that can compete with us.

Diaz defense may help the safeties. We are going to have a lot more talented players back there but lose experience.

[Johnson85]

I left them out on purpose. I don't see any of our safeties from last year as true impact players. They were just guys, and they got beat often. Even if our young guys aren't experienced, they won't be a step back there.

I'm not extremely confident that we can repeat what we did last year, but I am extremely confident we'll win at least 8 games. Again, we have Dak Prescott. He's far and away the best QB in the conference. That goes a very, very, very long way. We've never had this before at QB, so it's hard for us to evaluate our team with this, but a QB like that covers a lot of inexperience and mistakes.

The SEC will be very tough, but there's not going to be another offense that can compete with us.

They may not have been true impact players, but it's pretty clear from the last two games that we didn't have anything behind them, even if they weren't that great to begin with. We basically have to fill our safety positions with pretty much nothing but true or redshirt freshman and a converted CB. We may not be as bad as we were in the Egg Bowl and Orange BOwl, but we certainly are not guaranteed to be even as good as we were most of the year (which was not very good).

[Tbonewannabe]

They may not have been true impact players, but it's pretty clear from the last two games that we didn't have anything behind them, even if they weren't that great to begin with. We basically have to fill our safety positions with pretty much nothing but true or redshirt freshman and a converted CB. We may not be as bad as we were in the Egg Bowl and Orange BOwl, but we certainly are not guaranteed to be even as good as we were most of the year (which was not very good).

We also aren't guaranteed to be worse. We will have more talented players by most observations. I also think that Diaz will have a better called Defense. Great teams have freshman players on the field. Jamal Peters would have seen the field for most teams including Bama. I don't know why we wouldn't expect the #2 safety in the country to at least be a mediocre SEC safety.