Todd4State
11-29-2015, 02:35 AM
About the Egg Bowl- he said that whoever wins that game is the team that simply "wants it more". This coming from a football player. So, not the opinion of a guy that works in a hospital. And that was WHAT WAS THE MOST disappointing thing to me about tonight- I don't believe we wanted it badly enough.
And I think that starts with Dan. I don't think he places the emphasis on the Egg Bowl that he should and certainly without question he doesn't place enough emphasis like he used to. Case in point? Well, we don't have the Egg Bowl countdown clock anymore- that per someone who attended the women's football clinic and when she asked Dan about it, Dan responded that "we had moved on to bigger things" as a program.
Also- and while these aren't reasons why we didn't win the Egg Bowl, I certainly believe that they show signs of a lack of "want to" on Dan and MSU's part:
Letting the team go home for Thanksgiving. Again, I know that is something that was highly disagreed upon in a long thread- however, we came out sloppy AGAIN. It just shows lack of focus on the game itself.
No Egg Bowl uniform. One thing that disappoints me a lot is the fact that for the past four years we do something special for the Egg Bowl to put an emphasis on the game. This year we half assedly throw on our white helmets and hand out gold pom-poms. Really Scott? We lose a couple of Egg Bowls and then we bitch out. How about figuring out a way to win next time rather than be half assed? And while again not a reason for a loss, but it does show lack of attention to the Egg Bowl.
The most concerning thing from a football standpoint to me is the fact that we were outhit and we lost the game physically. I think that is a reflection of the coaches. It's not just the Egg Bowl that this happened- Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M as well. It seems to me that we have very few players that are true leaders. Certainly there are without question some leaders such as Dak, Bear, Beniquez, Redmond, Fred Ross- but we do not have enough players that play with raw energy. It seems like we come out flat pretty much every game- no matter who it is. Troy was the exception and I think that was only because Dan knew Dak was sick. Dan runs off too many guys that play with emotion like Josh Robinson. If it's not choked out of them by their sophomore season that is. Devon Desper to me is an example of this. I saw him many times in high school and he was just as mean on the football field as anyone I had ever seen. He made Under Armour AA so it's not like it was just me pulling for the hometown kid here. He gets to MSU and now he looks totally different and not in a good way. It's more of a confusing way to me- because he just seems timid, confused, and at times just plain lost. Now I'm not singling Desper out even though I just did- because EVERY o-lineman we had this year seemed to be the same way to different degrees. Why is that? Yes, because Hevesey is awful, but in terms of lack of energy our entire TEAM for the most part lacks it at just about every position group. Dan has to understand and come to terms with the fact that football is an EMOTIONAL game. You can't have a team full of hard workin' good kids from Belzoni, MS that do everything that they are supposed to in practice and expect "the light to come on" on gameday. You need a few Josh Robinson's. We have some like Dontavian Lee, but he doesn't play in large part because of this because Dan doesn't like it.
Also, Dan HAS TO learn how to trust younger players that have talent. Malik Dear for all intents and purposes was our player of the game tonight. Why hasn't he gotten more touches? What about Aeris and Lee? Jamal Peters was underused at best. But the thing that is maddness is Dan starting upper classmen who aren't performing while benching a freshman for one mistake. See Zach Jackson and Kivon Coman pretty much all year- although I guess Coman had a good game against Mizzou. And then there are the scheme issues- like when we have trouble blocking, how often did we bring in Hutcherson or Justin Johnson to help with blocking? We don't really have a FB on the team- so why not use Shumpert there at times to assist with blocking more than we saw this year? Why do we ask Holloway to run up the middle ever? I think how we use our personnel compounds any recruiting issues we have because I would imagine it's quite rare for anyone- even Alabama to have all upper classmen. I'm sure that they even use true freshmen from time to time. People talk about our stars or lack thereof by our recruits names compared to Alabama- well those stars in our lineup go up if we play Peters, Dear, etc. more.
I see some people saying that Dan has done a lot, should get another chance, etc. BUT I ask those people- how would Dan have done without Dak? Dan pissed away his senior year, and I think it's going to take awhile for me to forgive that. His game management against LSU would have been a fireable offense for many coaches. We did not look prepared against Alabama or Ole Miss. We probably lose to Arkansas if Beni Brown hadn't basically forced his way into the the kick block team. Why wasn't he in that position on the kick block team all year? There's a lot that is left to be desired- and it will probably rear it's ugly head out even more if Dan does indeed come back.
We're not a team on the rise anymore- we have an arrogant coach who chokes the emotion out of our players and has been propped up by one of the best players in MSU history- and the best he could do is win 8 games because of his lack of creativity, hard headedness, and loyalty to failing assistants whom he refuses to fire and who shouldn't be coaching in the SEC.
And I think that starts with Dan. I don't think he places the emphasis on the Egg Bowl that he should and certainly without question he doesn't place enough emphasis like he used to. Case in point? Well, we don't have the Egg Bowl countdown clock anymore- that per someone who attended the women's football clinic and when she asked Dan about it, Dan responded that "we had moved on to bigger things" as a program.
Also- and while these aren't reasons why we didn't win the Egg Bowl, I certainly believe that they show signs of a lack of "want to" on Dan and MSU's part:
Letting the team go home for Thanksgiving. Again, I know that is something that was highly disagreed upon in a long thread- however, we came out sloppy AGAIN. It just shows lack of focus on the game itself.
No Egg Bowl uniform. One thing that disappoints me a lot is the fact that for the past four years we do something special for the Egg Bowl to put an emphasis on the game. This year we half assedly throw on our white helmets and hand out gold pom-poms. Really Scott? We lose a couple of Egg Bowls and then we bitch out. How about figuring out a way to win next time rather than be half assed? And while again not a reason for a loss, but it does show lack of attention to the Egg Bowl.
The most concerning thing from a football standpoint to me is the fact that we were outhit and we lost the game physically. I think that is a reflection of the coaches. It's not just the Egg Bowl that this happened- Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M as well. It seems to me that we have very few players that are true leaders. Certainly there are without question some leaders such as Dak, Bear, Beniquez, Redmond, Fred Ross- but we do not have enough players that play with raw energy. It seems like we come out flat pretty much every game- no matter who it is. Troy was the exception and I think that was only because Dan knew Dak was sick. Dan runs off too many guys that play with emotion like Josh Robinson. If it's not choked out of them by their sophomore season that is. Devon Desper to me is an example of this. I saw him many times in high school and he was just as mean on the football field as anyone I had ever seen. He made Under Armour AA so it's not like it was just me pulling for the hometown kid here. He gets to MSU and now he looks totally different and not in a good way. It's more of a confusing way to me- because he just seems timid, confused, and at times just plain lost. Now I'm not singling Desper out even though I just did- because EVERY o-lineman we had this year seemed to be the same way to different degrees. Why is that? Yes, because Hevesey is awful, but in terms of lack of energy our entire TEAM for the most part lacks it at just about every position group. Dan has to understand and come to terms with the fact that football is an EMOTIONAL game. You can't have a team full of hard workin' good kids from Belzoni, MS that do everything that they are supposed to in practice and expect "the light to come on" on gameday. You need a few Josh Robinson's. We have some like Dontavian Lee, but he doesn't play in large part because of this because Dan doesn't like it.
Also, Dan HAS TO learn how to trust younger players that have talent. Malik Dear for all intents and purposes was our player of the game tonight. Why hasn't he gotten more touches? What about Aeris and Lee? Jamal Peters was underused at best. But the thing that is maddness is Dan starting upper classmen who aren't performing while benching a freshman for one mistake. See Zach Jackson and Kivon Coman pretty much all year- although I guess Coman had a good game against Mizzou. And then there are the scheme issues- like when we have trouble blocking, how often did we bring in Hutcherson or Justin Johnson to help with blocking? We don't really have a FB on the team- so why not use Shumpert there at times to assist with blocking more than we saw this year? Why do we ask Holloway to run up the middle ever? I think how we use our personnel compounds any recruiting issues we have because I would imagine it's quite rare for anyone- even Alabama to have all upper classmen. I'm sure that they even use true freshmen from time to time. People talk about our stars or lack thereof by our recruits names compared to Alabama- well those stars in our lineup go up if we play Peters, Dear, etc. more.
I see some people saying that Dan has done a lot, should get another chance, etc. BUT I ask those people- how would Dan have done without Dak? Dan pissed away his senior year, and I think it's going to take awhile for me to forgive that. His game management against LSU would have been a fireable offense for many coaches. We did not look prepared against Alabama or Ole Miss. We probably lose to Arkansas if Beni Brown hadn't basically forced his way into the the kick block team. Why wasn't he in that position on the kick block team all year? There's a lot that is left to be desired- and it will probably rear it's ugly head out even more if Dan does indeed come back.
We're not a team on the rise anymore- we have an arrogant coach who chokes the emotion out of our players and has been propped up by one of the best players in MSU history- and the best he could do is win 8 games because of his lack of creativity, hard headedness, and loyalty to failing assistants whom he refuses to fire and who shouldn't be coaching in the SEC.