Paul Jones latest article

[Jarius]

Is a great read. I love the quotes from AJ Jefferson about Calvin, Fletcher Adams, Kobe Jones, and especially Jeff Simmons and Martinas Rankin. He had really high praise for those guys.

http://mississippistate.247sports.com/Article/Bulldog-veteran-AJ-Jefferson-tutoring-young-defensive-linemen-46627486

[Reason2succeed]

When is the last time one of our DL gave a shout out to an OL? That makes me excited about Martinas Rankin.

[Jarius]

I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe the light bulb has finally turned on

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

I enjoy looking at the pics he puts up. I wish he could find a pic of Tim Washington last year and put it beside the one this year. Night and day. Some of these guys get lost in the shuffle sometimes and we forget about them. Tim is one I'm excited to see develop.

[ShotgunDawg]

Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve

[HoopsDawg]

Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve

Bean looked good from day 1. So did Ashley Cooper and JJ.

[msstate7]

Bean looked good from day 1. So did Ashley Cooper and JJ.

If you trust rosebowl's evaulation, Jordan Thomas will be another one

[bulldawg28]

Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve

Fred Smoot, Korey Banks, JJ Johnson, Willie Blade, Tommy Watson, Courtney Lee,

[Todd4State]

Most of the guys that panned out are from the 90's. I daresay the SEC is different now.

[ZedFedder]

Pernell McPhee.

[ShotgunDawg]

Fred Smoot, Korey Banks, JJ Johnson, Willie Blade, Tommy Watson, Courtney Lee,

Smooth I'll give you.

Banks.... did he really pan out?

JJ Johnson - Agree

The other guys could be some hindsight 20/20. The same as in 10 years no one will remember how quickly McPhee & Slay picked up on things.

[ShotgunDawg]

Pernell McPhee.

He took some games to get going. I don't remember him being an impact guy in the first half of the season

[ShotgunDawg]

Most of the guys that panned out are from the 90's. I daresay the SEC is different now.

Agree. Plus, learning to play OT in the SEC, against the best set of DL outside the NFL, is much harder than a running back learning Jackie's, max protection offense or Fred Smoot learning to play DB in a non-spread offense era.

Don't forget that the SEC was mostly ground & pound in the late 90s. The defensive coverages were much more basic than they are in today's age of spread offenses.

[ShotgunDawg]

Lastly, I'm not saying Rankin will be worth a damn. I have no clue. I'm just saying that I'm not holding it against the guy that he struggled to go from a JUCO offense against JUCO D-linemen & was not able to immediately reach his potential against the best set of DL outside the NFL while learning Mullen's & Hev's zone blocking scheme.

Just saying, the fact that it took him an 8 or so game time period to figure things out kind of makes sense when you think about it

[bulldawg28]

Smooth I'll give you.

Banks.... did he really pan out?

JJ Johnson - Agree

The other guys could be some hindsight 20/20. The same as in 10 years no one will remember how quickly McPhee & Slay picked up on things.



Did Banks pan out? He was a better cover corner than Smoot. The others were All SEC talents.However, they played on losing teams and didn't get the recognition.

[bulldawg28]

Most of the guys that panned out are from the 90's. I daresay the SEC is different now.

You're right.The difference is those guys that would go to juco then would have qualified with all of the cheating going on now. Name one top 100 player that had gone to juco in the last 5 years? Team's are cheating their asses off now. Recruiting has become a big time money maker now and it's impacting eligibility.

[Bodaski]

[QUOTE=ShotgunDawg;590698]Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve[/QUOTE

I can think of a bunch. Smoot, Bean, keo Coleman, Nate Williams, Tony Harris, JJ Johnson, Ed Smith, Kevin Bouie, Chris White, Ballard, Randy Thomas, SS under Sherrill(Ashley ?) great player. There are others I'm forgetting I know. But we've had a bunch of juco' to step in by fall and start and play very well and were good football players.

[Reason2succeed]

You're right.The difference is those guys that would go to juco then would have qualified with all of the cheating going on now. Name one top 100 player that had gone to juco in the last 5 years? Team's are cheating their asses off now. Recruiting has become a big time money maker now and it's impacting eligibility.

I could be totally naive but I'm not sure that it's based on cheating. A lot of the rankings take into account kids likelihood of qualifying. Also, besides OM's academic center there are a lot of other options out there to help get guys qualified. Put those two things together and we see very little misses from top 100 players.

[Johnson85]

Did Banks pan out? He was a better cover corner than Smoot.

??? Banks was ok. Maybe he was asked to do to much but teams definitely weren't scared of him.

[Todd4State]

Did Banks pan out? He was a better cover corner than Smoot. The others were All SEC talents.However, they played on losing teams and didn't get the recognition.

What?

[ShotgunDawg]

[QUOTE=ShotgunDawg;590698]Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve[/QUOTE

I can think of a bunch. Smoot, Bean, keo Coleman, Nate Williams, Tony Harris, JJ Johnson, Ed Smith, Kevin Bouie, Chris White, Ballard, Randy Thomas, SS under Sherrill(Ashley ?) great player. There are others I'm forgetting I know. But we've had a bunch of juco' to step in by fall and start and play very well and were good football players.

You just named a crap ton of players from 20 years ago that played in a much different SEC than we are seeing now. The spread offense wasn't even a brain child then. The complexity of the game has grown exponentially since then. Not even a comparison, and I'd argue that even most of the players you named struggled out of the gate and then found their footing later in their first season. You just don't remember.

[bulldawg28]

??? Banks was ok. Maybe he was asked to do to much but teams definitely weren't scared of him.

Your crazy teams threw away from Korey Banks all except Eli Manning who was picked off twice

[bulldawg28]

What?

Huh?

[Todd4State]

Agree. Plus, learning to play OT in the SEC, against the best set of DL outside the NFL, is much harder than a running back learning Jackie's, max protection offense or Fred Smoot learning to play DB in a non-spread offense era.

Don't forget that the SEC was mostly ground & pound in the late 90s. The defensive coverages were much more basic than they are in today's age of spread offenses.

This is why I don't like taking a ton of them. They either have to redshirt or spend six games to get ready so you're really getting a season and a half out of them. I'd much rather redshirt a guy and get three and a half ROI.

On Rankin I think it might have been prudent to play him even if he wasn't ready just because our o-line was that bad. We might have fared better against Bama and Ole Miss at the very least if the reports are true.

And I know that there is no way to know for certain when the light is going to come on for a player but I think the six game rule is a pretty good standard guess. I still find it hard to believe he was worse than Warren.

[Jarius]

Korey Banks was in no way shape or form as good in coverage or any other part of being a defensive back as Smoot.

[Todd4State]

Korey Banks was in no way shape or form as good in coverage or any other part of being a defensive back as Smoot.

The NFL agrees with you.

[Jarius]

I don't like redshirting anyone that has NFL talent because most players today that have an opportunity for life in the NFL go as soon as they can and redshirting someone who is going to leave early anyway makes no sense. If Rankin leaves after this year we just wasted a year by redshirting him. Just like Benni Brown and just like Gerri Green and Leo Lewis more than likely. All that being said, Rankin may not be worth a crap. I haven't seen him play.


This is why I don't like taking a ton of them. They either have to redshirt or spend six games to get ready so you're really getting a season and a half out of them. I'd much rather redshirt a guy and get three and a half ROI.

On Rankin I think it might have been prudent to play him even if he wasn't ready just because our o-line was that bad. We might have fared better against Bama and Ole Miss at the very least if the reports are true.

And I know that there is no way to know for certain when the light is going to come on for a player but I think the six game rule is a pretty good standard guess. I still find it hard to believe he was worse than Warren.

[Todd4State]

I don't like redshirting anyone that has NFL talent because most players today that have an opportunity for life in the NFL go as soon as they can and redshirting someone who is going to leave early anyway makes no sense. If Rankin leaves after this year we just wasted a year by redshirting him. Just like Benni Brown and just like Gerri Green and Leo Lewis more than likely. All that being said, Rankin may not be worth a crap. I haven't seen him play.

I agree that a player that has the potential to leave after three years should play immediately. However most players need to be redshirted.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Korey Banks better than Smoot? This is like when Barry Stewart was at MSU and the entire sixpack board wanted to argue that Stewart was as good as JJ Reddick.

[BeastMan]

Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

It took Denico Autry until the damn combine

[Johnson85]

Your crazy teams threw away from Korey Banks all except Eli Manning who was picked off twice

That was about the time it was becoming necessary to drink heavily to watch a lot of state games, but pretty sure you must have started drinking heavily earlier than I did. Even the two pick game against Manning, one of those was I think just a receiver running a wrong route or Eli not knowing what route the receiver was supposed to run. Like I said, maybe he was just overhyped and they asked him to do things he wasn't capable of, but he wasn't in the same league as Smoot. I mean I'd definitely take him this year, but having him wouldn't be a huge game changer in most years.

[Johnson85]

[QUOTE=Bodaski;590719]

You just named a crap ton of players from 20 years ago that played in a much different SEC than we are seeing now. The spread offense wasn't even a brain child then. The complexity of the game has grown exponentially since then. Not even a comparison, and I'd argue that even most of the players you named struggled out of the gate and then found their footing later in their first season. You just don't remember.

I'm pretty sure Ed Smith had limited playing time his first year on the team. I think Chris White made pretty big strides over his first year, it's just that he was good enough that even when he was on a learning curve he was ok.

[parabrave]

Melvin Smith used to always say, "No matter how talented, for JUCO players, it takes 6 games to get the JUCO out of them."

Can anyone name one JUCO player, other than Vic Ballard, that's come in & had immediate impact players? Even McPhee & Slay, both of whom are 40+ million dollar NFL guys, took around 6 games to get on their feet.

I have high expectations for Rankin this year & think that last year was just a normal learning curve

JJ comes to mind as well as Bouie.

[confucius say]

Chris white