A few random thoughts...

[CadaverDawg]

Offense:
We have a QB. Fitz has stones, and he plays his ass off. He still has a ways to go passing, but that's to be expected. Mullen sure could help him out if he didn't call 100 pass plays per game.
I like our RB's. Williams, Gibson, with a sprinkle of Mixon and Dear...nice mix. Lee looks like Auburn's RB, Pettway...wish he ran like him. We may never know.
Gray is a player, wish we'd work to get him more involved. He's much more capable of busting long TD's than Ross...he's faster. Gotta get him involved every game. We're going to miss Ross next year...we are suddenly severely lacking in WR playmakers for 2017. Especially guys over 5'8.
All of the above means basically nothing, bc our O-Line is horse shit. It will keep us from doing much the next few years. Every second John Hevesy's shit ass is still employed, is another second added to the years it will take to recover from his lack of OL recruiting and development. He has taken 4-5 years of great skill players, and single handedly reduced their production & impact by making them play behind his shitty offensive line trash pile. If he doesn't get fired at season's end, I may stroke.

Defense:
Jeffrey Simmons, you are a beast. Deandre Ward, thank you for 100% effort 100% of the time. If our whole defense had Deandre Ward's effort, we'd have 2-3 more wins. Gerri Green, I saw you out there hustling too.
Now for the bad...I NEVER call for a coach to be fired after 1 year....but Peter Sirmon can pack his shit and get out. I have seen some awful MSU teams, but I've never seen a softer, sissier, piss poor bunch in my life than what I saw today. Out of position, poor tacklers, don't wrap up, hate contact, give up on plays, get pushed around by Samford, holy shit where's the Tylenol? That was embarrassing and totally unacceptable imo. I like giving coordinators benefit of the doubt, but I can't on this. Our guys look lost, and like they don't give two shits out there. That cannot happen. This ain't the PAC12, Peter. You are clearly in over your head. Let's call it a bad hire and cut bait. Simply put...GTFO.

Special Teams:
Westin Graves seems like a good guy, but good God son. You have one damn job and can't make a chip shot? Just horrible.

We just can't put two things together. We score a TD on offense...give up one on D. Finally get a stop on D...can't score on O. Finally have a chance to extend a lead...Miss a chip shot FG. Just so terribly inconsistent.
We better choose to go run heavy the rest of the year, bc if we keep throwing it this much against Bama and Company, we will get our program embarrassed by making the games last forever and getting beaten even worse, and we may get Fitz killed. It's time to run the damn ball and try to shorten games the rest of the year. That will keep our defense off the field so much, and reduce their offensive scoring chances. I'd like to say good times are coming, but unfortunately they're not bc we have no OL, no OL coach or recruiter, no secondary, and no D Coord. I'm starting to think if Hevesy and Sirmon are retained after this year, I want Dan gone immediately. Those two will kill this program. I've said for years and years that Hevesy sucked and Mullen's loyalty to him would eventually be his downfall. Well, the time has come for that ultimatum I'm afraid. I still think Mullen can do it...but not without some semblance of an OL...and definitely not with a bad PAC12 defense.

Just my thoughts. I'd like to say we could upset someone...but I'm 100% sure we've won our last game of 2016.

[NCDawg]

Pretty good summation. I agree with everything you said. Hevesy and Sirmon need to go, no doubt about it. Team seems to play with very little emotion.

[Bothrops]

We can give Arkansas' defense some problems, if Fitz plays like he did today, and without that late interception. But our defense absolutely sucks cock.

[SDDawg]

The OP is 100% accurate.

[Todd4State]

I think our best hope with the o-line is to bring in some JUCO's and hope that they can perform immediately. We almost HAVE to have that happen for us. And we should be grooming a replacement for Clayborn at center but of course we aren't.

We can utilize Gray much better in the slot. He looks great against FCS DB's that are about the same height as him but his height and size are an issue against SEC DB's. Gray going up against LB's and safeties and nicklebacks are more to his and our advantage than it is for us to match him up against a SEC corner who is just as fast, strong or stronger, and taller.

[Todd4State]

Pretty good summation. I agree with everything you said. Hevesy and Sirmon need to go, no doubt about it. Team seems to play with very little emotion.

Only some of that is on the assistant. Some of that is on Dan and the S&C coach as well.

[msstate7]

I think our best hope with the o-line is to bring in some JUCO's and hope that they can perform immediately. We almost HAVE to have that happen for us. And we should be grooming a replacement for Clayborn at center but of course we aren't.

We can utilize Gray much better in the slot. He looks great against FCS DB's that are about the same height as him but his height and size are an issue against SEC DB's. Gray going up against LB's and safeties and nicklebacks are more to his and our advantage than it is for us to match him up against a SEC corner who is just as fast, strong or stronger, and taller.

Lsu has some of the best db's in the sec and gray had em beat for 2 td's... fitz overthrew him twice. Gray is fine out wide imo

[Bodaski]

I guess I'll be the crazy one in this discussion. I agree with most all of what has been said about the OL, OL coach, defense and DC. Saying that, I'm not sold this should be all on Sirmon. Sirmon makes the 5th DC in Mullen's 9th year. DM's stamp has been all over every DC we've had. Checkout Diaz at Miami and Collins at Fla. the sophomores on defense are playing for their 3rd DC in 3 years and having to learn a totally new scheme. It's not fair to the kids and it sure hurts developement of players. I'm not blaming the lack of effort on this totally, but I certainly believe it may be one of the problems. Sirmon is a very intelligent coach. I think DM hired him thinking he was sharp enough to learn and teach DM's "new defense" to the kids. I'm sure I could be over thinking this, but the more I watch, the more I believe it.

[Maroonthirteen]

I think that covers it.

All I have to add...as I watched Samford yesterday with their bunch formations and hurry up offense. Mulllen's offense hasn't changed in the last 3-4 seasons. Same formations, same plays. Mullen had better come up with some new looks, new wrinkles....anything. because we are way way low in talent. He will need to come up with something or it will be 3 and out over and over in the month of November.

[msstate7]

I think that covers it.

All I have to add...as I watched Samford yesterday with their bunch formations and hurry up offense. Mulllen's offense hasn't changed in the last 3-4 seasons. Same formations, same plays. Mullen had better come up with some new looks, new wrinkles....anything. because we are way way low in talent. He will need to come up with something or it will be 3 and out over and over in the month of November.

Definitely want to see some wrinkles... 2 back sets would be nice addition down the stretch with some poor rush defenses coming up. We may have all 3 and outs as you say, but Arkansas, om, and aTm are all worse than Kentucky in total defense. aTm is barely better in rush defense than Kentucky... om and Arkansas are the worst rush defenses in the sec and among the worst in the country. We were able to run on Kentucky, so I'm hopeful we can run on 3 of the last 4 teams anyway.

[msbulldog]

Fitz is one tough nut and is laying more on the line each game we play.
I wish we had 44 players with DeAndre Wards attitude.
Brandon Bryant needs to be benched and processed ASAP.

[Pinto]

With all the quality RBs we have and Fitz, I'd run the diamond formation. Shump lead blocking with Williams, Lee, and Fitz coming behind. That's a big train to jump in front of.
Also, roll the pocket every once in a while and throw a middle screen and a flea flicker. As much as we run up the middle, it sets these two plays up easy.
Naked bootleg would be a bread and butter with Fitz as well.

[Bucky Dog]

My biggest complaint is our lack of effort on defense. I think our strength and conditioning must improved. What has happened to Richie Brown?! He is slower, smaller, and generally seems to not give a shit like he has in the past. Our D Line, with a few exceptions, stands straight up on th snap, gets zero penetration, and does nothing to disengage from a block! We are out of position all the time and can't make an initial tackle. We have to become more physical!

I think our offense is very capable and Fitz is a tough MF! I don't see the team not playing for him and he is making an effort to become a leader. I'm excited about our RB's for the future. Just get me some damn linemen!

[MarketingBully]

I agree with your summation. I think Fitz is the best we have. I also know we aren't going to run it but ask Fitz to pass it 30-40 times a game the rest of the way which is going to make him look much worse of a QB then he is. If Fitz had thrown it and our receivers had caught it like they did yesterday, we would have beaten BYU, UK, and been in the game with LSU to the end. Up until yesterday, Fitz had been overthrowing the deep ball and the receivers would drop balls that hit them in their hands. But we are where we are.

The defense's weakness is the secondary yet our front seven isn't attacking and blitzing to mask our defenciences. When your secondary is as bad as ours, you have to put pressure on the QB to disrupt their passing game. When we did that yesterday, the QB overthrew their receivers or good things happened for the defense. As much as I hate to say it, Sirmon has to go. He is not a good DC. I know what that means regarding coordinators but he is just plain terrible. I'd go after Ruffin McNeil, a guy who wanted the job, pay him $600k and run with it. He is an excellent coordinator and in all honesty should of been hired over dumbass Diaz back in 2015.

And lastly, the place kicker. When you miss 28-30 yard kicks and those cost you at least two games even as bad as we have played, it's a huge, huge issue. As bad as we played in the South Alabama game and the BYU game, if he makes kicks, we win those games. With an average kicker, we are 5-3 right now. Let that sink in.

All in all Cadaver have to say I agree with you. But we are who we are which is a shitty 3-9 team. It sucks but the ultimate person to blame in all of this is Dan Mullen. It sucks but what can we do.

[klong-dog]

I agree with your summation. I think Fitz is the best we have. I also know we aren't going to run it but ask Fitz to pass it 30-40 times a game the rest of the way which is going to make him look much worse of a QB then he is. If Fitz had thrown it and our receivers had caught it like they did yesterday, we would have beaten BYU, UK, and been in the game with LSU to the end. Up until yesterday, Fitz had been overthrowing the deep ball and the receivers would drop balls that hit them in their hands. But we are where we are.

The defense's weakness is the secondary yet our front seven isn't attacking and blitzing to mask our defenciences. When your secondary is as bad as ours, you have to put pressure on the QB to disrupt their passing game. When we did that yesterday, the QB overthrew their receivers or good things happened for the defense. As much as I hate to say it, Sirmon has to go. He is not a good DC. I know what that means regarding coordinators but he is just plain terrible. I'd go after Ruffin McNeil, a guy who wanted the job, pay him $600k and run with it. He is an excellent coordinator and in all honesty should of been hired over dumbass Diaz back in 2015.

And lastly, the place kicker. When you miss 28-30 yard kicks and those cost you at least two games even as bad as we have played, it's a huge, huge issue. As bad as we played in the South Alabama game and the BYU game, if he makes kicks, we win those games. With an average kicker, we are 5-3 right now. Let that sink in.

All in all Cadaver have to say I agree with you. But we are who we are which is a shitty 3-9 team. It sucks but the ultimate person to blame in all of this is Dan Mullen. It sucks but what can we do.


17ing this. I mean I'm not a great mind, of x's & o's but I'll be damn if I don't know that if your secondary sucks, you have to pressure the QB, to make something happen. Even if it's occasionally a big play bomb or whatever. Lord knows we've seen them many of times before. We can't continue to sit back with the 3 man front and apply absolutely NO pressure and give the QB all the 17ing confidence in the world back there to complete passes all over the field. It's 17ing common sense 101, IMO and our new D coord can't figure the shit out? Good grief this is inexplicable.

[Taog Redloh]

Disagree on Sirmon, I think he needs another year. He's been decimated by injuries.

[TrapGame]

Changing the defensive scheme with the sixth or seventh guy in year eight that has never been a DC before was a horrible idea. That's on Mullen.

[ShotgunDawg]

Disagree on Sirmon, I think he needs another year. He's been decimated by injuries.

Agree. I think many of the problems we have stem from 1. Indecisiveness from have staff turnover and a new scheme and 2. Players not trusting the staff.

I believe both problems only have a chance of being fixed by having some continuity and building from there. It against my instincts to say that because I want to blame someone and have a scapegoat as well, but I think we are dealing with some kids right now that don't know how to handle failure and perhaps the best thing for everyone is continuity on defense, and these coaches starting back with the fundamentals.

[ShotgunDawg]

Changing the defensive scheme with the sixth or seventh guy in year eight that has never been a DC before was a horrible idea. That's on Mullen.

Completely agree, but I think at this point you stick with him. Next year he won't be a first year DC

[Cooterpoot]

I just can't put much stock in our offense looking improved vs a FCS team. I think we've improved a little but not much and we're still getting skull drug next 4
games. The offense will look bad again the next 4 weeks. Defense is complete trash. I didn't see anything promising on that side of the ball. And our kicker couldn't start for a D3 team. If things continue like they are, I hope Mullen takes another job. I have to see improvement against the SEC to feel better about our situation.

[DownwardDawg]

I wish we ran Auburns offense. That's my only thought today after watching them the past two games.

[Todd4State]

Lsu has some of the best db's in the sec and gray had em beat for 2 td's... fitz overthrew him twice. Gray is fine out wide imo

That's my point. It's hard to complete it to someone you can't see.

[ShotgunDawg]

I wish we ran Auburns offense. That's my only thought today after watching them the past two games.

I wish we had Auburn's players. Jus their OL and RBs would be nice.

[Todd4State]

17ing this. I mean I'm not a great mind, of x's & o's but I'll be damn if I don't know that if your secondary sucks, you have to pressure the QB, to make something happen. Even if it's occasionally a big play bomb or whatever. Lord knows we've seen them many of times before. We can't continue to sit back with the 3 man front and apply absolutely NO pressure and give the QB all the 17ing confidence in the world back there to complete passes all over the field. It's 17ing common sense 101, IMO and our new D coord can't figure the shit out? Good grief this is inexplicable.

It's very obvious that as long as Dan is here we are going to be bend and break no matter who the DC is. I don't care if we hire Buddy Ryan. It would be a 46 look with everyone bailing out into zone.

[Tbonewannabe]

It's very obvious that as long as Dan is here we are going to be bend and break no matter who the DC is. I don't care if we hire Buddy Ryan. It would be a 46 look with everyone bailing out into zone.

This is why I might give Sirmon another year. He is supposed to be a good recruiter and he is a 1st time DC with Dan handcuffing what he is allowed to do.

[HoopsDawg]

We have to be the only 3-4 team that never has a free rusher. We must be running the most vanilla 3-4 of all time.

[IMissJack]

OP can we add Strength and Conditioning coach in there too? I don't know a thing about them, other than what I see on the field, but we look like we get pushed around a lot more than when Balis was here.

[tcdog70]

Ole Miss and Arkansas both have weak ass defenses. I think we can play with them both. Ole Miss has sorry Line backers and shitty DBs. Run the ball right at Haynes and take away his speed, he is a light weight. Auburn exposed the Hogs. The encouraging thing I saw was Fitz throwing the deep ball on time . D Gray can get open deep if we can just Him the ball.

The problem is our defense sux ass. We better go to pressure and hope for the best. OM and the Hogs will destroy our soft ass zone. Go Joe Lee on them and pray. Where was AJ Sat. Was He hurt?

[HoopsDawg]

Ole Miss and Arkansas both have weak ass defenses. I think we can play with them both. Ole Miss has sorry Line backers and shitty DBs. Run the ball right at Haynes and take away his speed, he is a light weight. Auburn exposed the Hogs. The encouraging thing I saw was Fitz throwing the deep ball on time . D Gray can get open deep if we can just Him the ball.

The problem is our defense sux ass. We better go to pressure and hope for the best. OM and the Hogs will destroy our soft ass zone. Go Joe Lee on them and pray. Where was AJ Sat. Was He hurt?

We have no shot against either team.

[msbulldog]

AJ had elbow surgery Monday, must have been minor, it sounds like they expect him back pretty quick.

[WinningIsRelentless]

Ole Miss and Arkansas both have weak ass defenses. I think we can play with them both. Ole Miss has sorry Line backers and shitty DBs. Run the ball right at Haynes and take away his speed, he is a light weight. Auburn exposed the Hogs. The encouraging thing I saw was Fitz throwing the deep ball on time . D Gray can get open deep if we can just Him the ball.

The problem is our defense sux ass. We better go to pressure and hope for the best. OM and the Hogs will destroy our soft ass zone. Go Joe Lee on them and pray. Where was AJ Sat. Was He hurt?

When you have issues in coverage do what Clemson did on the last series last night. Lockup man to man in press coverage and bring more than they can block.

[Todd4State]

When you have issues in coverage do what Clemson did on the last series last night. Lockup man to man in press coverage and bring more than they can block.

What a novel idea! Am I the only one that noticed that when Samford had four receivers to one side of the formation we would sometimes only have three on that side? We did adjust late but I would have thought that would be an automatic adjustment by our defense.

[Mjoelner34]

I agree with about 99% of what Cadaver posted and here are my observations from yesterday:
1. I could go get a handful of people out of the drive-thru at Wendy's and they'd cover better than our corners and safeties.
2. Out of the DBs and LBs, Ward is the only person I didn't see miss a tackle yesterday. Our DBs and LBs have a bad habit of turning a 5yd gain into a 15yd gain because of piss poor tackling.
3. Brandon Bryant's int was 100% because of Simmons. Simmons flattened the center and was immediately in the QBs face on the goal line forcing a bad throw.
4. I think I'm faster than Richie Brown when I run backwards.
5. Graves is so pathetic, I keep expecting him to miss the ball on a kick. Out of 22k students, I KNOW we have somebody that can do better.
6. Offensive line. Don't know what else there is to say about them. When you have trouble getting more than 2 or 3 yards up the middle against an FCS team.....
7. Since I'm not a coach, maybe I fail to grasp the brilliant concept of playing DBs 10yds off the line of scrimmage against a passing team when its 3rd and 4. I wish Mullen/Sirmon could enlighten me.

[JDog13]

I want Sirmon to be forced to run a 4-2-5 or a 4-3. We don't hear about strength and conditioning like we did when Court and Balis was here. Can we put those stupid fear the beard shirts in the same category as maroon is all that matters? It was cute at first but I can tell you, no one fears Richie Brown.

[Bass Chaser]

I wish we ran Auburns offense. That's my only thought today after watching them the past two games.

Malzahn gave play calling to Lashlee.

[Bass Chaser]

I want Sirmon to be forced to run a 4-2-5 or a 4-3. We don't hear about strength and conditioning like we did when Court and Balis was here. Can we put those stupid fear the beard shirts in the same category as maroon is all that matters? It was cute at first but I can tell you, no one fears Richie Brown.

I can't find that Sirmon has any experience with a 3-4 defense. Maybe that shouldn't matter.

I'm just not seeing any difference in our DB's style of play. They play how Mullen wants them to play. Same as when we had Banks and Slay. We play off and we always give up the sticks.

[NCDawg]

I wish we had Auburn's players. Jus their OL and RBs would be nice.

Particularly Auburn's OL. They knocked our DL 2 and 3 yards back when they got in the redzone and scored with ease. I don't remember them having such a great line last year. Guess they got a good OL coach that knows what he's doing.

[msstate7]

I can't find that Sirmon has any experience with a 3-4 defense. Maybe that shouldn't matter.

I'm just not seeing any difference in our DB's style of play. They play how Mullen wants them to play. Same as when we had Banks and Slay. We play off and we always give up the sticks.

USC is a 3-4... almost positive

[Bass Chaser]

USC is a 3-4... almost positive

Thanks. That's what I was looking for last night since he coached with Wilcox. I just couldn't find it.

[basedog]

I can't find that Sirmon has any experience with a 3-4 defense. Maybe that shouldn't matter.

I'm just not seeing any difference in our DB's style of play. They play how Mullen wants them to play. Same as when we had Banks and Slay. We play off and we always give up the sticks.

Its been said their OL Coach is one of the best in the country.

[Really Clark?]

Thanks. That's what I was looking for last night since he coached with Wilcox. I just couldn't find it.

Wilcox is considered a multiple scheme DC. He is running the 3-4 as his base at Wisconsin since that is his personnel and what Aranda ran and he has used t a lot in the past. But both have switched it up in the past. Aranda even ran a hybrid 4-2-5 the first half last year which technically was a 2-4-5 because of actual personnel on the field. Wilcox likes to do the same thing. Sirmon does as well but personnel is really handcuffing us a lot. It's either we don't have the right guys to run a better scheme for a certain match up or they are not executing, at all. Which seems to be a large issue. You also can think about a reasoning for running a 3-4 or 3-3 front because of DL depth. If you don't have 8-10 DL that you feel really good about you can stick with 6-8 DL and run a lot more 3 man fronts especially if you have the LB's to help. We were suppose to have the players for that but they are not executing. Not taking up for the bad play yesterday but we did run a lot of personnel in the game. Some of their drives were against guys who have been down the depth chart. But no excuse for the main personnel stinking it up.

[tcdog70]

When you have issues in coverage do what Clemson did on the last series last night. Lockup man to man in press coverage and bring more than they can block.

That is our only chance against what is left on our schedule. Play a soft ass zone and they score every possession

[Jack Lambert]

The fact to the matter is if we were 6-2 you would still hear everyone bitching. Hell there was a lot bitching last year and the year before. Miss State people just have to bitch and eat each other up.

[DawgHouseUnited]

My own $0.02 is just a total agreement about the OL. Sometime in the 3rd last night I watched Fitz get chased out of the pocket. What did our OL do? They got up off the ground and walked towards the line of scrimmage. Nobody gave chase or showed any concern over the rest of the play. They just got up and walked over to be ready for the next play- never mind that the current one wasn't even over.