ShotgunDawg
09-22-2013, 11:45 AM
I wasn't out of the country for this week's game, and could actually watch the game in real time. So here are my thoughts.
To begin with, I want to explain the perspective from which my analysis is based: I look at things from a big picture perspective. I don't get into Xs and Os much because they aren't my strength, and I feel that through those sometimes you can miss the forest for the trees. I don't talk about margins of victory because they are way to surface level and to many irrelevant variables effect them, and I don't look at overall records as that important. To me 5-7 and 7-5 are basically the same record because both teams are just as good, but one team got a few lucky breaks on 50-50 plays and one didn't. Furthermore, college football isn't like the NFL or MLB where teams play similar schedules. In college football, you aren't what your record says you are. Notre Dame wasn't a national title contender so matter what their record said, because they weren't any good. By the same token, we may finish 5-7 or 6-6, but I would venture to say we are one of the best 25 teams in the country but playing a very unfortunate schedule. I don't care so much about what our record is because it is usually a direct product of the schedule, and I don't usually debate the type of play calling we have, unless it's a philosophical issue that effects the big picture or long term ceiling of the team. However, what I do care about is what I see with my eyes and how good my eyes tell me we are as a football team. This prevents analysis and decision making from an emotional micro perspective. As I wrote in my Auburn game thoughts, I don't really care that we lost to Auburn because when I watched the game, my eyes told me that we were just as good or better than them, had a QB making his first SEC road start, and we were physically better than them, but lost the game due to a set unfortunate events and the ball bouncing Auburn's way. I ONLY CARE ABOUT HOW GOOD MSU IS AT ACTUALLY PLAYING FOOTBALL AND IF WE ARE GETTING BETTER in hopes that by continuing to improve we will one day win a championship.
Every season is going to have its' peaks and valleys, and if you base you analysis on those, your analysis will be wrong more than it will be right. In order to properly evaluate teams, you must remove emotion, look at the game from a scouting perspective, and trust your eyes. Through that lens, here are my thoughts on last night's game.
1. First and foremost, I couldn't have been more impressed with Mullen's ability to motivate our team last night. We haven't seen that kind of effort following a loss in at least two years. While we can debate whether or not Mullen has adapted his offense to Tyler, has fixed playing calling, etc. It seems that he has learned from last season's loss to Alabama, and our team is now more emotionally mature and able to handle the ebb and flows of the season. A+ job in that regard.
2. Dak showed confidence in the way he ran the offense last night. He played with conviction. Even when he short armed a few throws, he showed conviction in his movements and decisions. I also love how vocal he is on the field. We have needed that from the QB position for a long time. Dak shows good quick feet, pocket awareness, and ability to manipulate the pocket with his feet. Not to compare Dak to Manziel, but, like Manziel, Dak seems to have that sense and instinct of knowing where to run to create space. This is what Michael Vick is terrible at. Vick is obviously mobile, but he lacks vision on the field. Manziel has the best vision I've ever seen at the college level, and Dak is above average in this category. Daks biggest flaw is that, while he has a quick throwing motion, it is a little restricted at times, and is shows on intermediate passes. He throws the shorts passes and balls down the field well, its the intermediate 10-15 yard throws where he needs to improve.
3. Chris Jones may be the rare 6 star player. 5 star players are elite/top shelf talents that make plays, but the 6 star player does all of that while also possessing an "it" factor that teammates feed off of and allows him to make every player on the field better. It's the difference between Kobe and Lebron. Kobe is a great great player, but Lebron makes every single teammate better through his special talents. I'm not sure that we have ever recognized a special MSU player this early in his career. Due to that, I challenge every MSU fan to pay attention to this guy during games. In the same way that you payed attention to Smoot, Johnny Cooks, Fletcher Cox, etc. You will want to tell your children and grand children you saw this guy play. His versatility and strength are very rare and is, currently, matched by few, and in the future could be matched by none. Not saying it's going to happen, but there is a chance that following the LSU game Chris Jones is a household name in America.
4. Devon Bell needs to only handle kickoffs and long field goals for the time being and we need to go to Sobiesk until he shows he can't do it. To me Bell has two problems: the first is mental, he doesn't have a ton of confidence in himself right now. The second is his height, Bell is 6'2" and Sobiesk is 5'8". The best analogy I can make to this problem is golf clubs. Pretend that Sobiesk is a pitching wedge (Shorter), and Bell is a driver (Longer). With the driver, due to its length, you have more leverage and can hit the ball further, but at the same time sacrifice accuracy and precision. While Sobiesk is short and can't kick the ball as far, has less movement and a shorter swing path. This leads to a more easily controllable kicking motion and should allow Sobiesk to be more consistent in short to mid-range kicks.
5. Our defensive line and linebackers are as talented as anyone in the country. This will be key down the stretch of the season.
6. Ashton Shumpert is going to be really good. His biggest strengths are his ability to run physical and fall forward. Because of these abilities, throughout Ashton's career we should be fairly good at staying out of 3rd and longs. By Having a running back that falls forward, he constantly gets 2 yards when nothing is there, or 6 yards when he should have gained 4. The ability that Dak and Shumpert have to fall forward when they run will allow us the ability to move the ball and get first downs on any defense in the country over the next 3 years.
LSU game - If you aren't excited to see LSU's power running game against our defensive line and linebackers, then you just don't like football. Our d-line could be the second best, if not the best, defensive line LSU sees all year. I think, with Dak at QB, our offense can put up 17-24 points against LSU. This game will come down to our secondary's ability to control Beckham and Landry. LSU will have a major advantage in that matchup, but if Townsend can coach up our secondary over the next two weeks, and we can stop LSU's run without bringing a safety into the box, we will have an excellent opportunity to be in a tight 4th quarter game with a chance to win.
Fellas, you can talk about records and play calling all you want, but, last night, with my eyes, I saw a good, young, improving, football team on the field. What we did last night, to a decent team, we would have never had a chance of doing during the Croom era or for most of Mullen's tenure. This is the best overall team Mullen has had, its just young. By the end of the season, barring injuries, we have a chance to be really really good. As hard as it may be, don't look at our record. Look at our team, look at our speed, look at our power, look at our diversity, and look at our potential. We will get there.
This program is headed squarely in the correct direction, and Mullen can verify that to masses by going for broke, not holding back, and whipping LSU's ass in 2 weeks.
To begin with, I want to explain the perspective from which my analysis is based: I look at things from a big picture perspective. I don't get into Xs and Os much because they aren't my strength, and I feel that through those sometimes you can miss the forest for the trees. I don't talk about margins of victory because they are way to surface level and to many irrelevant variables effect them, and I don't look at overall records as that important. To me 5-7 and 7-5 are basically the same record because both teams are just as good, but one team got a few lucky breaks on 50-50 plays and one didn't. Furthermore, college football isn't like the NFL or MLB where teams play similar schedules. In college football, you aren't what your record says you are. Notre Dame wasn't a national title contender so matter what their record said, because they weren't any good. By the same token, we may finish 5-7 or 6-6, but I would venture to say we are one of the best 25 teams in the country but playing a very unfortunate schedule. I don't care so much about what our record is because it is usually a direct product of the schedule, and I don't usually debate the type of play calling we have, unless it's a philosophical issue that effects the big picture or long term ceiling of the team. However, what I do care about is what I see with my eyes and how good my eyes tell me we are as a football team. This prevents analysis and decision making from an emotional micro perspective. As I wrote in my Auburn game thoughts, I don't really care that we lost to Auburn because when I watched the game, my eyes told me that we were just as good or better than them, had a QB making his first SEC road start, and we were physically better than them, but lost the game due to a set unfortunate events and the ball bouncing Auburn's way. I ONLY CARE ABOUT HOW GOOD MSU IS AT ACTUALLY PLAYING FOOTBALL AND IF WE ARE GETTING BETTER in hopes that by continuing to improve we will one day win a championship.
Every season is going to have its' peaks and valleys, and if you base you analysis on those, your analysis will be wrong more than it will be right. In order to properly evaluate teams, you must remove emotion, look at the game from a scouting perspective, and trust your eyes. Through that lens, here are my thoughts on last night's game.
1. First and foremost, I couldn't have been more impressed with Mullen's ability to motivate our team last night. We haven't seen that kind of effort following a loss in at least two years. While we can debate whether or not Mullen has adapted his offense to Tyler, has fixed playing calling, etc. It seems that he has learned from last season's loss to Alabama, and our team is now more emotionally mature and able to handle the ebb and flows of the season. A+ job in that regard.
2. Dak showed confidence in the way he ran the offense last night. He played with conviction. Even when he short armed a few throws, he showed conviction in his movements and decisions. I also love how vocal he is on the field. We have needed that from the QB position for a long time. Dak shows good quick feet, pocket awareness, and ability to manipulate the pocket with his feet. Not to compare Dak to Manziel, but, like Manziel, Dak seems to have that sense and instinct of knowing where to run to create space. This is what Michael Vick is terrible at. Vick is obviously mobile, but he lacks vision on the field. Manziel has the best vision I've ever seen at the college level, and Dak is above average in this category. Daks biggest flaw is that, while he has a quick throwing motion, it is a little restricted at times, and is shows on intermediate passes. He throws the shorts passes and balls down the field well, its the intermediate 10-15 yard throws where he needs to improve.
3. Chris Jones may be the rare 6 star player. 5 star players are elite/top shelf talents that make plays, but the 6 star player does all of that while also possessing an "it" factor that teammates feed off of and allows him to make every player on the field better. It's the difference between Kobe and Lebron. Kobe is a great great player, but Lebron makes every single teammate better through his special talents. I'm not sure that we have ever recognized a special MSU player this early in his career. Due to that, I challenge every MSU fan to pay attention to this guy during games. In the same way that you payed attention to Smoot, Johnny Cooks, Fletcher Cox, etc. You will want to tell your children and grand children you saw this guy play. His versatility and strength are very rare and is, currently, matched by few, and in the future could be matched by none. Not saying it's going to happen, but there is a chance that following the LSU game Chris Jones is a household name in America.
4. Devon Bell needs to only handle kickoffs and long field goals for the time being and we need to go to Sobiesk until he shows he can't do it. To me Bell has two problems: the first is mental, he doesn't have a ton of confidence in himself right now. The second is his height, Bell is 6'2" and Sobiesk is 5'8". The best analogy I can make to this problem is golf clubs. Pretend that Sobiesk is a pitching wedge (Shorter), and Bell is a driver (Longer). With the driver, due to its length, you have more leverage and can hit the ball further, but at the same time sacrifice accuracy and precision. While Sobiesk is short and can't kick the ball as far, has less movement and a shorter swing path. This leads to a more easily controllable kicking motion and should allow Sobiesk to be more consistent in short to mid-range kicks.
5. Our defensive line and linebackers are as talented as anyone in the country. This will be key down the stretch of the season.
6. Ashton Shumpert is going to be really good. His biggest strengths are his ability to run physical and fall forward. Because of these abilities, throughout Ashton's career we should be fairly good at staying out of 3rd and longs. By Having a running back that falls forward, he constantly gets 2 yards when nothing is there, or 6 yards when he should have gained 4. The ability that Dak and Shumpert have to fall forward when they run will allow us the ability to move the ball and get first downs on any defense in the country over the next 3 years.
LSU game - If you aren't excited to see LSU's power running game against our defensive line and linebackers, then you just don't like football. Our d-line could be the second best, if not the best, defensive line LSU sees all year. I think, with Dak at QB, our offense can put up 17-24 points against LSU. This game will come down to our secondary's ability to control Beckham and Landry. LSU will have a major advantage in that matchup, but if Townsend can coach up our secondary over the next two weeks, and we can stop LSU's run without bringing a safety into the box, we will have an excellent opportunity to be in a tight 4th quarter game with a chance to win.
Fellas, you can talk about records and play calling all you want, but, last night, with my eyes, I saw a good, young, improving, football team on the field. What we did last night, to a decent team, we would have never had a chance of doing during the Croom era or for most of Mullen's tenure. This is the best overall team Mullen has had, its just young. By the end of the season, barring injuries, we have a chance to be really really good. As hard as it may be, don't look at our record. Look at our team, look at our speed, look at our power, look at our diversity, and look at our potential. We will get there.
This program is headed squarely in the correct direction, and Mullen can verify that to masses by going for broke, not holding back, and whipping LSU's ass in 2 weeks.