Having Trouble Wrapping My Arms Around This MSU Football Team

[ShotgunDawg]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

[Scared_Hitless]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

I can understand a good bit of the sentiment, but Joe dialed it up plenty last year. Osiris Drop against FL, Guidry Drop against Iowa, Long TDs against A&M and Flea Flicker against BAMA players have to make plays as well. Not all on coaching. Against Ole Miss he played ball control because he knew they couldn't score. We won by 5 TDS what more do you want in a conference game. Thinking our talent is at a level where winning by 5 tds on the road is bad because we looked like we were struggling is a bad take.

[Jack Lambert]

You worry too much. I enjoy it for what it is. Football on Saturday. To your point the only team I don't believe this team can beat is bama. I don't think they are going to win 11 games but the ceiling is higher then eight.

[basedog]

You worry too much. I enjoy it for what it is. Football on Saturday. To your point the only team I don't believe this team can beat is bama. I don't think they are going to win 11 games but the ceiling is higher then eight.

So true, Msu is in a much better place now days as far as football is concerned.

[Covercorner2]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

Couple of things:

- Whop and Murphy are backups. Whop wasn't going to be much of a factor this year anyway.
- We rolled up 309 rushing yards against Ole Miss. We didn't need to throw the ball.
- Yes, Stevens is "mysterious," but he can't be a worse passer than Fitz and with our OL and Hill/Gibson, we should still be able to run the ball just as effectively as Fitz did which was his calling card.

[Johnson85]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

Gawt damn british still 17ing things up over 400 years later.

On the flip side, bloody marys are an essential part of early morning tailgating, so they got that going for them.

[Liverpooldawg]

Gawt damn british still 17ing things up over 400 years later.

On the flip side, bloody marys are an essential part of early morning tailgating, so they got that going for them.

LOL!

[tcdog70]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

good Lord-you would have committed suicide back in he Shira days. you say you are feeling optimistic but list a shit load of negative things. just drink heavily and sit back.

[Dawgology]

Gawt damn british still 17ing things up over 400 years later.

On the flip side, bloody marys are an essential part of early morning tailgating, so they got that going for them.

But Anne Boleyn was a great piece of a$$!

[TrapGame]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

I'm calling PETA if you don't stop beating that dead horse!

[Lord McBuckethead]

One other thing, we have seen and heard very little coming out of fall camp. The media was restricted to the absolute bare minimum this year which in my opinion was done to limit the "wool factor" of our fanbase. So this year it feels like we are getting less coverage working up to the first game. I like it personally. I think it lets the team develop without the daily, "oH so and so dropped that one pass we saw" kind of crap we heard last year.

[Captain Falcon]

There are always going to be questions and concerns about a football team. And frankly, we could get as deep as seven games into the season before we learn if we're any good or not. Everyone keeps saying that the first four games are should win games, but what if Auburn and Tennessee still suck too? I'm not ruling out the possibility that LSU is the first truly good team we'll play.

Our W/L record could be the same as last year, but I think this season should be more enjoyable from a fan's perspective. High expectations last year were justified, but they left a lot of room for us to disappoint and sure enough that's what happened. And frankly bad offensive football is just miserable to watch. This year expectations are tempered entering the year and the offense can seemingly go nowhere but up when it comes to playing quality opponents. Even if we are worse defensively and still lose some of the same games we lost last year, losing 35-24 isn't nearly as frustrating as losing 13-6 or 19-3.

Highly unlikely that we'll challenge Bama to win the West, so anyone with those kind of expectations should probably check that at the door. But even so, this season can do a lot to ease concerns about Joe and establish that the program is still on solid footing. It's perfectly reasonable to be skeptical after last season, but no matter how anyone feels about Joe, you can't deny that this is still a talented team and there is still potential for them to do a lot of good things.

[Johnson85]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

More seriously:

Which Murphy left the team for 10 days? Alec or Marcus? Alec is likely never going to be a big contributor, correct? But Marcus is in the two deep this year at Safety?

W/r/t Joe, I'm not as concerned about his ability to dial up the right play. We had trouble putting SEC quality receivers on the field and Fitz, while badass, was still pretty inexperienced as a QB and trying to learn a new system with limited reps b/c of injury. There's just only so much you can do with playcalling. That said, we had the line and RBs that he probalby should have done a better job getting creative with the run game and didn't outside of Auburn, but I'm not sure there was an opportunity that it would matter after Auburn. We aren't going to beat a Bama when they don't have to respect our passing game at all, and the same is more or less true for LSU. A&M we attacked their weakness by passing and won. Iowa we could have and should have won, but I'm not sure you want to spend you bowl practices on something other than the offense you want to play the next year. So basically, I would say Joe got suckered by fool's gold with our performance against weak teams early in the season, then got punched in the mouth against UK and just froze up and did a really shitty job by not adjusting to Allen at all. Then I guess stubbornly thought UK was a perfect storm of being on the road, bad weather, over hyped team, etc. and then didn't make adjustments for Florida, then adjusted for Auburn, won the only remaining "swing game" in A&M, and went chalk until the bowl game, where we did show some improvement on offense (even if it was still relatively shitty) against a very solid defense. So really, not great, but no reason to think he won't be able to implement his offense with SEC quality receivers in place and a QB that understands the offense better.

I'm also encouraged to hear that Joe has been working a lot of two TE sets. I am hoping that is the adjustment he has come up with to help our OTs when we come up against players like Allen, and also may help us get our best players on the field depending on how oru TEs compare to our WRs.

[thf24]

I enjoy it for what it is. Football on Saturday.

This is some truth and wisdom right here. I get how and why it happens, but some of us are way too emotionally and intellectually invested in what's just entertainment at the end of the day. Especially when the more negative qualities of that investment are coming out so harshly before a single game has even been played.

[TrapGame]

There are always going to be questions and concerns about a football team. And frankly, we could get as deep as seven games into the season before we learn if we're any good or not. Everyone keeps saying that the first four games are should win games, but what if Auburn and Tennessee still suck too? I'm not ruling out the possibility that LSU is the first truly good team we'll play.

Our W/L record could be the same as last year, but I think this season should be more enjoyable from a fan's perspective. High expectations last year were justified, but they left a lot of room for us to disappoint and sure enough that's what happened. And frankly bad offensive football is just miserable to watch. This year expectations are tempered entering the year and the offense can seemingly go nowhere but up when it comes to playing quality opponents. Even if we are worse defensively and still lose some of the same games we lost last year, losing 35-24 isn't nearly as frustrating as losing 13-6 or 19-3.

Highly unlikely that we'll challenge Bama to win the West, so anyone with those kind of expectations should probably check that at the door. But even so, this season can do a lot to ease concerns about Joe and establish that the program is still on solid footing. It's perfectly reasonable to be skeptical after last season, but no matter how anyone feels about Joe, you can't deny that this is still a talented team and there is still potential for them to do a lot of good things.

Auburn at Jordan-Hare will be a good test of where we are. Ain't too many times we've gone in there day or night and walked out with a W. Tennessee might be improved but will we. We've had far more stability in our program than they have over the last five years. And I don't think Pruitt is a good coach.

[Tbonewannabe]

More seriously:

Which Murphy left the team for 10 days? Alec or Marcus? Alec is likely never going to be a big contributor, correct? But Marcus is in the two deep this year at Safety?

W/r/t Joe, I'm not as concerned about his ability to dial up the right play. We had trouble putting SEC quality receivers on the field and Fitz, while badass, was still pretty inexperienced as a QB and trying to learn a new system with limited reps b/c of injury. There's just only so much you can do with playcalling. That said, we had the line and RBs that he probalby should have done a better job getting creative with the run game and didn't outside of Auburn, but I'm not sure there was an opportunity that it would matter after Auburn. We aren't going to beat a Bama when they don't have to respect our passing game at all, and the same is more or less true for LSU. A&M we attacked their weakness by passing and won. Iowa we could have and should have won, but I'm not sure you want to spend you bowl practices on something other than the offense you want to play the next year. So basically, I would say Joe got suckered by fool's gold with our performance against weak teams early in the season, then got punched in the mouth against UK and just froze up and did a really shitty job by not adjusting to Allen at all. Then I guess stubbornly thought UK was a perfect storm of being on the road, bad weather, over hyped team, etc. and then didn't make adjustments for Florida, then adjusted for Auburn, won the only remaining "swing game" in A&M, and went chalk until the bowl game, where we did show some improvement on offense (even if it was still relatively shitty) against a very solid defense. So really, not great, but no reason to think he won't be able to implement his offense with SEC quality receivers in place and a QB that understands the offense better.

I'm also encouraged to hear that Joe has been working a lot of two TE sets. I am hoping that is the adjustment he has come up with to help our OTs when we come up against players like Allen, and also may help us get our best players on the field depending on how oru TEs compare to our WRs.

This is the most accurate statement I have seen on our season last year. Watching the UK game, Fitz seemed to try and force the pass and it just didn't work. The weather combined with everything else turned that into a shit show. The UF loss is the biggest head scratcher to me, at home, great weather, and a lot of intensity with Mullen on the other sideline. UF's defense also wasn't as good as the other losses. The only thing would be Mullen knowing the team so well.

[Cowbell]

Shotgun, you need a girlfriend.

[ShotgunDawg]

Shotgun, you need a girlfriend.

Cowbell, I just like to discuss MSU sports.

Looks like this thread attracted most of the Elitetard posters. I apologize to everyone for giving them a platform

[gravedigger]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

We are still in the growing process with a shot in the arm due to an experienced qb transferring to us. Also, our players are gradually picking up the offensive system. On defense, we are rebuilding and that will cause some growing pains similar to last year with the offense. The major difference is, our DC and star players on defense just dont have the challenge Joe and Fitz had last year. Joe had kids that didnt know how to read defenses and Fitz had trouble not only with that but dealing with other players that were unsure where to go on each play. We will have our ups and downs like last year, but I think it wont be as dissapointing as a number of our fans have come back down to earth on expectations.

This football team will have to develop a personality just like 2009 and 2010 teams had to. Joe has always been a good coach. He just has a system that requires some time to learn. He struggled vs UK and UF because the team was unsure of itself (penalties) and Mullen knew how to force Fitz into unproductive plays. He certainly changed things to deal with Auburn and A&M and Bama for that matter.

We are a team in the middle of change. Stevens will be fine at QB. Zuber and Payton will contribute well at WR. Our Linebackers will take up some of the slack left by losing NFL defensive linemen. But overall, we are going to be about the same.

I think that if I'm wrong in my assessment here, it will be on the short side and we will be better than expected. I dont see us winning less than 7 games without MAJOR injuries. I dont see us winning more than 9 unless something unpredictable happens.

JoeMo is the man. He's already proven that on the recruiting trail, for whatever that is worth right now. He is going to make a number of people eat crow this year.

[basedog]

Cowbell, I just like to discuss MSU sports.

Looks like this thread attracted most of the Elitetard posters. I apologize to everyone for giving them a platform

That is so wrong man.

[Cowbell]

Cowbell, I just like to discuss MSU sports.

Looks like this thread attracted most of the Elitetard posters. I apologize to everyone for giving them a platform

I?m just giving you a hard time man. I appreciate your care for sure.

[BuckyIsAB****]

I'm excited about the season & think we SHOULD be significantly better on offense than last year, if for no other reason, than I think we've factually upgraded at QB & WR.

However, with that being said, I'm have a lot of trouble wrapping my arms around this football team.

- New QB that no one has really seen play.
- Returning OL but playing different positions
- mysterious new WRs in Zuber & Payton
- Tudor gate
- Whop & Murphy both leaving the team for 10+ days
- Landrews & Cole on the backend & I've never seen them really play together.
- Is Joe actually going to be worth a crap this year? lets face it, even if you think last year was acceptable, he lacked the ability to dial it up. To dial up the right play at the right time. Even when the offense was adequate, it was still a struggle. Even against OM's crappy defense, the offense made it look difficult. Will he actually be better this year?

I'm optimistic about this season but boy am I glad we have a 4 ramp up to start the season. This team may need every bit of it.

I just can't figure out who we are.

We have seen Stevens play. He is good.
The OL is going to be good, just as good as a year ago. More depth.
Zuber is good and Payton wont start.
Tutor gate is what it is. If WG is gone 8 games we will miss him.
Whop is back, Murphy is a dawg and it was perfectly understandable for him to leave.
You saw Landrews and Cole play together a year ago and they were great.
Beating a dead horse.

No duh you dont know who we are bc we havent played a snap yet. No one knows who they are until the ball is kicked. Relax and watch ball for the next 3 days

[Goldendawg]

I'll feel much better if our O can move the ball and score against good SEC D's. Bring 2019 on and we will see. Hail State!

[Schultzy]

We play 7 terrible football teams that should be gimmes

Then, how many can we win vs...

@Auburn
@Tennessee
LSU
@A&M
Alabama

I would take 1 of those five right now and call it a season.

[BuckyIsAB****]

We play 7 terrible football teams that should be gimmes

Then, how many can we win vs...

@Auburn
@Tennessee
LSU
@A&M
Alabama

I would take 1 of those five right now and call it a season.

And out of those 5 the 2 best are at home. LSU is a winnable game. I will be pissed if we lose it. Bama is Bama but we are better against them at home. We are better than UT. @ Auburn isnt unwinnable but it will be tough. @ A&M is easier than @ Auburn

[Schultzy]

And out of those 5 the 2 best are at home. LSU is a winnable game. I will be pissed if we lose it. Bama is Bama but we are better against them at home. We are better than UT. @ Auburn isnt unwinnable but it will be tough. @ A&M is easier than @ Auburn

September 28 through October 26 is the whole season...

@Auburn
Off
@Tennessee
LSU
@A&m

I just don’t think any of these teams are very good either, especially Tennessee, certainly not the teams we were in awe of growing up.

And it goes back to the OP , what are we? If we are any good we win at least one.

[BuckyIsAB****]

September 28 through October 26 is the whole season...

@Auburn
Off
@Tennessee
LSU
@A&m

I just don’t think any of these teams are very good either, especially Tennessee, certainly not the teams we were in awe of growing up.

And it goes back to the OP , what are we? If we are any good we win at least one.

If we are good we beat LSU and UT

[DancingRabbit]

If we are good we beat LSU and UT

LSU and @AU might be equal in difficulty. We don't know at this point. UT is a big game - loss there probably means sub-par season.

ETA - I'm assuming a loss at aTm - if they don't beat us this year, we really own them.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I am excited by the offense, but I also think that the defense is less stellar this coming season.

Of course, the offense depends on the O line being out of the hoosegaw and on the line of scrimmage. Got to work on that a little.

[Johnson85]

We play 7 terrible football teams that should be gimmes

Then, how many can we win vs...

@Auburn
@Tennessee
LSU
@A&M
Alabama

I would take 1 of those five right now and call it a season.

I don't get why UK and UT aren't considerd the same this year.