Sunday Morning QB- It's Great To Be Alive Edition

[Coach34]

1. What a great day of having nothing to do except watch college football's opening weekend. So glad to still be here on Earth able to enjoy it. I deemed it too hot to grill, so I cooked a pot of tomato/beef soup with some other veggies added in. My poor child that hates corn (I didnt realize that was even possible) was treated to applewood bacon grilled cheeses on Texas toast.

2. The Arnett Era began yesterday with a 48-7 win over a solid 1-AA team in SELA 48-7. While a good start to the season, it had its ups and downs so we will discuss parts of it here. I really loved his interview at the end of the 3rd Q where he told the chick he was still pissed about that 1st half drive we gave up. That's the kind of guy we need running our program.

3. Special Teams? Yes Sir. Our new FG kicker is the step-son of a college teammate of mine who is a really good dude. Very happy for him on his upgrade on his 2nd wife as well as his step son's college debut. Knocked down his first two FG's from fairly deep. Us left-footed kickers are special. Well done. The punting was solid. A blocked punt for a TD. Looked really good on ST's. I wish we would go ahead and kick it out of the EZ on kickoffs instead of trying to pin them deep but that is just a philosophical difference of opinion.

4. Rogers was very average yesterday. Def missed WR's down the field to take some shots. Wasnt as accurate on short throws. Had to roll left a couple of times which is tough on a RH'ed QB. Wright did exactly what he was brought here to do. We didnt throw with him because we didnt want to show anything against SELA. He certainly brings some juice to the offense. At first glance my concern is that the offense needs the running threat at QB to really thrive. It could be that it was just first game problems and we will get much better with Rogers in there. But he has to take the shots down the field more often or there really is no need for him to be in there. My hope is that with more time in the offense he will. They will for certain show all of what was there to him in film sessions today and tomorrow. He needs to be that guy.

5. Marks looked about like I thought he would. He is a good player. It's also much more enjoyable watching him play when he isnt getting blown up by a LB'er after a pass from Checkdown Charlie. He gets a chance to run the ball on multiple runs and catch passes on different routes. He is a star in a very talented RB room. Marks will be the guy but we have other players to take some load off of him to keep him as healthy as possible.

6. The O-line has work to do. They will get better but you can see they are still a work in progress. But it was expected in Game 1 in a new offense. Now they have film of things SELA did of overloading a side and such to learn from. This is a vet bunch and I expect them to improve a good deal by next week. As bleh as the offense looked at times- we did go for 525 yards yesterday. Thats pretty good.

7. Good game from ol White Legs. Really good signing by our staff. I like being good in the slot- it gives defenses problems because you can do so much with them. Bellazar showed some speed on the jet. Need Griffin healthy- glad to see him return in the 2nd half. Hopefully our outside guys can give us a little more moving forward.

8. DL looked good except for that one drive. We played very vanilla defensively and that is why they were able to get to the edges on us with some success. Pickering had a shot at a sack and whiffed on a middle rush- hated seeing that. LB'ers played ok. Jett looks good rushing the passer but looks so slow other times. It's amazing he amasses the tackles he does. Watson brought the thunder as usual. Terrible job by Furge on the goalline pass for a TD. Stay with the man- you werent being threatened. The QB faked in the middle- not the edge. While some want to whine- we did only give up 208 total yards.

9. Overall- good 1st game and lots to be excited about. It was the first State game I have enjoyed watching since 2018. We have an actual offense now and not a 7 on 7 drill. Lots to work on and build on as we head into next week. I didnt like the way we kind of went thru the motions because it was SELA. I'm not surprised by that from such a vet team tho. Hell, even Georgia was only up 17-0 on UT-Martin at half. They are ready to play bigger games for sure. It certainly seemed like someone got in their ass at half about the effort in the first half. On to Arizona

10. Good day for the SEC sans SC last night. Auburn surprised me winning as easily as they did. Kentucky, A&M, and Tenn looked how I thought they would. UPig rolled and will be tough to deal with this year. Mississippi got their easy one out of the way and now have 6 possible losses coming at them. Will they lose all 6? Of course not but they better be ready for them or they could. Tulane will make them work and Ga Tech is improved. Bama, LSU, UPig, and then Auburn has them staring at 0-4 to start off conference play. College football is back and I'm sooooo glad I'm here for it.

11. Extra point- I hate the new clock rule. It's going to shorten games for sure- probably around 10 plays. We ran 68 plays yesterday. We averaged 81.6 last year. Some of it is the new offense of course- but some of it the new clock rules. I think it forces more teams to go up tempo

[Offshore Dawg]

Been waiting on this post today, thanks C34 for still being able to continue doing these.

[911mom]

Glad you are back and healthy . I have always looked forward to your Sunday morning post game post.

[confucius say]

Media timeouts went from 3 minutes to 3 and a half. Ugh.

[tireddawg]

1. Like Christmas morning

2. Arnett is feeling things out. First game jitters I'd imagine, but we a got a good one.

3. 👍

4. Will is afraid of contact. And you're right, if he can't push the ball downfield, stretching & putting pressure on the D, I'd rather give someone else a shot.

5. Marks runs so damn hard & never let's up. Like his hair is on fire. Love that about him. Also looks 100%

6. Man was the oline bad initially. But they'll fine. Too much talent & experience.

7. Whittemore is a player. My boys have a class with him & were taking him up. Outstanding job by him. I too noticed Bellazar. A good solid option that seems to know how to get open, with some speed.

8. DL will be OK I think. I hope. Pickering played his ass off.

9. Not sure how you can't get up and sleep walk thru the 1st half of the 1st game of the year.....at home. All I can figure is a Leach hang over. I love Leach, & I understand it's got to be done, but I think the memorial had them distracted.

10. Yep!!

11. Ditto

HAIL STATE!!!!

[Jacknut]

We have a stable of running backs, that's for sure.

[lastmajordog]

VERY Glad to have you back Coach.....

[KOdawg1]

Yep, yep, yep

[Dawgface]

Good analysis and glad you are here to give it to us. I had a friend in college who used to say..."it's a great day to be alive." So true.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Your point about will is more succinct than my ramblings: if the "passing QB" can't throw the ball beyond 20 yards, then he's not a passing QB. At that point, he's just "the unathletic QB".

I swear he's regressing. 2021 he was willing to take hits, go through reads, and planted his feet and delivered beautiful balls. Now its like he's just trying to get rid of the ball asap, even if he has to skip reads and check down early or sling it so quickly he's inaccurate. I want Auburn 21 Will back but he just keeps regressing

[CadaverDawg]

Number 4 is the one that matters most, and I agree 100% with it. Echoes my comments in other threads today. Rogers has got to start getting the ball downfield, or we need to go heavy run with Vandy Mike.

Pretty much agree with your entire write up today. OL would benefit from Wright as well. These days in college football, most big plays in the passing game come from QB's extending plays to allow receivers time to get open downfield. We are one of the few teams in college football that continues to ask an OL to block for 7 seconds so an immobile QB can stand there until someone is open. And to make things worse, his arm strength is so bad that when he runs right or left and tries to throw on the run, if it's not a short throw to someone coming back towards him...he won't be able to make it.
It's painful to say, but when Will is on the run trying to pass, he reminds me of 12 year old me trying to throw an adult sized football with small hands....it's like he can barely hold it while running, much less make any type of strong throw downfield.
And I hate to be so harsh, bc he's a great kid and I want him to succeed....but it's painfully obvious that he continues to limit our offense.

And the more I rewatch yesterday's game, the more I'm really starting to wish we would consider going with a Relf/Fitz style game plan and just sacrifice passing accuracy for a chance at the offense hitting more home runs and scoring more points. We would put so much more pressure on the Defenses we face.

I would hate to lineup against Wright and Woody in the backfield, and Creed Tulu & Xavion out wide. That's a lot of Home run potential...and you would HAVE to bring help to defend the run, which would leave some tasty matchups in the secondary for our speedsters. Pretty intriguing if you think about it

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

Number 4 is the one that matters most, and I agree 100% with it. Echoes my comments in other threads today. Rogers has got to start getting the ball downfield, or we need to go heavy run with Vandy Mike.

Pretty much agree with your entire write up today. OL would benefit from Wright as well. These days in college football, most big plays in the passing game come from QB's extending plays to allow receivers time to get open downfield. We are one of the few teams in college football that continues to ask an OL to block for 7 seconds so an immobile QB can stand there until someone is open. And to make things worse, his arm strength is so bad that when he runs right or left and tries to throw on the run, if it's not a short throw to someone coming back towards him...he won't be able to make it.
It's painful to say, but when Will is on the run trying to pass, he reminds me of 12 year old me trying to throw an adult sized football with small hands....it's like he can barely hold it while running, much less make any type of strong throw downfield.
And I hate to be so harsh, bc he's a great kid and I want him to succeed....but it's painfully obvious that he continues to limit our offense.

And the more I rewatch yesterday's game, the more I'm really starting to wish we would consider going with a Relf/Fitz style game plan and just sacrifice passing accuracy for a chance at the offense hitting more home runs and scoring more points. We would put so much more pressure on the Defenses we face.

I would hate to lineup against Wright and Woody in the backfield, and Creed Tulu & Xavion out wide. That's a lot of Home run potential...and you would HAVE to bring help to defend the run, which would leave some tasty matchups in the secondary for our speedsters. Pretty intriguing if you think about it

YES! play action slant would just need 1 missed tackle to go to the house, and I find it hard to believe Wright can't throw a slant. If will doesn't play better Wright will take over. I said inanother thread, but I bet Wills low ceiling comes to a head vs LSU and Wright is far more effective, forcing a change. Well see. There's a reason Will is the starter but he's playing awful

[DawgFromOxford]

Who had special teams as MVP for game 1?

In the first half, the defense seemed to be slow getting to the edge. Outside runs gave us problems but we seemed pretty stout up the middle. Opposite seemed to be true on offense. 0 push up the middle but found success on the edges. Didn't get to watch as much of the second half, so not sure if either of those got better or worse as the game went on.

[confucius say]

Too much workload for marks. Not sustainable. Use our depth there.

[Mjoelner34]

3. Special Teams? Yes Sir. Our new FG kicker is the step-son of a college teammate of mine who is a really good dude. Very happy for him on his upgrade on his 2nd wife as well as his step son's college debut. Knocked down his first two FG's from fairly deep. Us left-footed kickers are special. Well done. The punting was solid. A blocked punt for a TD. Looked really good on ST's. I wish we would go ahead and kick it out of the EZ on kickoffs instead of trying to pin them deep but that is just a philosophical difference of opinion.



I think the punting was anything but solid. Two for an average of 37.5. Yes, one he was trying to pin them inside the 20 and made it to the 19. Not really a coffin corner kick. The other we were punting from our own 30 something and still hit a 30 yarder.

[confucius say]

No replacement for Forbes or wheat. Furge May get abused.

OL is old but not very talented. No nfl guys.

Sticking with 7-5/8-4

[CadaverDawg]

Too much workload for marks. Not sustainable. Use our depth there.

I agree.

And I love Woody and some of our other backs...but I am not in the camp of thinking this is one of our best stables of backs ever. I think we have 3-4 solid #2 type RB's, but there isn't a Norwood, Boobie, JJ Johnson in the bunch in my opinion. Still plenty to win with, but we are not going to beat good teams riding any of these guys for 30 carries. Especially unless the OL gets more physical

[CadaverDawg]

I think the punting was anything but solid. Two for an average of 37.5. Yes, one he was trying to pin them inside the 20 and made it to the 19. Not really a coffin corner kick. The other we were punting from our own 30 something and still hit a 30 yarder.

Yeah I thought the point of an Aussie punter is to kick to angles and get it bouncing....our guy kicked it Aussie style but right down the middle and to the returner. And not for a good average.

FG kicker could be a good one

[Dawgface]

Number 4 is the one that matters most, and I agree 100% with it. Echoes my comments in other threads today. Rogers has got to start getting the ball downfield, or we need to go heavy run with Vandy Mike.

Pretty much agree with your entire write up today. OL would benefit from Wright as well. These days in college football, most big plays in the passing game come from QB's extending plays to allow receivers time to get open downfield. We are one of the few teams in college football that continues to ask an OL to block for 7 seconds so an immobile QB can stand there until someone is open. And to make things worse, his arm strength is so bad that when he runs right or left and tries to throw on the run, if it's not a short throw to someone coming back towards him...he won't be able to make it.
It's painful to say, but when Will is on the run trying to pass, he reminds me of 12 year old me trying to throw an adult sized football with small hands....it's like he can barely hold it while running, much less make any type of strong throw downfield.
And I hate to be so harsh, bc he's a great kid and I want him to succeed....but it's painfully obvious that he continues to limit our offense.

And the more I rewatch yesterday's game, the more I'm really starting to wish we would consider going with a Relf/Fitz style game plan and just sacrifice passing accuracy for a chance at the offense hitting more home runs and scoring more points. We would put so much more pressure on the Defenses we face.

I would hate to lineup against Wright and Woody in the backfield, and Creed Tulu & Xavion out wide. That's a lot of Home run potential...and you would HAVE to bring help to defend the run, which would leave some tasty matchups in the secondary for our speedsters. Pretty intriguing if you think about it

I'm with you. Not wishing anything bad for Will. Hope he tears it up.

[Coach34]

I think the punting was anything but solid. Two for an average of 37.5. Yes, one he was trying to pin them inside the 20 and made it to the 19. Not really a coffin corner kick. The other we were punting from our own 30 something and still hit a 30 yarder.

Punting was solid means that they returned no punts and our net punting was 37.5. It does no good to punt it 50 yards and then allow a 15 yard return for a 35 net.

[Coach34]

Too much workload for marks. Not sustainable. Use our depth there.

Meh- 19 carries isnt bad. Should he probably stay around 15? Maybe.

I really liked the 39 runs to 29 passes. Perfect split to me offensively

[Lord McBuckethead]

No one wishes Will comes out slinging more than I do, against Arizona and gets to complete a few 30 yard TDs, but he doesn?t flash that even with the entire offseason to get good at it.

I will be the first to admit I am wrong, but I see tons of plays being made today by QBs all over the SEC that we just cannot make or shall I say don?t make for whatever reason.

Just seems like we have been saying this week in and out for 2 years now, and we will be saying it for this entire year.

[Commercecomet24]

Great write up and glad you?re still around to do it! Good solid win. Pittman runs like a tank too!

[confucius say]

Meh- 19 carries isnt bad. Should he probably stay around 15? Maybe.

I really liked the 39 runs to 29 passes. Perfect split to me offensively

Against an fcs team. 24 touches.

20 carries a game and he won't be fresh come november. If available at all.

If you can run the ball, I agree. Hope we will be able too starting in two weeks.

[Westdawg]

Against an fcs team. 24 touches.

20 carries a game and he won't be fresh come november. If available at all.

If you can run the ball, I agree. Hope we will be able too starting in two weeks.

You need to realize that he?s not taking the punishment he took the past couple of seasons even if he gets 20-25 touches a game. There?s a huge difference in hitting lanes and going upfield and being tackled, versus getting a LATE flat/swing route pass where the LB or DB is coming full steam and trucks him multiple times a game.

[Commercecomet24]

Oh and zero count ?em zero pre snap penalties and none at all on offense! Disciplined!

[Tater]

Oh and zero count ?em zero pre snap penalties and none at all on offense! Disciplined!

Watching the FSU / LSU disparity in penalties, I have a feeling that won't be the case come week 3. But much needed to see.

[dawgday166]

You need to realize that he?s not taking the punishment he took the past couple of seasons even if he gets 20-25 touches a game. There?s a huge difference in hitting lanes and going upfield and being tackled, versus getting a LATE flat/swing route pass where the LB or DB is coming full steam and trucks him multiple times a game.

Swing passes are never late. Bucky will be along directly to make sure you know that.

[Commercecomet24]

Watching the FSU / LSU disparity in penalties, I have a feeling that won't be the case come week 3. But much needed to see.

I?m just impressed with the lack of pre snap penalties. I?ve never seen a State team do that in game 1.

[Tater]

I?m just impressed with the lack of pre snap penalties. I?ve never seen a State team do that in game 1.

True that. I'll probably re watch it and watch arizona film tomorrow. Curious what all I missed watching it emotionally.

[Really Clark?]

I?m just impressed with the lack of pre snap penalties. I?ve never seen a State team do that in game 1.

Very true, the refs did miss a pretty obvious false start but we were pretty clean all game

[Bdawg]

I?m just impressed with the lack of pre snap penalties. I?ve never seen a State team do that in game 1.

Truth!! I’m very impressed!!!

[Bothrops]

Best group of RBs we've had in a while. Also Bellazar may be the fastest guy I've seen in maroon on offense in years. I hope he can get the touches he needs.

[MrCoachKlein]

Thanks coach. Good read.

Corn is overrated.

[Commercecomet24]

True that. I'll probably re watch it and watch arizona film tomorrow. Curious what all I missed watching it emotionally.

Lol I do the same thing!

[TaleofTwoDogs]

5. Marks runs so damn hard & never let's up. Like his hair is on fire. Love that about him. Also looks 100%

HAIL STATE!!!!

That explains why Rogers sticks his Bic lighter in Woody's ear hole before each play!

[coachnorm]

You need to realize that he?s not taking the punishment he took the past couple of seasons even if he gets 20-25 touches a game. There?s a huge difference in hitting lanes and going upfield and being tackled, versus getting a LATE flat/swing route pass where the LB or DB is coming full steam and trucks him multiple times a game.

Consider me on the Westdawg train about SWING/SCRUB passes.

[Commercecomet24]

I?m really impressed with our speed at skill positions. Wright, Davis, Whittemore, Bellazar, Tulu, Zavion(who didn?t even play) can all absolutely fly! Throw in Walley, Marks, Price and a couple who aren?t slow and we?ve got more team speed at skill positions than I ever remember.

[confucius say]

You need to realize that he?s not taking the punishment he took the past couple of seasons even if he gets 20-25 touches a game. There?s a huge difference in hitting lanes and going upfield and being tackled, versus getting a LATE flat/swing route pass where the LB or DB is coming full steam and trucks him multiple times a game.

Agreed. That's why he was always banged up the last three years.

But the same will be true this year if he averages 20 Carries a game.