War Machine Dawg
09-17-2023, 04:09 PM
I'm not going to talk much about any specific observations from yesterday's mauling. This will be a much more high level/overview discussion. Going to dispense with the usual Offense-Defense-ST & Coaching format this week, because it doesn't make sense for what I want to say. So here we go:
The Overview/Problems:
1. Will isn't an SEC QB, maybe not a P5 or D1 QB. Many of us have been saying it for years, but it's become obvious to all but the Will worshippers who pray to a shrine of him every night. With the numbers he put up the last 3 years, the NFL should've been begging him to leave early. The fact they weren't says all you need to know. He's bouncing 5 yard passes in the dirt and throwing bubble screens at his receivers' shins. Pull the plug, it's over, everyone who isn't a cultist has seen enough.
2. Our OL is bad. Really bad.
3. Defense can't stop the pass or generate any pass rush without blitzing. They make up for it by not stopping the run too. You can't win giving up 500 yards of offense every week.
4. I'm glad someone is scared of our DBs, because no one outside of Starkville is. Don't think I'd ever run against us, other than the occasional "keep 'em honest" run.
5. I really don't want to panic or overreact after just 3 games. But it feels like we're getting worse each week, not better. No one came out of that game with any credit. Not the defense, certainly not the offense. Our punter deserves some praise, because he's the only one who actually did anything. And our KOR team and Woody. That's it. Everyone else was trash. Yesterday's game gave me Croom/Joe Mo vibes.
6. I have some sympathy with the hiring process. Nobody expected Leach to pass. We didn't have an AD in place. Leach died at a time when several candidates we probably would've liked to look at were off the board. Arnett was a hot name as a potential HC within coordinator circles. We may have hired him 1-2 years early, but it definitely wasn't some terrible idea to promote him. We knew there'd be growing pains and we're seeing them. Do we have the patience to ride them out? Can they be ridden out? We're going to find out very soon one way or another.
7. I have zero sympathy with the staff around Arnett we assembled. Some of those decisions were his and he has to take responsibility for them. Why did we bring in Friend to coach the OL? Auburn was ecstatic to be shot of him. Barbay, liked the hire, but we need to see some improvement. But the bigger red flag for me is promoting Brock to DC. Which leads me to...
8. Brock isn't ready to be DC. Yeah, we lost Forbes and a couple of DBs. But most of the D is back. And we don't just replace first round CBs, granted. There's no reason for the D to look this bad though. That's on Brock. But more than that, it's on Arnett. If he wasn't going to run the D himself, he should have done a national search and hired an experienced, qualified DC. I understand wanting to keep your system. But either run it yourself or recognize you need to hand it off to an experienced DC you don't have to worry about as a first time HC, even if that means a new defensive system. Instead, he promoted his buddy. Not good by any standard.
9. Barbay isn't the problem with the offense per se. The power spread is fine. What is a problem in terms of coaching is how lost we look. OL has forgotten how to pass block in just one offseason. They make up for it by forgetting how to run block in 3 games. We've got some WR talent. Tulu, Zavion, Creed, Walley all need to be force fed touches, but Will can't get the ball to them. Plays are there to be made, but we're not executing at a level to make them, especially at QB. That said, Friend needs to go, yesterday. Knox is a very good recruiter and solid RB coach. Jury is out on Bump, but I'm willing to give it some time. Good thing is he's apparently a beast mode recruiter.
10. CFB is semi-pro now. Treat all coaches and players like mercenaries at your school solely for the money, because that's exactly the situation. The "amateur athlete" fig leaf is totally gone in the era of NIL and 18 year old kids making more for playing a game than most of the fans in the stands make.
Solution Ideas:
Ok, fully admit these may or may not work. This is totally a what I'd do/would like to see done/common sense changes section:
1. Call in Brock. Tell him I'm taking back the DC play calls. Have a very honest conversation. Tell him he isn't ready yet, and that's my fault as HC for putting you in that position. Explain that you still believe in him and his ability to be a DC. Make a commitment to spend time teaching him everything I know about the 4-3-3 and draw up each game plan together every week. Allow him to have real input into the game plan. Give him a series each half to call the plays on D in every SEC game. Maybe give him a whole half and let him develop the entire game plan with you in the room to give input for the OOC games.
2. Call in Barbay. Tell him in no uncertain terms it's time to sit Will. Simplify the offense for Wright and/or Parson. If that means you take away their ability to audible at the line, then do it. But going forward, Wright should start. Parson should be #2 and get significant minutes each week. I'm tempted to say pull the redshirt off Parson and roll with him, but there's rumor of him nursing some sort of injury. If that's legit, go with Wright. But we can't let Will continue to drive the offense into the ground.
3. Fire Friend. I know we probably have to wait to the end of the season, but he's gotta go at the first available opportunity. For now, I'd try to quietly hand all his duties to the other OL coach and have him doing as little as possible.
4. Call in Will. Thank him for his contributions to the program and for being an excellent representative of MSU. Explain that we're going a different direction at QB and that mobility is at a premium, so he'll be the emergency QB for the remainder of the season. Hate it worked out this way, but that's football.
5. Selmon needs to have a HC short list ready to go in case it comes to that. I know some think he won't make a change in his first year on the job because he didn't make a change in baseball. Bollocks that. Football is different. It's the revenue generator that pays for your entire athletics department. We're spoiled because our baseball team turns a profit. But for 98% of schools, what they can do in other sports is directly related to how much money football generates. Selmon isn't tied to Arnett, so there's no loyalty to stop him from making the change if things don't show improvement or continue to get worse.
My Philosophy and General Ideas
1. I'm firmly of the opinion that most schools, but specifically MSU, need to be hiring offensive HCs. The modern game is about outscoring opponents 38-31. The days of winning 14-10 are gone and not coming back. By their nature, DCs prefer that 14-10 style of game. They're control freaks who can't stand the high scoring modern game. Arnett showed us that last week when he admitted to telling Barbay to run the ball more to give the D a blow. I don't care if it's power spread, modernized Air Raid, Pistol, or modernized triple option. But it needs to be someone who understands you better score a minimum of 28 points every week to have a chance to win.
2. MSU needs a mobile QB. This is inarguable. Even Nick Saban finally started using dual threat QBs. Only a very small handful of schools have the OL to run a pro style offense with a traditional pocket passing QB. Outside of those, you need the QBs mobility to create number advantages and mismatches to be successful offensively. Even most "pro style" QBs now are at least relatively mobile, certainly compared to Will and traditional pocket passers of years gone by. The days of a Peyton, Eli, or Brady standing in the pocket like a statue are all but gone outside a very, very small group of schools.
3. Now that semi-pro, er, CFB has free agency, er, the transfer portal, talent can be amassed quickly and easily if you have the right coach. If players aren't getting it done, run them off and replace them. Between the portal and recruiting, you can quite easily and quickly overturn a roster and dramatically improve the talent level.
4. MSU needs to accept this isn't the 90s. Time to admit CFB is semi-pro and big business. Act accordingly and stick our hands in the mud like everyone else. There's no points for being the "good guys" or doing it "the right way." It's win at all costs now. The money is too big to treat it any other way. Modernize or risk losing our place in the SEC and probably the P4/5 altogether. It's that simple.
5. Go hire a big name coach. I know most hate him and think he wasn't good, but Malzahn is out there. Kick the tires on Whittingham at Utah again. Clawson at Wake Forest would be an excellent hire. Urban is a talking head for Fox Sports. Hand him a blank check and make him say no. I don't care if he's a scumbag. He wins.
6. The genesis of all these problems can be traced back to two decisions, but really one decision. The one decision was naming Cohen AD instead of hiring an actual AD. The smaller decision was Cohen hiring Leach. Many of us told you Leach's offense was an outdated gimmick and he'd leave the roster in shambles when it inevitably ended, because that's what happened everywhere else he'd been. Now here we are. Thankfully Cohen is gone and Selmon is here, so maybe some of this can finally be fixed. But when we hired Leach, we could've hired Prime. Let that sink in. Where would we be now if we were the ones to give Prime his first chance instead of Jackson State? But Cohen didn't have the vision or the stones to make that decision.
7. White helmets suck. Please stop wearing them. MSU wears maroon helmets. Period. And can we please wear all white unis on the years we host LSU and force them to wear purple? Don't know why everyone accomodates them and lets them wear their preferred white all the time. And yeah, get off my lawn while we're at it.
Anyway, just some thoughts I had rumbling around and wanted to share. We're in this muck together.
Hail State!
WMD
The Overview/Problems:
1. Will isn't an SEC QB, maybe not a P5 or D1 QB. Many of us have been saying it for years, but it's become obvious to all but the Will worshippers who pray to a shrine of him every night. With the numbers he put up the last 3 years, the NFL should've been begging him to leave early. The fact they weren't says all you need to know. He's bouncing 5 yard passes in the dirt and throwing bubble screens at his receivers' shins. Pull the plug, it's over, everyone who isn't a cultist has seen enough.
2. Our OL is bad. Really bad.
3. Defense can't stop the pass or generate any pass rush without blitzing. They make up for it by not stopping the run too. You can't win giving up 500 yards of offense every week.
4. I'm glad someone is scared of our DBs, because no one outside of Starkville is. Don't think I'd ever run against us, other than the occasional "keep 'em honest" run.
5. I really don't want to panic or overreact after just 3 games. But it feels like we're getting worse each week, not better. No one came out of that game with any credit. Not the defense, certainly not the offense. Our punter deserves some praise, because he's the only one who actually did anything. And our KOR team and Woody. That's it. Everyone else was trash. Yesterday's game gave me Croom/Joe Mo vibes.
6. I have some sympathy with the hiring process. Nobody expected Leach to pass. We didn't have an AD in place. Leach died at a time when several candidates we probably would've liked to look at were off the board. Arnett was a hot name as a potential HC within coordinator circles. We may have hired him 1-2 years early, but it definitely wasn't some terrible idea to promote him. We knew there'd be growing pains and we're seeing them. Do we have the patience to ride them out? Can they be ridden out? We're going to find out very soon one way or another.
7. I have zero sympathy with the staff around Arnett we assembled. Some of those decisions were his and he has to take responsibility for them. Why did we bring in Friend to coach the OL? Auburn was ecstatic to be shot of him. Barbay, liked the hire, but we need to see some improvement. But the bigger red flag for me is promoting Brock to DC. Which leads me to...
8. Brock isn't ready to be DC. Yeah, we lost Forbes and a couple of DBs. But most of the D is back. And we don't just replace first round CBs, granted. There's no reason for the D to look this bad though. That's on Brock. But more than that, it's on Arnett. If he wasn't going to run the D himself, he should have done a national search and hired an experienced, qualified DC. I understand wanting to keep your system. But either run it yourself or recognize you need to hand it off to an experienced DC you don't have to worry about as a first time HC, even if that means a new defensive system. Instead, he promoted his buddy. Not good by any standard.
9. Barbay isn't the problem with the offense per se. The power spread is fine. What is a problem in terms of coaching is how lost we look. OL has forgotten how to pass block in just one offseason. They make up for it by forgetting how to run block in 3 games. We've got some WR talent. Tulu, Zavion, Creed, Walley all need to be force fed touches, but Will can't get the ball to them. Plays are there to be made, but we're not executing at a level to make them, especially at QB. That said, Friend needs to go, yesterday. Knox is a very good recruiter and solid RB coach. Jury is out on Bump, but I'm willing to give it some time. Good thing is he's apparently a beast mode recruiter.
10. CFB is semi-pro now. Treat all coaches and players like mercenaries at your school solely for the money, because that's exactly the situation. The "amateur athlete" fig leaf is totally gone in the era of NIL and 18 year old kids making more for playing a game than most of the fans in the stands make.
Solution Ideas:
Ok, fully admit these may or may not work. This is totally a what I'd do/would like to see done/common sense changes section:
1. Call in Brock. Tell him I'm taking back the DC play calls. Have a very honest conversation. Tell him he isn't ready yet, and that's my fault as HC for putting you in that position. Explain that you still believe in him and his ability to be a DC. Make a commitment to spend time teaching him everything I know about the 4-3-3 and draw up each game plan together every week. Allow him to have real input into the game plan. Give him a series each half to call the plays on D in every SEC game. Maybe give him a whole half and let him develop the entire game plan with you in the room to give input for the OOC games.
2. Call in Barbay. Tell him in no uncertain terms it's time to sit Will. Simplify the offense for Wright and/or Parson. If that means you take away their ability to audible at the line, then do it. But going forward, Wright should start. Parson should be #2 and get significant minutes each week. I'm tempted to say pull the redshirt off Parson and roll with him, but there's rumor of him nursing some sort of injury. If that's legit, go with Wright. But we can't let Will continue to drive the offense into the ground.
3. Fire Friend. I know we probably have to wait to the end of the season, but he's gotta go at the first available opportunity. For now, I'd try to quietly hand all his duties to the other OL coach and have him doing as little as possible.
4. Call in Will. Thank him for his contributions to the program and for being an excellent representative of MSU. Explain that we're going a different direction at QB and that mobility is at a premium, so he'll be the emergency QB for the remainder of the season. Hate it worked out this way, but that's football.
5. Selmon needs to have a HC short list ready to go in case it comes to that. I know some think he won't make a change in his first year on the job because he didn't make a change in baseball. Bollocks that. Football is different. It's the revenue generator that pays for your entire athletics department. We're spoiled because our baseball team turns a profit. But for 98% of schools, what they can do in other sports is directly related to how much money football generates. Selmon isn't tied to Arnett, so there's no loyalty to stop him from making the change if things don't show improvement or continue to get worse.
My Philosophy and General Ideas
1. I'm firmly of the opinion that most schools, but specifically MSU, need to be hiring offensive HCs. The modern game is about outscoring opponents 38-31. The days of winning 14-10 are gone and not coming back. By their nature, DCs prefer that 14-10 style of game. They're control freaks who can't stand the high scoring modern game. Arnett showed us that last week when he admitted to telling Barbay to run the ball more to give the D a blow. I don't care if it's power spread, modernized Air Raid, Pistol, or modernized triple option. But it needs to be someone who understands you better score a minimum of 28 points every week to have a chance to win.
2. MSU needs a mobile QB. This is inarguable. Even Nick Saban finally started using dual threat QBs. Only a very small handful of schools have the OL to run a pro style offense with a traditional pocket passing QB. Outside of those, you need the QBs mobility to create number advantages and mismatches to be successful offensively. Even most "pro style" QBs now are at least relatively mobile, certainly compared to Will and traditional pocket passers of years gone by. The days of a Peyton, Eli, or Brady standing in the pocket like a statue are all but gone outside a very, very small group of schools.
3. Now that semi-pro, er, CFB has free agency, er, the transfer portal, talent can be amassed quickly and easily if you have the right coach. If players aren't getting it done, run them off and replace them. Between the portal and recruiting, you can quite easily and quickly overturn a roster and dramatically improve the talent level.
4. MSU needs to accept this isn't the 90s. Time to admit CFB is semi-pro and big business. Act accordingly and stick our hands in the mud like everyone else. There's no points for being the "good guys" or doing it "the right way." It's win at all costs now. The money is too big to treat it any other way. Modernize or risk losing our place in the SEC and probably the P4/5 altogether. It's that simple.
5. Go hire a big name coach. I know most hate him and think he wasn't good, but Malzahn is out there. Kick the tires on Whittingham at Utah again. Clawson at Wake Forest would be an excellent hire. Urban is a talking head for Fox Sports. Hand him a blank check and make him say no. I don't care if he's a scumbag. He wins.
6. The genesis of all these problems can be traced back to two decisions, but really one decision. The one decision was naming Cohen AD instead of hiring an actual AD. The smaller decision was Cohen hiring Leach. Many of us told you Leach's offense was an outdated gimmick and he'd leave the roster in shambles when it inevitably ended, because that's what happened everywhere else he'd been. Now here we are. Thankfully Cohen is gone and Selmon is here, so maybe some of this can finally be fixed. But when we hired Leach, we could've hired Prime. Let that sink in. Where would we be now if we were the ones to give Prime his first chance instead of Jackson State? But Cohen didn't have the vision or the stones to make that decision.
7. White helmets suck. Please stop wearing them. MSU wears maroon helmets. Period. And can we please wear all white unis on the years we host LSU and force them to wear purple? Don't know why everyone accomodates them and lets them wear their preferred white all the time. And yeah, get off my lawn while we're at it.
Anyway, just some thoughts I had rumbling around and wanted to share. We're in this muck together.
Hail State!
WMD