2021 Football Season

I realize this isn't the end of the season like it normally is, but I thought I'd look ahead to what should be a much improved team next year. We are only expecting a couple of seniors to return, and who knows if we have any more transfer out or get processed this offseason. So there will be some ebb and flow with this chart I'm sure. I'm putting in some 2021 signees that I think will contribute.

QB:
Rogers....Robertson....No idea after that

RB:
Marks/Johnson....Witherspoon (I'll be surprised if he stays)....Freshman back (Jarquez Hunter or Jaylin White if we sign him)

Outside WR:
Heath/Spivey/Griffin/Gardner/Nabers/Moore....Could look at a grad transfer here too

Inside WR:
Walley/Payton (if he returns)/Knox....Williams/Harvey

OL:
T- Cross/Dolla Bill....Kam Jones/the juco signees (not ideal bc I don't think they're good)
G- Scott Lashley (if he comes back)/Brandon Cunningham (maybe?).....Grant Jackson (?)/Makylan Pounders?/I honestly have no idea
C- Smith (eye roll)....James Jackson

DL:
I think we bump Crumedy outside and move put Jordan Davis' hand in the dirt; if not, we need a transfer DE

DE-Crumedy and Davis....Odom/Harris....Banks
DT- Pickering....Cam Young....Cooley

LB:
MLB- Watson....Strong....Johnson
OLB- Brule....Page....Groce
SAM- Wheat....Russell

CB:
Emerson and Forbes....Furdge/Richardson....Sanders

S:
FS- Preston....MJ Daniels....Lawrence
SS- Alexander (grad transfer from Kansas St)....Duncan....Craft
DAWG- Peters (should be back)....Dean....Purvis

K:
Ruiz

P:
Day


Some of the OL and S positions will be interchanged so the accuracy is probably off a little on those, but this was my best crack at it. Lots of familiar faces back with (hopefully) a spring and summer to further develop. A lot depends on the transfers we bring in.

I'm optimistic for sure.

QB- Rogers has won the job. He should only get better and better. I honestly wouldn't mind a grad transfer that maybe wants to go into coaching or something that's willing to be the back up just for depth purposes. Robertson is going to be really good too- but Will has played very well and Robertson won't be here until May so I can't really see him winning the job unless he is a Peyton Manning 2.0. If Robertson is Peyton Manning 2.0 I won't complain.

RB- Marks and Johnson are going to be solid. Both need to hit the weight room and develop which they will since they are freshmen. I'd kind of like to see Witherspoon take a step forward if he can. I agree with people that say that Marks and Johnson don't have that "wiggle". We need a back that can make people miss in space.

WR- Heath and Walley are emerging. Austin Williams is solid and has good hands. I think Tulu will emerge next year. Payton will possibly be back from what I have heard. We'll see what Nabors and Knox can give us and how quickly they can adapt- that's going to be a big key next year. Jacobi Moore will play a lot too. I'm curious about what Caleb Ducking can give us- I really liked his film but he's an unknown right now. I wouldn't mind trying to find a grad transfer that can play slot receiver for us that can make people miss in space to take some pressure off of the freshmen. Maybe Spivey will have a big year next year.

OL- Cross reminds me of Sherrod. I knew Sherrod was going to be good but he took some lumps as a freshman and sophomore. Cross has the talent to potentially be a first round pick though. Cole Smith needs to work on snapping. Clearly. Hevesy's recruiting killed us this year which is why we are having to start freshmen and sophomores across the board almost outside of Parker and Eiland. Lashley will probably move on.

I think we go:

LT- Cross
LG- Cole Smith, Kam Jones or Sharp
C- Smith or James Jackson. Really could use a JUCO or grad transfer center. I think Smith improves and wins the job.
RG- Dollar Bill, Kam Jones or Jackson or one of the JUCO's
RT- One of the JUCO's or Dollar Bill/Kam Jones

OL is going to have a lot of competition in the spring and offseason.

DL- Since no one is expecting Jones or Spencer back I think we go with Pickering at the NT spot and then move Crumedy to DE along with Jordan Davis at the other spot. Cam Young can play back-up NT adequately. I know we're looking at the JUCO/grad transfer market for DE's and that will affect what we do with Davis/Crumedy.

LB- This group should be solid even with Errol probably moving on. Brule is maybe our best player on defense and Wheat was starting to emerge before he had to quarantine. Navonteque Strong probably wins the MLB spot and his film is very impressive.

CB- Emerson and Forbes are legit SEC corners. And they're still young. We should be good here for the foreseeable future.

S- Getting Peters back next year will help and Duncan should improve as well. I really like Shawn Preston a lot and Londyn Craft has done a good job outside of the Alabama game. I just hope that Janari Dean and JP Purvis are healthy. I could see MJ Daniels and Corey Ellington playing a lot too somewhere in the secondary. We really need to get the K-State transfer and hope that he is legit. I'm not sure what we will get out of CJ Morgan unfortunately because I just don't think he will ever be 100%.

K/P/LS- We should be fine here next year. Ruiz and Christmann have both done it before in the SEC. Same with Day and Bowman. Blackwell is a good LS.

KR/PR- It would be great if we could find a gamebreaker but the current group is fine- Williams, Tulu, and Witherspoon. The way teams kick the ball nowadays you really just need guys that are going to be able to catch the ball and make good decisions more than anything else.

Overall- We're going to be better because we're going to get more reps, be stronger and hopefully not have to deal with a pandemic. I think we will also be hungry and have a chip on our shoulder next year. I'll be interested to see if some guys that we assumed were gone surprise us and come back to go out on top. I don't know how many games we have left but whether it's one or two hopefully our guys go out and finish strong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

QB- Rogers has won the job. He should only get better and better. I honestly wouldn't mind a grad transfer that maybe wants to go into coaching or something that's willing to be the back up just for depth purposes. Robertson is going to be really good too- but Will has played very well and Robertson won't be here until May so I can't really see him winning the job unless he is a Peyton Manning 2.0. If Robertson is Peyton Manning 2.0 I won't complain.

RB- Marks and Johnson are going to be solid. Both need to hit the weight room and develop which they will since they are freshmen. I'd kind of like to see Witherspoon take a step forward if he can. I agree with people that say that Marks and Johnson don't have that "wiggle". We need a back that can make people miss in space.

WR- Heath and Walley are emerging. Austin Williams is solid and has good hands. I think Tulu will emerge next year. Payton will possibly be back from what I have heard. We'll see what Nabors and Knox can give us and how quickly they can adapt- that's going to be a big key next year. Jacobi Moore will play a lot too. I'm curious about what Caleb Ducking can give us- I really liked his film but he's an unknown right now. I wouldn't mind trying to find a grad transfer that can play slot receiver for us that can make people miss in space to take some pressure off of the freshmen. Maybe Spivey will have a big year next year.

OL- Cross reminds me of Sherrod. I knew Sherrod was going to be good but he took some lumps as a freshman and sophomore. Cross has the talent to potentially be a first round pick though. Cole Smith needs to work on snapping. Clearly. Hevesy's recruiting killed us this year which is why we are having to start freshmen and sophomores across the board almost outside of Parker and Eiland. Lashley will probably move on.

I think we go:

LT- Cross
LG- Cole Smith, Kam Jones or Sharp
C- Smith or James Jackson. Really could use a JUCO or grad transfer center. I think Smith improves and wins the job.
RG- Dollar Bill, Kam Jones or Jackson or one of the JUCO's
RT- One of the JUCO's or Dollar Bill/Kam Jones

OL is going to have a lot of competition in the spring and offseason.

DL- Since no one is expecting Jones or Spencer back I think we go with Pickering at the NT spot and then move Crumedy to DE along with Jordan Davis at the other spot. Cam Young can play back-up NT adequately. I know we're looking at the JUCO/grad transfer market for DE's and that will affect what we do with Davis/Crumedy.

LB- This group should be solid even with Errol probably moving on. Brule is maybe our best player on defense and Wheat was starting to emerge before he had to quarantine. Navonteque Strong probably wins the MLB spot and his film is very impressive.

CB- Emerson and Forbes are legit SEC corners. And they're still young. We should be good here for the foreseeable future.

S- Getting Peters back next year will help and Duncan should improve as well. I really like Shawn Preston a lot and Londyn Craft has done a good job outside of the Alabama game. I just hope that Janari Dean and JP Purvis are healthy. I could see MJ Daniels and Corey Ellington playing a lot too somewhere in the secondary. We really need to get the K-State transfer and hope that he is legit. I'm not sure what we will get out of CJ Morgan unfortunately because I just don't think he will ever be 100%.

K/P/LS- We should be fine here next year. Ruiz and Christmann have both done it before in the SEC. Same with Day and Bowman. Blackwell is a good LS.

KR/PR- It would be great if we could find a gamebreaker but the current group is fine- Williams, Tulu, and Witherspoon. The way teams kick the ball nowadays you really just need guys that are going to be able to catch the ball and make good decisions more than anything else.

Overall- We're going to be better because we're going to get more reps, be stronger and hopefully not have to deal with a pandemic. I think we will also be hungry and have a chip on our shoulder next year. I'll be interested to see if some guys that we assumed were gone surprise us and come back to go out on top. I don't know how many games we have left but whether it's one or two hopefully our guys go out and finish strong.

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Great post. We'll be good next year & play near the ceiling of our talent which is about 7 or 8 wins.

I like MSU football again. For the past two years, I couldn't stand watching us play, but, even in losing, the last two weeks are the most I've enjoyed watching MSU football since 2017.

We're not good yet, but we play together, play hard, & have the ability to execute at times.

It may be the end. It seems I was the only one who noticed that the SEC announced the schedule for next week tonight. We do not play next week.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Great post. We'll be good next year & play near the ceiling of our talent which is about 7 or 8 wins.

I like MSU football again. For the past two years, I couldn't stand watching us play, but, even in losing, the last two weeks are the most I've enjoyed watching MSU football since 2017.

We're not good yet, but we play together, play hard, & have the ability to execute at times.

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Thanks! And you just mentioned the most important things that I left out. This team plays together and they're getting on the same page. Teams that do that in general have success. And why ultimately we will to. We're legitimately young right now and it shows at times.

In hindsight to me- the biggest mistake Leach made was getting Costello. If Rogers had taken all of the reps he would be even further along. Of course Will had to miss the first two games too- so it's just fubared this year no matter what.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Liverpooldawg

It may be the end. It seems I was the only one who noticed that the SEC announced the schedule for next week tonight. We do not play next week.

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They announced a couple of days ago that our game with Mizzou was postponed. I don't know about Auburn in two weeks although I expect to play that for now. Who knows about Mizzou?

It might actually be the end. We do NOT play next week. The SEC announced next week's schedule during our game. The week after hasn't been announced yet.

Lashley won't be back and if he is it won't matter

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Liverpooldawg

It may be the end. It seems I was the only one who noticed that the SEC announced the schedule for next week tonight. We do not play next week.

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You are the only one who hasn't paid attention is all