Honest questions

Well like everyone has stated this weekend sucked, and really shows the state of our football team. I'm not looking for excuses, I really just want to know if you all are seeing what I am seeing and if there are some honest answers from the group.

1. Someone asked the question of what happened from week 1 to week 2. C34 answered basically saying we have some malcontents "thanks Leach" on the team. My question is these malcontents is this to the level that Leach had to run off or is it basically fixed and the team can now start to gel.

2. I was worried during the offseason when all the biz was about our skill positions, I constantly found myself thinking "I really hope we are gathering a line to project the QB" seemingly we didn't. Is this a pure talent issue on the line or is it a gelling working together issue?

3. I have read numerous times that we do not have the talent on defense that would play at the G5 level. Is this really true? If so, does that mean that the scouting for defense the last couple of years was just terrible? Or was the development of those players not done completely? Or are we looking at a lack a pure coaching this year, the talent is there but they haven't grasped the scheme? Is it purely a depth

4. This might be over thinking, but it did and currently does bother me about Lebby. His current pillars of building a program are:
1. Have fun
2. Be tough
3. Be competitive
4. Be accountable
I would say I didn't have a leg to stand on if they didn't crap the bed the past two weeks. But having fun at the top sets the tone for the program. It is interesting that accountability and competitiveness are 3 and 4. Again I might be reading into but I don't think Saban would have "fun" as his number one pillar to build a program.

5. All y'all that said this year would suck, how much of the current issues did you take into account in thinking this year would suck? I'm also interesting in knowing in general why you thought this year would suck?

Here's to surprising the world and making the 🐊 lose.

#5: I thought the D would be bad because of a) lack of experience returning b) failure to bring in high impact portal players c) first time DC. I honestly thought the offense would be better. I think we do have the QB and receivers to run what Lebby wants to run and although our RB's aren't game breakers, they should be serviceable. The O line has been the biggest let down. All the transfer O lineman supposedly graded out good last year but look like total crap so far. They can't open holes for the backs or consistently give Shapen time to hit throws that would move us down the field.

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Originally Posted by Mjoelner34

#5: I thought the D would be bad because of a) lack of experience returning b) failure to bring in high impact portal players c) first time DC. I honestly thought the offense would be better. I think we do have the QB and receivers to run what Lebby wants to run and although our RB's aren't game breakers, they should be serviceable. The O line has been the biggest let down. All the transfer O lineman supposedly graded out good last year but look like total crap so far. They can't open holes for the backs or consistently give Shapen time to hit throws that would move us down the field.

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That's the thing. With a quality SEC level OL we could very well be 3-0 right now. I'm very disappointed in our OL.

A) We have rid the team of the malcontents leftover from Leach. Any left now are transfers.

B) Our lack of talent at RB makes the OL look worse than it really is. Daniels averaged 6 ypc Saturday. Compound that with lots of long downs where pass rushers can pin their ears back- it makes it tough on the OL. It's not a good OL- but it's not getting much help either

C) We just lack talent on D. Lack of recruiting the last couple of years, lack of proper portal evals, and portal misses are why we are here. Having a green DC is not helping either.

Why did I think we would be bad? lack of talent, 1st time HC, 1st time DC, lots of turnover on the team, lack of leadership

We aren't done showing guys the door.
OL portal was thin and we had a short window to work.
Defensive talent is the worst I've ever seen here and I've been here over 40 years. Injuries have made it worse too.
I thought we'd win 4-6 games and I overestimated the OL and RB spots. Lebby has a HC learning curve to overcome too. Defensive side should be burnt down and rebooted.

booth and lee are slow

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Originally Posted by Pancho

booth and lee are slow

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Booth isn't slow, he's blind

I think people underestimated the impact players like Jett, Bookie, Crumedy, Pickering, Shawn Preston, Nicholson, Richardson, Page, and Banks can have on a defense.

In 2022, we had Jalen Green, Charlton, Ty Wheat, Jackie Matthews, and Cam Young.

I mean those guys carried the defense for multiple seasons for us. Who have we replaced these guys with? There are almost 10 guys above that were in NFL training camps. We don't have that now.

Its a massive talent problem. That can't be fixed with scheme. It takes portal and recruiting. Even that, at least as far as defense goes, it takes a ton of time. The bears are just now fielding a good defense and they have been portal recruiting since day one.

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Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog

I think people underestimated the impact players like Jett, Bookie, Crumedy, Pickering, Shawn Preston, Nicholson, Richardson, Page, and Banks can have on a defense.

In 2022, we had Jalen Green, Charlton, Ty Wheat, Jackie Matthews, and Cam Young.

I mean those guys carried the defense for multiple seasons for us. Who have we replaced these guys with? There are almost 10 guys above that were in NFL training camps. We don't have that now.

Its a massive talent problem. That can't be fixed with scheme. It takes portal and recruiting. Even that, at least as far as defense goes, it takes a ton of time. The bears are just now fielding a good defense and they have been portal recruiting since day one.

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Exactly. This is pretty close to my answer. I feel like it's mostly a talent issue with us. It seems like when MSU has a talent issue it's not like they're just below average guys- they're like completely devoid of talent worst case scenario type of guys. I don't think scheme is an issue at all on the offensive side of the ball. I haven't been impressed with Hutzler though. We have no talent and he doesn't seem to do a lot to even try to mask it or even try to create pressure or confusion. It's like we line up with three guys, the defensive linemen get stood up, Stone completely whiffs on a tackle and then Isaac Smith actually makes the tackle after the other team gets like 8-15 yards on a run up the middle.

At this point if I were in Lebby's shoes I would play as many freshmen and sophomores as I could and try to build for the future.

And I can't figure out what is going on with Makylan Pounders. He looks completely lost after being one of the best OL at Memphis. It's just weird. Maybe he just needs to relax and play.

So basically from what all yall chaps have said:

1) yes we have malcontents and we have some left to kick off or change the attitudes.
2) our oline recruiting has not panned out yet and hopefully they will gel.
3) yes we have sunbelt talent on the defensive side of the ball and no amount of coaching will fix that, we are what we are this year and only recruiting will change this. (Really sad) I do blame Arnett for this.
4) y'all didn't really touch it so, I am going to stay in the camp of thinking I wish Lebby would change his order of importance.
5) basically lack of experience all around from coaching to players. Maybe even the waterboys.

This is going to be like watching Croom all over again unless our offense starts to hum.