What I want to see improve with our football program

There are two main things I want to see Joe and MSU get better right now.

1. Cut out the on the field lack of discipline issues. I'm talking about throat slashes- I think that happened twice this year. Spinning the ball in front of an official. Things that are unnecessary. They're also disrespectful to the game. Actually quit being cocky and arrogant until at least the bowl game and season are over. Finish your job and then get rewarded in January.


2. Do a better job with travel during the bowl season. I'm not sure whose fault that was with the airplane but if it's a result of us being cheap then we need to spend a little extra to correct that. That kind of disorganization I think sort of set the tone during bowl season for us and I believe it cost us a practice or two during bowl prep. Practice that we obviously could have used. We should act like a first class SEC school and not some Sun Belt team that is going to a bowl for the first time in 20 years.

3. Quit the 'check with me' crap on every play which disrupts the flow and causes us to snap the ball with only 2 or 3 seconds on the clock.

If we're truly running an RPO, is there any defensive alignment where RB run, QB run and QB pass are all locked down before the ball is even snapped? I'm guessing probably not which is why I see no need for the 'check with me'.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

There are two main things I want to see Joe and MSU get better right now.

1. Cut out the on the field lack of discipline issues. I'm talking about throat slashes- I think that happened twice this year. Spinning the ball in front of an official. Things that are unnecessary. They're also disrespectful to the game. Actually quit being cocky and arrogant until at least the bowl game and season are over. Finish your job and then get rewarded in January.


2. Do a better job with travel during the bowl season. I'm not sure whose fault that was with the airplane but if it's a result of us being cheap then we need to spend a little extra to correct that. That kind of disorganization I think sort of set the tone during bowl season for us and I believe it cost us a practice or two during bowl prep. Practice that we obviously could have used. We should act like a first class SEC school and not some Sun Belt team that is going to a bowl for the first time in 20 years.

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I agree with both of these points-particularly the first. We are not a very disciplined team, and this falls on the Head Coach. I really believe the lack of discipline cost us the Kentucky game. One more point-I wish he get the play off faster and quit making the QB look over at him to see what play he wants to run. I think this delay throws our offense off kilter.

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Originally Posted by Mjoelner34

3. Quit the 'check with me' crap on every play which disrupts the flow and causes us to snap the ball with only 2 or 3 seconds on the clock.

If we're truly running an RPO, is there any defensive alignment where RB run, QB run and QB pass are all locked down before the ball is even snapped? I'm guessing probably not which is why I see no need for the 'check with me'.

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Originally Posted by NCDawg

I agree with both of these points-particularly the first. We are not a very disciplined team, and this falls on the Head Coach. I really believe the lack of discipline cost us the Kentucky game. One more point-I wish he get the play off faster and quit making the QB look over at him to see what play he wants to run. I think this delay throws our offense off kilter.

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I'm interested to see next year if the offense and the check with me's improve next year with a different QB. Not sure whether they will or not. Lack of discipline not only cost us the Kentucky game- but the Outback Bowl as well.

People need to pitch #2 as being something that is anybody at MSU's fault. Planes break down. If you travel with any frequency at all, it happens, and it happens to every single airline and charter service. I'll give you a tip - it happens with charter bus companies too. Frequently. And guess what - neither have a whole lot in the way of back up fleets. Why? Because they need those planes and buses rolling to make money.

Could Cohen have made choice based on money? Possibly. But if you have bid for transportation services, you know that airlines/buses charge more for certain locations based on where their hubs are - just like when you buy a plane ticket. I bet all of you base your travel plans on costs - why shouldn't our AD? If Southwest charged $10k a plane for this trip and normally charges us $5k, and another company offers to do it for $7k then you go with the lesser company. It's not like they decided to be cheap and load them on buses with the band for a 12 hour bus ride. People are just looking for dumb ass reasons to blame people. Grow up.

It was a chartered plane. Not a whole lot cheap has to do with it.

Add no smack talking before games and no bullshit tweets. And I'd get rid of that ridiculous "dunk contest" when we score a TD. Act like you been there before.

Also be more organized during games. We looked Croom level at times as a staff during games. Those 2 quick TOs in 3rd qtr against Iowa were just plain stupid. And also Joe needs to get better at clock management.

#2 was due to our Athletic Department being cheap. We went away from our normal charter airlines to a discount charter..should have never happened and threw the whole trip in disarray for two days. We had players scattered from Starkville to Tampa for two days while Iowa was there practicing and participating in Bowl activities.

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Originally Posted by Leeshouldveflanked

#2 was due to our Athletic Department being cheap. We went away from our normal charter airlines to a discount charter..should have never happened and threw the whole trip in disarray for two days. We had players scattered from Starkville to Tampa for two days while Iowa was there practicing and participating in Bowl activities.

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And you know this how?? Yes I know they were scattered. But how do you know what the decision making process was and you know for a fact we did something not normal.

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Originally Posted by dawgday166

Add no smack talking before games and no bullshit tweets. And I'd get rid of that ridiculous "dunk contest" when we score a TD. Act like you been there before.

Also be more organized during games. We looked Croom level at times as a staff during games. Those 2 quick TOs in 3rd qtr against Iowa were just plain stupid. And also Joe needs to get better at clock management.

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You do know that the first timeout was because the play clock wasn't set properly and Joe was pushing the refs to stop play and reset it. They didn't. He called TO to avoid a penalty.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

You do know that the first timeout was because the play clock wasn't set properly and Joe was pushing the refs to stop play and reset it. They didn't. He called TO to avoid a penalty.

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No ... I didn't know that so he gets a pass on that one. But overall my recollection is we tended to use TOs too much this year due to not getting play called in time or substitution issues. Gotta clean those up IMO.

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Originally Posted by BrunswickDawg

And you know this how?? Yes I know they were scattered. But how do you know what the decision making process was and you know for a fact we did something not normal.

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Because they used a no-name charter instead of their usual flight provider. He’s correct. Just like we’ve whacked the hell out of marketing. Cohen has a lot of LT in him when it comes to budgeting.

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Originally Posted by Cooterpoot

Because they used a no-name charter instead of their usual flight provider. He’s correct. Just like we’ve whacked the hell out of marketing. Cohen has a lot of LT in him when it comes to budgeting.

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They didn?t use a Southwest 737 because 70 of the players met the team in Tampa on their on.

Did the plane cost us some of our 15 bowl practices? I'm not sure how this is to blame for us losing. We sure have lots of excuses.

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Originally Posted by WinningIsRelentless

They didn?t use a Southwest 737 because 70 of the players met the team in Tampa on their on.

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This is why I say people don't know jack about the decision making process and how travel is handled.

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Originally Posted by dawgday166

And I'd get rid of that ridiculous "dunk contest" when we score a TD. Act like you been there before.

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Every team does stuff like that. The players like it and it doesn't hurt anything.

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Originally Posted by NCDawg

I agree with both of these points-particularly the first. We are not a very disciplined team, and this falls on the Head Coach. I really believe the lack of discipline cost us the Kentucky game. One more point-I wish he get the play off faster and quit making the QB look over at him to see what play he wants to run. I think this delay throws our offense off kilter.

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Yep, can't help but believe that in this area Mullen being a hardass probably helped.

As far as running the play clock down every play with the check with me’s, I keep thinking about JoMo saying before the season that we will be a left lane team. Which to me meant we would be wide open on offense and playing at a fast pace. Not puttering along at the speed limit. Maybe I interpreted it wrong.

The biggest change I want to see in our program is losing fans like ShotgunDawg

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Originally Posted by msstate7

Did the plane cost us some of our 15 bowl practices? I'm not sure how this is to blame for us losing. We sure have lots of excuses.

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It did cost us a practice or two. But on top of that I think it took away from the bowl experience for our players and made us look second rate to a bowl that already thinks we're second rate. Losing practice may not be why we lost. But I certainly believe practice helps you win. Especially after a month layoff.