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Texas makes a lot of sense. So does Bama if the rumors around Ryan Williams hitting the portal. I've been told he is about to receive a massive pay cut which means he will be in the portal. Look for LSU to make a run at Williams and then Bama makes a run at Coleman.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
If that happens, Golesh is already in trouble.
Look for a bunch of LSU players to hit the portal in the next 48 hours. The Green kid that played TE is basically Cam Coleman for them. I'll be interested to see how many of those guys stay.
There are plenty of really nice pieces that I would love to land from that team.
The rumor going around has been that Williams is transferring to TX. Apparently Coleman to Bama is basically already a done deal. Derrick Nix going there sealed it.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
Auburn is going to be in a good bit of trouble. They are basically going to have to try to win in the SEC with USF's roster.
he's visiting there on the 3rd..........Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
OM will overpay for him. That's why he's visiting there. We don't really need to overpay for him. We have a lot of depth and talent in the LB room already. We obviously would love to have the kid, but we're not going to overpay for him at a position that we don't need to overpay because of the depth and talent we already have at the position.Quote:
Originally Posted by Homedawg
I also wouldn't be shocked if Hopkins doesn't try to change the number prior to Saturday. He did that with Hardy last year. OM and him had a number agreed upon and then Hopkins changed the number 48 hours before the visit and said Hardy wasn't coming unless the new number was agreed upon and OM backed off.
I am hopeful that the current moves we are making on the staff we are working to improve this situation with the “ agents”.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
Probably not with Lawrence Hopkins. We're going to have to overpay for one of his to get in his good graces. He wants his 30%Quote:
Originally Posted by Coursesuper
Why would they need to overpay for him? They haven't done that in the past. Also, I don't think we can say that we have talent and depth on our defense.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I mean, we gave up a ton of points and yards to practically every team we played with a pulse. I don't know how good the Jones kid is, but they only player on our defense that should have a starting spot locked up is Kelley Jones, assuming he doesn't go pro.
Tyler Lockhart is going to be in Year 2, Jalen Smith is going to be in Year 2, Derion Gullette will be in Year 2, Zakari Tillman will be in Year 4. That's why you don't overpay for Chris Jones. You don't have to. He can come in and be great depth and competition for the position. But you don't overpay at a position that you're good at when you have glaring issues at both LOS.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
OM needs perception wins. That's why they'd overpay. They overpay for perception wins in the portal. Caleb Odom's production didn't match his perception or pay when they got him. Same with Delano Townsend. He started a bunch for them but he wasn't the lockdown lineman it was perceived they were getting. Same with Kutas.
You think Chris Jones is a perception win?Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
Whatever they paid Townsend and Kutas was well worth it. Their OL was way better in 2025 than 2024. Definitely better than Jayvin James, Brennan Smith, Bouldin, Carson Lee, Koby Keenum, and Jesse (we barely knew ya) Ramil.
I don't think anyone thought Townsend or Kutas were lockdown anything. Townsend was from UAB I think and Kutas was coming off an injury.
You are also assuming all four of those LB's will be back next year. Only one for sure is Lockhart. I doubt we keep all four to be honest.
I don't know the bears LB situation other than Dottery and Perkins are both juniors and both are expected back.
Well now. We have another State fan that is more negative than me. At this rate I will not even be in the Top 50 of negative message board fans! Thanks for taking the mantel Hancock.
I actually think we are pretty solid at LB but will probably take at least one LB in the portal to go along with our HS signees.
Everyone keeps iterating it and I?ll do the same. We MUST bring in quality offensive and defensive linemen and we cannot over pay for someone who may have to compete for playing time and not be a plug and play. LB is not dire! CB depth and Dline & Oline depth are major needs.
I agree. If we can?t win the LOS or at least control it enough to allow our LBs to make plays or our QBs to stay upright and RBs from getting mauled then we are screwed! We need some real positive news in those 2 positions.
^^^
What he said. Gotta have a line that isn’t going backwards for our LBs to make plays. The backers were never badly out of position and had some nice games. I mean, we don’t have McKinney and E. Thompson back there but they’re a solid group. I wouldn’t be too worried about LB.
That guy from Temple isn’t going to cut it for sure.
he soft?Quote:
Originally Posted by BigDawg81
Weak stats...Quote:
Originally Posted by Pancho
He's a replacement for Neveah Sanders, and actually had better stats at Temple than Sanders did at NIU. We're getting him cheap to be a 3rd down pass rush guy. You take the guy all day long because it builds depth, he's cheap, and he really wants to be here.Quote:
Originally Posted by bulldawg28
If I?m not mistaking he only played 5 games idk if he got hurt or whatQuote:
Originally Posted by BigDawg81
If by cheap you mean free - then i'm all for it.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I don't want to waste even a little bit of money on a guy like this, who most likely will have the same impact as Neveah Sanders. I want to take the money we spent on Sanders, Red Hibbler, Deonte Anderson, Trevion Williams and the other Hibbler and go sign one real DL. Go get Amaris Williams from AU. He has a huge upside. I don't want to spend 50-75K here and there and all of a sudden we have a deep untalented team.
I’m not sure why anybody would spend money on these types of players especially this early. Go spend your money on legit players first. Once you got those, you can spend money on these depth pieces. You can get these types of players on the very last hours of the portal.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
Those guys have to be interested.......that's kind of an important part of this.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
Exactly, it’s not as simple as picking them off the shelf at the corner store. Typical of us not having any idea of the actual depth of the actual process.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I don't expect us to land a Cam Coleman or Kewan Lacy (when he hits the portal). I think we have to find a Will Whitson type DL that is coveted by other big time schools, and simply overpay to land him. That is where things are right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I would rather sign a few juco kids that are just happy for the opportunity like Ashun Sheppard for free and then just go after 1-2 DL that will have a chance to make a significant impact. Are we going to land the best DL in the portal? Probably not, can we land a kid like Whitson who was going to have a big year if healthy.
We got Whitson by paying a solid amount and betting on his upside. We were right. That needs to happen again, and we need to have the money to go do it. A guy like Tobi Osunsanmi from Kansas State or Wendell Gregory from Oklahoma State. These will be tough pulls, but that is why you have to put a number in front of them that is simply too tough too ignore and then they visit and then they realize that our facilities are just as nice as any other big time program.
We can't make a comparable offer on those two, it has to be a ridiculous offer. If that mean that our 3rd string DE is a walk on or a juco kid, then so be it.
By and large the players are interested in the schools that their agents tell them they need to be interested in. That isn't the case for every player, but these agents basically tell the kids - Here are 4 schools you need to look into. Usually those 4 schools are the ones with the highest offer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Coursesuper
Now that isn't always the case - look at Coleman last year - but by and large, that is how this works.
.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
Not one player is free anymore, at our level every player is receiving something.
Ok so by using your logic we just need to overpay everyone, by a large amount. So let's use that logic on a few players. We're going to use round numbers and say we're working with 12 million after retentions:Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
QB: Don't have to pay there for a starter but we'll need a backup. Going rate for a solid backup is 500K. So we'll need to go to 750K-1 million
RB: We're going to need a backup. So let's take a guy like Javontae Barnes. He'd be a solid RB2 for us. Well the market on him is going to be between 150-300K. So we need to pay him 600K by your logic because we'd also have to pay more on top of wanting to overpay because we want him to be RB2 and not the starter.
WR: We need probably 3 additional receivers. So let's take Nico Brown to start off. Transfer from Yale, he's very interested and is currently the 25th rated player in the portal. That's probably a 135-160K player. Using your logic we need to offer him 300K. Now Omarion Miller, this is the big fish I believe we will go after. He's realistically going to be a 850K-1.3 type player So again, using your logic, we need to offer him 1.7-2 mil. Now we need one more receiver, so lets just say that receiver is Jacorey Thomas from ODU. Probably like Brown, he's in that low 6 figure range. So we'd need to again offer him 250-300K.
TE: Now we're going to need a good TE because we lose Seydou. Let's just use Randy Pittman from FSU as the marker on this one. He'd probably command 175-350K. So using the overpay logic, we'd need to offer 600K.
I'm not going to continue this exercise because we've already used up about 5 million dollars and we aren't even at positions of need. Now, your rebuttal to this would be, "well we only need to overpay on the LOS." While that can be true, you're going to be left with nothing to pay the other places you need to replace production and get better. We also haven't even gotten into the depth issue we'd have under your plan. We'd waste all our money on starters and you'd want the backups to be a bunch of JUCO bandits we can get for free. That didn't exactly work out well this year.
Can we overpay if we REALLY want someone? Yes. But you can't do it at every position. Hell you can't do it at the same position. If we overpay for a guy like Xavier Chaplin or Josh Atkins, two plug and play offensive tackles, then we'd have to go cheap at other places on the OL. You just have to be comfortable, and really comfortable, with what you have coming back and the depth behind those guys. And by the way, there are positions(LT,RT,LG,DT) that I would ABSOLUTELY be ok overpaying at if it was a can't miss guy that you can get if you have to be the highest offer by 200K. But don't overpay by 500K+ just to say you did unless you WITHOUT A DOUBT know that you are getting a player that is going to produce for all 12 games and be a difference maker and a force for you. We can't have another Will Whitson situation where we overpay for a guy with injury history and he gets hurt 6 quarters into the year.
^^, This is the depth of the situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I've responded above - the key is to overpay for difference makers not depth. If we only have to overpay by 200K, that is great. I don't care if we overpay by 100 bucks, as long as we get the kid. I just don't want to lose out on a kid by 50K and then we gave a kid from Temple 50K to play 3rd string DE and make the same impact as Sanders. That is my point.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I know you can't do anything about injuries, but we have to at some point take a shot and if it works like it did with Thompson and Evans then you do it, even when it didn't work with Whitson and Hibbler.
Well the good news is we aren't going to give the kid from Temple 50K. I very seriously doubt he gets more than 10-15K.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
The thing is though, I can confidently say this too, we didn't miss out on ONE KID last year because we paid 50K to [insert player]. We actually were the best offer on multiple kids that we didn't get. Kids have to want to play for you and a lot of kids don't want to spend their last collegiate year striving for 7 wins.
Deuce Knight just hopped in the portal. I'll be interested to see how that one plays out.
LSU, bears, maybe even ND will be involved.
He isn't a starter yet, but he will be expecting starter money.
Ole Miss.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
That will be interesting. I don't think it is a great fit. He is talented, but he isn't ready and golding can't afford a year where his starting QB goes through growing pains.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
I would rather he not end up there, the kid is very talented, but I don't think he will be ready to do much next year.
Then he will transfer again. This is a kid that that committed to like 3 programs in HS and is already in the portal after Year 1. He's got 2-3 more transfers in him.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
People just don't understand this.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve
Look - I do get this, but lets see if there are impact players that sign with Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, South Carolina, or Louisville that we will really want.Quote:
Originally Posted by Homedawg
There are going to be a bunch of kids that sign where they can start and make a bunch of money.
Selling kids on a vision of 8-9 wins with KT at QB should be easier than it has been.
It will be easier to sell when he is a junior and senior. He's still learning and players need proof of concept. Now if KT has a really good bowl game that helps.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
I agree with you. We have to be different. If the going rate for a backup QB is 500k, we have to find one for 100k and give 200k more to a LT and to an Edge rusher. We cant operate like everyone else and expect to compete. Be bold and take risks.Quote:
Originally Posted by HancockCountyDog
We might as well just roll with McWhorter if you are wanting to pay 100K to a backup. You will get laughed out of every room.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoopsDawg
OM paid Chambliss 500K. That is about what we need to be paying for a backup. You need to invest in a really solid backup.
The last few pages of this thread are EXACTLY why Lane left Ole Miss. Having to budget and strategize just to be talented enough to hope that if you coach great, stay healthy, and catch some breaks, you can have a shot at a playoff, is stressful I'd imagine.
At LSU, it is more like going to Costco and making selections. Not having to worry about the balance in your account, not having to worry about kids being interested....oh, and you get paid more to do it too. Must be nice. Bc at State you have to find a way to eat filet Mignon on a ramen budget....and that's just to make a bowl game. NIL sucks
Im good with that. We cant afford to pay a backup 500k. Thats absurd and will keep us at the bottom of the conference.Quote:
Originally Posted by StarkVegasSteve