Arnett signs 3 year deal

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Originally Posted by Coach34

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

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Ive rarely agree with your takes in the past but this one seems like the easiest thing to understand and yet our fanbase just can't wrap their heads around it.

We had no talent on the defensive line, the amount of giving up certain things and taking certain risks in our scheming this year was to cover up a pretty bad DL that lost its only legit D lineman two games in. It's hard to field a competent D when you don't have horses in the trenches.

Bottom line is if you want to see an improved defense you have to go out and buy the dudes.

Arnett will do his job well if we get him the horses, if we don't we'll be singing the same song and dance.

Lebby is the guy we just need to get a few more dudes on both lines. We don't have the talent to survive bad in game decisions that all coaches make.

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Originally Posted by Coach34

Its amazing so many of our fans dont understand this. They just want to blame Lebby and Hutz instead of realizing a roster that competes starts at $25MM. Our 2025 roster was $15MM

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Our 2025 roster was 17 million and we did not spend all of our money because we couldn't get players that were worth the money we had left to accept it. You have to show proof of concept to players. I think we have done that and should be able to get better players this go round. It was not easy to get players with options to agree to come here after a 2-10 season.

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Originally Posted by BB30

Ive rarely agree with your takes in the past but this one seems like the easiest thing to understand and yet our fanbase just can't wrap their heads around it.

We had no talent on the defensive line, the amount of giving up certain things and taking certain risks in our scheming this year was to cover up a pretty bad DL that lost its only legit D lineman two games in. It's hard to field a competent D when you don't have horses in the trenches.

Bottom line is if you want to see an improved defense you have to go out and buy the dudes.

Arnett will do his job well if we get him the horses, if we don't we'll be singing the same song and dance.

Lebby is the guy we just need to get a few more dudes on both lines. We don't have the talent to survive bad in game decisions that all coaches make.

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Yes, this is on point and it’s just this simple.

People are beating up Lebby because they had no expectations for him this year. Literally every single one on this board thought he?d only win 3 games this year. You all thought that. However he went out and put together a team that had us four plays away from winning 8. The problem? He was never suppose to be in that situation per our fans. We got to see some of the younger HC shortcomings, which given time he will learn from. Look everyone hooted and holler about him getting some former DCs with experience on staff: he did that. You all wanted Hutzler gone: he let his best recruiter go.

Jimmies and Joes mixed with good coaching win. Obviously we have some good coaching but need more Jimmies and Joes along the line on both sides. We need about $14MM invested in the lines alone. We need more analyst off field. Vandy has more analysts then we do?

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

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Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

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You factor in that the #35 NIL ranking is for this team and not compounding over a few years and it shows how low the talent level and depth truly is. Because we were no where close to 35 last year.

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Originally Posted by BankerDog

People are beating up Lebby because they had no expectations for him this year. Literally every single one on this board thought he?d only win 3 games this year. You all thought that.

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That's just a rewriting of history. Plenty of posters were expecting 5, 6, 7, etc., wins.

And (I can't believe I have to say this again) you have to change your expectations when you learn more about the opponents. If we'd known that Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Tennessee would all be significantly worse than their preseason expectations, we all would have picked more wins.

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Originally Posted by PGHBulldogBG

I don?t really blame Lebby for the Tenn game. They clearly had a talent advantage and just had a better team. I actually thought he did the best he could there. His decision to not kick the field goal against UF though was clearly on him and his decision in the 2nd quarter to run the same QB run over and over was poor coaching.

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Hard to blame Lebby when Shapen through a pick six and had a strip sack

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Originally Posted by Coach34

You guys have to understand- NIL has changed EVERYTHING. Old coaching norms and conference prestige are gone.

Texas Tech is a Top 4 seed- why? They spent 35MM in NIL.

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Yep.One of their billionaire boosters did an interview. Stated plainly they saw an opportunity and knew it could be limited in the future by new laws/rules. That the time was now why there are no rules to go out and "BUY" the team we need. Literally his word.

As a result, they just landed a 5 star DE out of the state of Georgia. The #2 player in the state of Georgia.

MSU fans thought that this would make us all even. I specifically remember MSU beat guys selling that point. But we all knew that we will never out spend a lot of teams and that the pecking order was going to change.

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Originally Posted by the_real_MSU_is_us

I don't understand those of you citing our #35 NIL ranking as if that's not just proving C34s point.

#35 means there's roughly 34 teams in CFB with a more talented roster. It means never even being top 25 either in the rankings or in actual play. It means being at a talent disadvantage in 8/9 SEC games, and a massive one at that for at least 5 of them. #35 in NIL means we can't hold onto the under the radar talent we do find (see the 3 WRs and 1 QB we had to face that transferred from us to other SEC schools). Would Dak have been here in 2015 if Florida offered him $3.5m in NIL? Would Montez Sweat have returned for his Sr year if Bama offered him 700k? You can't be a developmental program if you can't pay them enough to stay once they break out. All you can do is hope to out scout the other teas, and get under the radar Portal transfers every year.... but good luck doing that year after year when other SEC schools also have 5x our recruiting budget.

No, being #35 in NIL in a conference where everyone else spends more means 6-6 is the best we can expect to average over time, and 8-4 the absolute ceiling for any particular season. 5-7 will be what a league average coaching staff achieves, and by the way we spend less on that than everyone else does too.

There's not much mystery left in college football. No dark corners for good players to go under the radar from big schools, no unknown schemes that could give our coach a large advantage. No loyalty that There's been too much money in this for too long- it's now about MONEY to buy the best. Why I've lost almost all interest in the sport.

PS, "we were 2 plays away from 7-5!" isn't really a fair comment since we were also 2 plays away from 3-9- ASU took a miracle pass because their DC called a dumb blitz, and Arky was down the wire. 5-7 is record that accurately reflects our season; we were not a 7-5 team that just got unusually unlucky.

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Agree on some points. But I disagree on the lucky part. I think we over achieved to be in positions to win.

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

That's just a rewriting of history. Plenty of posters were expecting 5, 6, 7, etc., wins.

And (I can't believe I have to say this again) you have to change your expectations when you learn more about the opponents. If we'd known that Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arizona State, Arkansas, and Tennessee would all be significantly worse than their preseason expectations, we all would have picked more wins.

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You don't have to keep saying this. We've read it all 500 times. Just because you repeat something over and over doesn't make it true. YOU believe it and that's fine, but believing we all think that way is projecting.

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Originally Posted by Turfdawg67

You don't have to keep saying this. We've read it all 500 times. Just because you repeat something over and over doesn't make it true. YOU believe it and that's fine, but believing we all think that way is projecting.

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You're fussing at the wrong person. The problem is that people keep saying over and over and over that Lebby was actually good because "nobody expected us to be as good as 5-7." You can't blame me for responding to something people put out there that I think is objectively wrong. Get mad at the people who keep starting the conversation.

I'd be perfectly happy not to discuss Lebby again until August, but if other people keep bringing him up and keep making the same old bad arguments, then I'll join in just to represent the other side of the debate.

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Originally Posted by HoopsDawg

Ehh, coaching still matters

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I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

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Originally Posted by Coach34

I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

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Glad you brought up Indiana. If Billy Napier was coaching this exact same team, they would be 7-5.

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Originally Posted by Quaoarsking

What a delusional thing to say. Nobody I talk to in real life is remotely "optimistic." Social media replies and comments are almost entirely negative. Every MSU board except this one is 80% or more "Fire Lebby."

Outside our program, nobody thinks he's doing a good job either. Try asking about him on CFB reddit - no one is impressed.



Everyone understands this. Everyone is extremely aware that we have less money than the rest of the SEC and probably will. That's why it's so important to have a coach whose strong suit is in-game coaching. Unfortunately, we have the opposite of that. A good gameday coach would have won 7 or 8 games this year even with our $15M roster.

If Lebby had done that, there really would be optimism and positive vibes all around the program.

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Lebby underachieved

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Originally Posted by Coach34

I mean it does- but you have to have talent to be successful. Texas Tech has a guy they hired from the HS ranks. Clark Lea started 2-22 in the SEC and suddenly he is a great coach now. I bet if you had given Hutz Tenn's DL he would have put a much better defense on the field this season.

I see people talking about Indiana. Their WR's are very good with one of them bailing their ass out vs Penn State at the end of the game with maybe the best catch of the season. As happy as we were with our WR's this season- they scored 10 TD's- Indy's top 2 guys had 25. They have talent

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So Shapen threw and fumbled as many TDs to the other team as Indianas WRs did? But he played the entire year? Tell me more how 35 mil could have changed that

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Originally Posted by BuckyIsAB****

So Shapen threw and fumbled as many TDs to the other team as Indianas WRs did? But he played the entire year? Tell me more how 35 mil could have changed that

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I know you’re gonna say “no way”, I mean you are a coach. But it just might have bought enough of an O line to keep him from ending up on his ass more often than not. Maybe be able to run the ball effectively when we needed to, and to possibly have quality depth.

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Originally Posted by Coursesuper

I know you’re gonna say “no way”, I mean you are a coach. But it just might have bought enough of an O line to keep him from ending up on his ass more often than not. Maybe be able to run the ball effectively when we needed to, and to possibly have quality depth.

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Show me the OL that made him fumble the ball or made him the all time leader in pick 6s in school history

Will rogers fumbled on the foot line vs ole miss (the last time we beat them) and it was totally 100000 percent on him

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Originally Posted by BuckyIsAB****

Show me the OL that made him fumble the ball or made him the all time leader in pick 6s in school history

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You know it’s not that simple, you know it’s a 22 man game, that’s a straw man argument. 74 was a lookout block waiting to happen that lead directly to a scoop and score just in that game. That’s just one example. You know exactly why. But hey don’t let that get in the way. I thought you were “out” anyway?