And forget that, regardless of NIL and all the changes that make it borderline professional, these are still 18-22 year old mushy brained kids. They are still balancing school, living on their own, and their fat little girl friends.
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Yep, the biggest thing I take away from teams that play well at home and fold on the road is a lack of mental toughness and maturity. I don’t mean to be unfair but will really folded mentally. You have to be fearless in the pocket and not panic, especially when you have no escapability. He’s a leader but it was team wide. I’m sure leach ripped into them, but they are set to get thrashed at Bama. Hopefully we come out of there without any more injuries
And those qualities are exceedingly rare. Just look at how we rattled Max Johnson and the starter from Arky. Watching Bryce Young get walloped all game at UT and still perform the way he did should be eye-opening as to what the difference between programs like Bama and MSU is - It is honestly what separates the 5*'s from everyone else - they tend to have that maturity and poise on top of the athletic ability.
In my time as a State fan, Dak is really the only QB that I think had that ability - and even he wasn't flawless and got rattled some.
I watched some of Leachs air raid qbs at tech, and everyone of them was tough as nails and fearless in the pocket. It was kind of a prerequisite. They would hang in until the last second and take punishment. I’ve never seen one panic and throw it away when the defender isn’t within 5 to 10 yards of them. bJ Symons, Kliff , Harrell , cumbie. I think you will see the same with some of the texa qbs he’s brought in. Some of that is age and maturity but this is wills third year. He needs to be able to do that if we ever hope to win more than 8 games.
I don't thing lack of maturity can be an excuse. We returned more starters than any other SEC school in Leath's "third year". We have a couple of starters in their sixth year and many who had the covid year. They are "student athletes", but football is the major part of what many of them do. The entire team, O, D, & ST looked totally unprepared for KY. I will admit and my longtime fan observation that no matter the coach, we don't seem to handle success when we get ranked.
Yes they do, and you see it happen all the time in every sport - whether the team is full of veterans or not. No one should think or believe that this is something unique to MSU. It happened to the defending World Series champs last week. It happened to Bama - finally. Sometimes, it happens like it did to us Saturday. Sometimes, it happens like what we did to Auburn last year. Does anyone remember how Vandy just flopped against us in CWS and started committing error after error when they were the best defensive team in CBB, and their first round pitcher got lit up like a Christmas tree? Or when the Falcons shit the bed in the Super Bowl? Or when App State (3-3), Marshall (3-3), Ga Southern (4-3) and MTSU (3-4) all stood up and beat Power 5 teams at their places.
Saturday sucked. It sucks to lose. It sucks even more to lose when you are perceived to be the better team. That's sports. It's not denying that we sucked and everything went wrong.
Unless you want to be a bandwagon fan and follow only Bama, the Yankees, and Tom Brady this is life.
it is a shame that a qb like will rogers, who will not be remembered for any great wins, or getting the program to a top 10 ranking, BCS bowl, etc is breaking Dak and SEC records.
You guys that blow off sucking so easily are part of the problem. We'll be favored in 9 of 12 games this year. We were favored our last couple last year. Think about that. We've sucked. This isn't a home and road deal. It's a bad football problem. Our recruiting is shaky as hell too. We've got to really get all the priority guys and find another couple to get to normal recruiting levels.
This team can't handle physical play. LSU and KY have shown it. AL will show it this week.
We've got to hope our coaches and players figure it out. They've got 5 games to win 3 & make this a successful season.
And that double whammy game at the end is looking large.
Losing being acceptable by so many State fans. Like I said. This team should win 8 games minimum...minimum. If you can't have expectations, you just don't care about winning. Funny how another team in MS has fans that give a crap while we just sit around saying we shouldn't have expectations because we will always suck.
REP
This is an experienced team and its not like kentucky just out talented us. We went up there and played like absolute shit on offense.
If this team is mentally tough they can turn around and go into tuscaloosa with nothing to lose and put a few touchdowns on the board against alabama.
This aint 2011 NFL defense alabama. This same alabama shoudve lost to Texas with a backup qb and won by 1 point
This same bama team shouldve lost at home to A&M who we obliterated.
If we cant go into tuscaloosa and score 21 points and look competent on offense in year 3 with a 3rd year starting qb and many other juniors and seniors... We just aint any good.
All im asking for the rest of the season is Beat ETSU, Beat Auburn, and win the damn Egg Bowl and go 8-4 and get the gator bowl.
IF leach can do that, then fans will officially buy in with a year 4 starting qb returning next year and a much more favorable schedule.
We should expect 9-3 next season.