I see a lot of you questioning Leach's decisions.....

[Todd4State]

Oh it can. But against ark our wr just kept running like they were against man most of the time. And against UK and even A&M the two meshing would squat 3 yards apart. smh. It's a play that should and does work against even an 8 man drop we just didn't do it well, needless to say.

THIS

[Todd4State]

Nothing changed, we just didn't understand one very important point.

The offense is simple to understand with only a few plays but it is not simple to execute.

In order for this offense to be successful they have all be on the same page and they simply are not. We did not understand how much missing spring meant, no summer workouts etc... On any given play, we may only have two WR's running the correct routes properly.

I hope to see progress in all aspects by the end of the year. Wins and losses mean little to me at this point but seeing improved execution levels will. Lord knows I hope the line gets better at what they are doing. Who knows, we still might win a few more.

And THIS

[Jarius]

3-8 with good athletes he hasn't. That is what he will face in literally every single conference game.

He has a 7-2 record against Texas A&M. He had a winning record against many teams with better defenses than the ones we have been getting embarrassed by.....this keeps getting repeated but it’s very wrong. The idea that Arkansas, Kentucky, and A&M are defensive fronts that are superior to ones that he has shredded before is just not true.

[HancockCountyDog]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0RpmCYPXE

.

Did you actually watch that game? Stanford rushed 4 a ton in that game. They played a ton of man coverage.

You may be right about Leach, but that game showed nothing.

[HancockCountyDog]

I think Leach will succeed at MSU. He has everywhere else, with less talent, since 1997.
And since 1997, teams have used a 3 man rush 8 man zone vs a leach air raid.

Leach has won 2/3rds of his games over 18 years as a power 5 head coach, This is not Croom or JOMO with 0 years as a head coach.

And if our line is not blocking the front 3, You think the OL will magically be able to block 5 on a running play? Running the ball will not do shit either if we don't block.

Stick to hoops.

You are simply wrong about teams rushing 3 and dropping 8 against him for 20 years; it simply hasn?t happened;

Washington was the first team to run 80-90% of the game. Go back and watch any Wazzu or Tech game, teams did not strictly rush 3 and drop 8 all game. It simply didn?t happen;

I?ve watched at least a half dozen wazzu games in the last few weeks and I?m telling you, no one else has done this consistently; go show me a game other than Washington that Wazzu faced the 3-8 over 80% of the time.

Washington was the first team to be patient enough to really just dare Leach to run it and they had athletes to stop them if they did.

Look, we all want this hire to work, but simply saying ?he has beaten the 3-8 for 20 years is simply untrue?

[HancockCountyDog]

Here are some of his better games:

2008 Texas vs Texas Tech

https://youtu.be/0PY4f4awkoc

Texas rushed at least 4 almost all game.

2003 A&M vs Texas Tech

https://youtu.be/VqrLHAZoZgI

A&M brought 5 a ton in this game, Leach killed them every time they did;

2003 Tech vs black bears

https://youtu.be/sjVzVYGJ59o

Highlights only, but every time Texh is scoring, bears are bringing 4;

2017 Washington State vs USC

https://youtu.be/GHqinKQqKjY

USC rushed 4 and 5 all game, and they paid the price.

I could post as many links to as many games as you need, I promise you Leach has not faced in the last 20 years the 3-8 as consistently as he has the last 3 games.

[Virgil Caine]

During Tech and Wazzu early years, did he have a four star, experienced pro style QB in year one? KJ looking worse than he did at Stanford is a big red flag for me. I sure hope this works out because the program is losing a lot of talent to switch systems and fit Leach?s quirks.

[Maverick91]

Yes. Prepare to be the most hated team by MSESPN

At least we are getting press.

[KB21]

During Tech and Wazzu early years, did he have a four star, experienced pro style QB in year one? KJ looking worse than he did at Stanford is a big red flag for me. I sure hope this works out because the program is losing a lot of talent to switch systems and fit Leach?s quirks.

KJ's issue is physical. It's not coaching. He had that shoulder issue last year that he chose to not have surgery to correct. I don't know exactly what the shoulder issue was, but the ball is simply not coming out of his hand well.

[Cowbell]

During Tech and Wazzu early years, did he have a four star, experienced pro style QB in year one? KJ looking worse than he did at Stanford is a big red flag for me. I sure hope this works out because the program is losing a lot of talent to switch systems and fit Leach?s quirks.

Huge red flag to me too as it shows that he is not used to these kind of defenses either. He played much better at Stanford. Leach did bring this guy in for a reason and so far it shows that Leach miscalculated somewhere.

[Cowbell]

KJ's issue is physical. It's not coaching. He had that shoulder issue last year that he chose to not have surgery to correct. I don't know exactly what the shoulder issue was, but the ball is simply not coming out of his hand well.

He is also making very poor decisions. He is mentally struggling out there.

[the_real_MSU_is_us]

As it's been stated on here a number of times it's not 5 blocking 3. Our tackles are going one-on-one with SEC defensive ends and they are consistently losing.
Mullen's offense often covered up the fact that we did not have top level SEC offensive tackles. I'm not sure we can recruit the tackles we need to consistently pass block SEC defensive ends one-on-one when the ends know we are throwing the ball. There aren't many of those type tackles available.
If Leach can make this happen without changing his offense then more power to him but it looks like he may have to change things up a little. Time will tell. We don't really have a choice but to sit back and see what happens.

The splits may be a problem. However, you're stating it's 1-1 on the outside and 3-1 on the inside... yet almost half the pressures come from the inside. So clearly the problem isn't just with Eiland/Johnson or the splits being too wide to help the DE. It's some combo of coaching, scheme, and talent. We blow a ton of assignments so it's clear coaching is a big part of it. When the correct OL consistently gets hands on the correct defender, then we can find out more about talent or scheme. I will say the run blocking scheme has very little variety and that makes it easy for defenses to beat it.

The splits inside aren't wide anymore; Leach has already shown he's willing to adjust at least that much. If he's willing to do it on the interior, I'd think he's willing to do it for the tackles if he thought they needed the help.

[preachermatt83]

The 8 man zone does not "take away the mesh play". if the 5 OL block the 3 DL, there is time for all 5 in the pattern to sit in the holes of the zone. So far, out WR have either not sat in the zone holes, or the QB has not has time due to an OL whiffing on a block. (Sharpe did it 2-3 times with a man HEAD UP on him, that's why we looked better with smith playing, he blocked the guy in front of him)

Read this link
https://www.cougcenter.com/2013/4/10...ybook-the-mesh

Mesh vs zone

Exactly!!!!!