Sports Illustrated bullish on the Bulldogs in 2022

[RiverCityDawg]

sound like you kinda saying Leach should win 8-9 games annually from here forward. I am not that confident.

I'm just refuting the idea that essentially the Leach tenure is guaranteed to peak this year and then go down hill afterwards.

I do think things line up fairly well for us this year except for the schedule, but next year things could set up well too, especially if we get some key covid seniors back. Beyond that, who knows, but there's no reason to be overly negative at this point.

[RiverCityDawg]

He'll also play in 1-2 more than JWS did each year due to extra cupcake game and everyone gets a bowl now so need to ease up on the Leach better than Jackie until he actually does something.

Didn't say Leach is better than Jackie, but I do think we win 8 games this year, which is something Jackie didn't do in 9 of his 13 years.

And the SEC, especially the West, is much more competitive now overall than it was during Jackie's days.

I'm not slamming Jackie, I love Jackie. But I am slamming the idea that what Jackie did is some level of greatness that we can't see again. We were a Burks trip and flop from 8 regular season wins last year, which is as good as it got with Jackie aside from 1999. We need to take another step forward this year, but we're not that far from the same level of success.

[AROB44]

Didn't say Leach is better than Jackie, but I do think we win 8 games this year, which is something Jackie didn't do in 9 of his 13 years.

And the SEC, especially the West, is much more competitive now overall than it was during Jackie's days.

I'm not slamming Jackie, I love Jackie. But I am slamming the idea that what Jackie did is some level of greatness that we can't see again. We were a Burks trip and flop from 8 regular season wins last year, which is as good as it got with Jackie aside from 1999. We need to take another step forward this year, but we're not that far from the same level of success.

1999 record was 10-2.

[RiverCityDawg]

A) We may get one of them back but I'm not counting on it. Especially when someone else could offer them a deal to leave. Not to mention any other breakout performers getting a BBD to leave us.

B) I'll just remind you what happened when we H2H with Mizzou in basketball for a player and got blown away. We are bottom of the SEC in money. That's just a fact. This will happen to us constantly in football and already is.

C) I dont think this staff works to find the undervalued guys that Mullen did.

D) We have no idea yet what 2023 will be. OU and Texas are still working to get out of the Big12 by next year and ESPN is already negotiating to break their ACC contract for Clemson and crew to join ASAP. That's before even breaking down any other teams for 2023.

A) We took care of some guys this year to get them to stay, we can do it again. Those guys aren't super stars, just good players very much in our "league". I agree that if we can't convince that level of player to stay versus going to another school or similar caliber then we're screwed, but there's nothing to suggest that will happen.

B) We've always been in the bottom half with everything. I'll believe we slide even further down the pecking order when I see it.

C) Leach and his staff have literally made a living out of doing this. I would say it's too early to make a determination of this at State, but we have several guys on the roster that could be those guys. Also, you probably don't take quite as many "undervalued" guys now with the portal any way.

D) The report about ESPN breaking the ACC contract was false. It came from some swimming blog guy. Don't believe everything you read on Twitter. It's possible but highly unlikely Texas and OU join next year. The real
hope is for 2024. Barring something unexpected, next year our other East opponent will be @SC and we get Arizona at home. Even after Texas and OU join its highly unlikely we have Alabama and LSU as permanent opponents. I agree it's too early to say what the schedule is going to be, yet here you are declaring that we have no chance at 10 after this year.

Let me be clear... I'm not saying we're in for a bunch of 10 win seasons with Leach. History would say it's unlikely. No coach has done it here. I just reject the idea that this year is the last gasp before things are certain to fall off the cliff. That this is as good as it can get and then we're done. That's just MSU fan self misery speaking.

[RiverCityDawg]

1999 record was 10-2.

Hence "aside from 1999"

[Coach34]

B) We've always been in the bottom half with everything. I'll believe we slide even further down the pecking order when I see it.

C) Leach and his staff have literally made a living out of doing this. I would say it's too early to make a determination of this at State, but we have several guys on the roster that could be those guys. Also, you probably don't take quite as many "undervalued" guys now with the portal any way.

I'll post this again:

4-star or better commits right now in the SEC:

UPig- 7
Tenn- 7
LSU- 10
Georgia- 9
Bama- 8
Florida- 9
SC- 5
Vandy- 1
Mizzou- 2
A&M- 3
Mississippi- 2
Auburn- 4


State? 0

NIL is now starting to kick in and we are seeing the effects. UPig has as many 4-star commits as we have commits period. SC is now recruiting better. Many of you just fail to understand the impact NIL is having now in recruiting. Tenn and others are paying top recruits to come to camp and its all legal now.

2022 is our Waterloo, Gettysburg, Battle of the Bulge in college football. This is our shot to make it happen. Things arent going to get better after this

[HoopsDawg]

I'll post this again:

4-star or better commits right now in the SEC:

UPig- 7
Tenn- 7
LSU- 10
Georgia- 9
Bama- 8
Florida- 9
SC- 5
Vandy- 1
Mizzou- 2
A&M- 3
Mississippi- 2
Auburn- 4


State? 0

NIL is now starting to kick in and we are seeing the effects. UPig has as many 4-star commits as we have commits period. SC is now recruiting better. Many of you just fail to understand the impact NIL is having now in recruiting. Tenn and others are paying top recruits to come to camp and its all legal now.

2022 is our Waterloo, Gettysburg, Battle of the Bulge in college football. This is our shot to make it happen. Things arent going to get better after this

Ouch!

[Todd4State]

If those offensive linemen leave that's a good thing because it means that they performed well enough to play in the NFL. I'm not too worried about other teams paying for our players. That's been attempted by both Ole Miss and Alabama so far and both times we were able to thwart it. And that's with NIL in its infancy.

As far as Mizzou basketball- basketball is their sport. I'm not surprised at all that they would put more into NIL than us for a basketball player. I also think Mosley didn't really want to be here.

The main issue for MSU football has always been athletic department management. Our two most successful football coaches were Jackie who was hired by the school President and Dan who was hired by Greg Byrne- by far MSU's most proactive AD. We simply do not put enough into it at that level. I believe we can do more- if we put half the effort that we put into baseball that we put into football we would be a lot better than we are now. Look at our NIL situation. It's being headed up by an alum because MSU's attempt failed miserably. And then the same with recruiting. Why are we always told that "well the football coach only wanted x amount for recruiting." Just because Dan, Moorhead, Leach etc. say that it doesn't mean that MSU has to sit there and say well that's all we're going to give. They could give more and I highly doubt he would be upset that MSU is giving him more money for recruiting. Same with an IPF. Just because Leach isn't begging for one doesn't mean that building one would be a bad idea.

The good news is Bracky Brett finally left so now at least we aren't more concerned with exemplary compliance awards than we are bowl trophys.

[Todd4State]

I'll post this again:

4-star or better commits right now in the SEC:

UPig- 7
Tenn- 7
LSU- 10
Georgia- 9
Bama- 8
Florida- 9
SC- 5
Vandy- 1
Mizzou- 2
A&M- 3
Mississippi- 2
Auburn- 4


State? 0

NIL is now starting to kick in and we are seeing the effects. UPig has as many 4-star commits as we have commits period. SC is now recruiting better. Many of you just fail to understand the impact NIL is having now in recruiting. Tenn and others are paying top recruits to come to camp and its all legal now.

2022 is our Waterloo, Gettysburg, Battle of the Bulge in college football. This is our shot to make it happen. Things arent going to get better after this

I don't think any of us really know what our full potential is as far as recruiting. We've never been able to pay players before and any attempts to be organized in the past were attacked by MSU to save face with the NCAA as we overpenalized ourselves. Our NIL is still working on getting a web site up. Once that happens in the next week or so than we can really start to see what we can do.

There were a LOT of MSU fans that were against paying players in the past because they were scared about MSU throwing them under the bus.

And I'm not saying that we're Alabama or Tennessee level if at full power- but South Carolina, Mizzou, Kentucky as far as football goes? Maybe.

Edit to say that we've also never really had a consistent football staff that focused heavily on recruiting since Jackie. That's been a major issue too.

[Coach34]

I don't think any of us really know what our full potential is as far as recruiting. We've never been able to pay players before and any attempts to be organized in the past were attacked by MSU to save face with the NCAA as we overpenalized ourselves. Our NIL is still working on getting a web site up. Once that happens in the next week or so than we can really start to see what we can do.

There were a LOT of MSU fans that were against paying players in the past because they were scared about MSU throwing them under the bus.

And I'm not saying that we're Alabama or Tennessee level if at full power- but South Carolina, Mizzou, Kentucky as far as football goes? Maybe.

Edit to say that we've also never really had a consistent football staff that focused heavily on recruiting since Jackie. That's been a major issue too.

Well- we see where we are today vs the rest of the SEC. 14th

[RiverCityDawg]

I'll post this again:

4-star or better commits right now in the SEC:

UPig- 7
Tenn- 7
LSU- 10
Georgia- 9
Bama- 8
Florida- 9
SC- 5
Vandy- 1
Mizzou- 2
A&M- 3
Mississippi- 2
Auburn- 4


State? 0

NIL is now starting to kick in and we are seeing the effects. UPig has as many 4-star commits as we have commits period. SC is now recruiting better. Many of you just fail to understand the impact NIL is having now in recruiting. Tenn and others are paying top recruits to come to camp and its all legal now.

2022 is our Waterloo, Gettysburg, Battle of the Bulge in college football. This is our shot to make it happen. Things arent going to get better after this

It's early July. We'll finish ranked 27-32 nationally and bottom half of the conference like always. Always been like that, always will, NIL or not.

[RezDog7]

We lose alot after this season and NIL is a full go in this recruiting cycle across the country. Our recruiting will slowly get worse in football while the middle of the SEC- gets stronger with the money they spend. Plus the SEC is adding more upper level teams that will just make our schedule that much tougher every season

This is kind of the "last hurrah" for State football

I really hate to admit it but I agree with you on this. Hopefully I'm wrong, but college football will never be the same and MSU is just not committed like other schools.

[BrunswickDawg]

I get what Coach34 is saying, and understand the pessimism. We need to figure out a way to funnel our new TV deal monies into the NIL fund. That's the opportunity that we have to compete. I guarantee other schools are thinking that way and we need to be creative. Unfortunately, that has never been our strength.

[msstate7]

4-star or better commits right now in the SEC:

UPig- 7
Tenn- 7
LSU- 10
Georgia- 9
Bama- 8
Florida- 9
SC- 5
Vandy- 1
Mizzou- 2
A&M- 3
Mississippi- 2
Auburn- 4


State? 0

Might as well throw Texas' 12 and Oklahoma's 5 in there

[Coach34]

It's early July. We'll finish ranked 27-32 nationally and bottom half of the conference like always. Always been like that, always will, NIL or not.

Unfortunately too many of our fans have this opinion/view....and that’s why we are 57th currently in recruiting

[Dawgfan77]

I would like to add a few things here.
We will never have the money that some schools do, but we are not the po ol mithippi state of the 80s 90s and early 2000's. Contrary to what some on here have stated we are actually doing very very well with the NIL deals. What we did have was a rough start to the process. As well as having to move some people and personnel around. We upgraded some staff positions as well. Now I say this to be fair that we have money and we have the investment and buy in but we also have to be smart and not just throw money away. We are much more organized than we were and we have some things working in the background that will help us.
Just throwing some actual positive news out rather than some negativity regarding our athletics.

[RiverCityDawg]

Unfortunately too many of our fans have this opinion/view....and that’s why we are 57th currently in recruiting

And you thinking the world is ending is going to help? Okay.

My opinion that we aren't going to fall off the cliff and will keep up with NIL just fine has nothing to do with our completely pointless and incomplete recruiting ranking 5 months before the early signing period.

[TALL DAWG]

We will figure this NIL out and it will take a lot of us contributing $50-$100/mth with our BIG DAWGS giving millions each yr as I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago. We can compete.

Also, I will wager something is going to happen to somewhat help level the NIL playing field within couple yrs.

[bulldawg28]

We will figure this NIL out and it will take a lot of us contributing $50-$100/mth with our BIG DAWGS giving millions each yr as I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago. We can compete.

Also, I will wager something is going to happen to somewhat help level the NIL playing field within couple yrs.

99 says he's donating millions so we should be good.

[R2Dawg]

Didn't say Leach is better than Jackie, but I do think we win 8 games this year, which is something Jackie didn't do in 9 of his 13 years.

And the SEC, especially the West, is much more competitive now overall than it was during Jackie's days.

I'm not slamming Jackie, I love Jackie. But I am slamming the idea that what Jackie did is some level of greatness that we can't see again. We were a Burks trip and flop from 8 regular season wins last year, which is as good as it got with Jackie aside from 1999. We need to take another step forward this year, but we're not that far from the same level of success.

It is a lot easier to win 8 games now than back then - see my previous post. We get an extra cupcake and any team with a pulse gets a bowl now in which we usually have the advantage. That is 2 almost Ws that Jackie didn't get. Going by total wins is total BS for comparisons.

I never said we can't get there again. We did for a short season with Dan.

The SEC was just as good back then (minus the level Bama has been), other than that, no difference. LSU sucked last couple years. TAMU has been a joke. Aub has been down. Ark has sucked for a decade. So outside of Bama how is SEC better now than the 90s? UF and UT were better than all the SECW now minus Bama. Jackie beat them all and a lot of times made them like it.

I'm not sure if Jackie is the greatest or not or Dan but the constant downplay of what Jackie did is not a good reflection of history.