Football Depth Chart

[Goldendawg]

Well, you're an idiot. This ain't 1963 and we couldn't even put together a damn scout team last year. We win 5+ this year.

Well, I'm not an idiot and I was there in 1963, (We ended up 6-2-2), when a ranked OM team had to come from behind and chose to kick a tying FB rather than maybe lose to us. I am not an "expert" as some on this board may be or have been successful coaches, have better insight/connections or played at a higher level than me in many sports, but how many of our coaches since 1963 (or comparable with a 10 or 11 game regular schedule), have gone 2-10 and 0-8 under many different conditions? I am with you on the 5-7 and if things fall right, maybe a 6-6, (4-0 OOC and 2-6 SEC should be obtainable most years even for us with our history), or with a miracle 7-5 and the program is back on track(5-7 or better looking good and competent in all areas of the game). . Another 2-2 OOC and 0-8 and we have real issues in this NIL/Portal mess. I'll be there for every home game, win or lose for the 58th consecutive year with by family group and friends. Hoping for the best with wins and competitive, fun team to watch even in losses. Hail State, Class of '77, Late SuperDog Dad attended driving 4 hrs roundtrip days with a night shift job until I and my Sister came along and my son is Class of 2023. We are all true, hardcore State fans on this board. Don't know why some resort to name calling behind a keyboard when we have sometimes have different outlooks for our athletic program in various sports.


Looked it up not counting years with ties and Tyler's years with forfeits: Looks like we have now had 6 years with no wins in conference play since 1963.

Again not counting Tyler Forfeits: Looks like we now have 7 seasons with 2 or less wins since 1963.

Not easy being a State fan at times, but Hail State, as I wouldn't have been raised any other way , as I also raised my son!

[Todd4State]

While true, he left us with the worse roster in the conference going into 2024. 2023 would have been fine if he were alive.
His recruiting classes were almost entirely misses. Arnett compounded the issue.

Hard to say what our roster would have looked like in 2024 in the portal era. Coming off of back to back 8-9 win seasons likely- we probably would have been able to attract talent better especially considering how much our NIL has developed that past few years.

Well Leach left at 8-4 first. That was not his average either. Didn't he still finish with a losing overall record here? We were not about to go on this massive winning streak everyone thinks. Croom looked good in 07 too hugh? He won 8 games same as Leach. Saw how that ended. You can hold to that argument since he passed but fact is our D was on the skids since Leach came in and was about to come apart - and it did. We had got soft on OL too. Leach wasn't the answer. When are folks going to let him RIP.

Yes we are in trouble now; Arnet didn't dismantle MSU by himself in less than a year.

No Leach did not finish with a losing record here. And before someone grandstands with "SEC wins are the only ones that count!!!!" Dan Mullen had a losing record in SEC games. What Leach did here was very comparable to Dan in a short time span W/L record wise. Dan had a few seasons comparable or worse than 2021- 2011, 2013, and 2016. Dan also only had two seasons that were as good or better as 2022- 2010 and 2014. Croom only won 4 games the next season after 2007 so that's not very comparable and I don't think you want to compare Leach and Croom's W/L record here. And who was in charge of defensive recruiting? Yep. The guy that ran off Leach's recruits and is now on job four in three years. Leach has fired DC's before so I don't think that would have been an issue.

Tood, there are multiple situations leading to where we are now. We gave Lebby shit on platter and told him we wanted steak in year one. Leach won some games but recruiting went into the shitter with him, especially on defense.

More fans blaming Leach for Arnett's lack of ability to recruit. Too bad we didn't have David Turner recruiting...oh wait. Speaking of recruiting one of the QB's that Arnett ran off is now a Heisman contender at Baylor. That's who would have been running our offense this year.

So a bowl game every year and a 9 win season is dumpster fire? I know yall hated him and the QB but that is non sense. Moorhead was awful, Leach brought it back and was gonna be a consistent winner till God said otherwise. Keenum and Arnett then made Moorhead look like the Bear

Yep.

There were some valid problems with Leach. Him leaving a lot of the recruiting to Arnett and Dudek on defense wasnt a good move. However the culture and Leach himself was good enough to offset it a little bit. We would have been right where Mullen had us consistently if he were still with us. Every coach in the country has flaws. People are forgetting how bad we wanted Mullen gone at times. 2011 and 2017 were huge underachieving years. 2017 we flopped after the bama screw job and he was one foot out the door again. 2016 would be remembered as a catastrophe if it wasnt for 55-20 and running freeze off. I remember Damian Williams playing over fitz and losing to USA in shorty shorts

It's funny how MSU fans give Dan a complete pass for doing the same things other coaches did here.

If Leach were still alive, we would have won at least 15 games across 2023-24 (maybe more) and would be licking our lips at our schedule this year.

Any cursory look at his career record tells us what he would have done here long term.

And this...

The only reason some people don't like Leach is that they've gotten it in their heads that you're "supposed" to win football games by physically dominating other teams, running between the tackles and imposing your will on them. Those fans hate the idea of turning football into a cerebral game of outwitting and outscheming the opponent. It's not "manly" enough for them.

Ironically, the team was in much better physical shape under Leach than the coaches before or after him.

And also this... Fortunately Lebby runs the QB enough to make them happy. And fortunately for us that understand modern football we throw it enough to win games.

Very few of us don't like leach.
I have little doubt he would have kept us at least solid offensively.
The question would have been whether he could have gotten enough defensive guys out of the portal, because his recruiting, particularly on the defensive side, was D2 quality.

I think if it came down to it he would have fired Arnett. And I think we would have done well enough to attract defensive talent in the portal. At least as good as what we did this offseason which I think will be adequate to below average at worst.