What I want to see improve with our football program

[WinningIsRelentless]

It shouldn't take them 24 hours to get a new plane when an "act of God" happens.

It is an easy fix- use a different charter service.

Well it does. It?s not like they have multiple of these 30 and 40 million dollar planes sitting and not being used. Then you have to have pilots who are trained on the planes available and not timed out for the day. So 24 hours is really a quick turn around.

[Homedawg]

It did cost us a practice or two. But on top of that I think it took away from the bowl experience for our players and made us look second rate to a bowl that already thinks we're second rate. Losing practice may not be why we lost. But I certainly believe practice helps you win. Especially after a month layoff.

It Didn't cost us a day on the field, per say, it did cost us some meeting time. And Cohen didn't pick the plane. A good number of players met us there and we took a smaller plane than normal. This had nothing to do with cheap.

[Homedawg]

So it's OK as long as we just blame everything Moorhead? But I guess since that's who you think is at fault for everything wrong with MSU football it's OK to blame him for everything- which is also an "excuse" in it's own right. And if Cohen is the one who arranges for travel it absolutely is 100% his fault. Or whoever does arrange for travel for MSU.


The practice thing to me isn't about winning or losing. It's about doing things in a first class manner and taking advantage of everything that we are given. Do you see Alabama missing bowl practices because the plane wasn't fit to fly? Do you see that happening to Louisiana Lafayette? Please correct me if I am wrong about that. MSU has a history of questionable travel methods especially in football- busing to La Tech in 2008 and then busing to Oxford on the day of the Egg Bowl in 2012 and 2014. I'm not sure why some of our fans think it's OK to not maximize every opportunity to win off the field. The small details are in part why our program is where it is historically speaking. And if I'm spending as much money as I am on MSU football in terms of tickets, BC donations, and travel I damn well do expect the AD to do everything in a first class manner for our team. And on top of that, our players missed out on some of the bowl activities which to me is an important part of it for them because they are the ones working out in the offseason, practicing, getting hurt, having a lot of their day taken up with football activities- again MSU needs to be first class and not cheap.


If you don't want to hear "excuses" - tell MSU to not do things on an organizational level to create them. And you don't have to worry about Fitz being an "excuse" anymore. Of course if you had any shred of football knowledge you would see that people aren't exactly making "excuses" for him in the first place. Joe can't make him see wide open receivers, not throw screen passes at 100 MPH, make the right read on the zone read option, or make him work on his game instead of hanging out with his girlfriend. But hey- that's all Joe's fault for not adjusting the offense to "fit his personnel" by I guess just calling straight handoffs every time because if people like you knew anything you would see that we already watered down the offense to it's bare bones almost and that's the only option left to simplify the thing.

Cohen doesn't arrange travel for ANY sport. Each sport has a staffer in charge of travel. Your speculation on this matter is just wrong.

[Todd4State]

It Didn't cost us a day on the field, per say, it did cost us some meeting time. And Cohen didn't pick the plane. A good number of players met us there and we took a smaller plane than normal. This had nothing to do with cheap.

Cohen doesn't arrange travel for ANY sport. Each sport has a staffer in charge of travel. Your speculation on this matter is just wrong.

I know Cohen doesn't arrange travel for ANY sport but since I don't know who does and he is inevitably in charge of them he's getting named by me. Just like when you screw up an order of fries and McDonald's and the customer blames your supervisor since they don't know who you are. They know the supervisor didn't screw it up personally- but they know that they are in charge of the person that did.

And there is no "speculation" here. Our flight got messed up and it cost us some bowl prep and our players missed some bowl activities. Again it's not "we lost because of the plane". It's this wasn't handled in a first class manner.

[Homedawg]

I know Cohen doesn't arrange travel for ANY sport but since I don't know who does and he is inevitably in charge of them he's getting named by me. Just like when you screw up an order of fries and McDonald's and the customer blames your supervisor since they don't know who you are. They know the supervisor didn't screw it up personally- but they know that they are in charge of the person that did.

And there is no "speculation" here. Our flight got messed up and it cost us some bowl prep and our players missed some bowl activities. Again it's not "we lost because of the plane". It's this wasn't handled in a first class manner.

Well Then, if you are so pissed about it and want to blame someone on staff that a plane broke down, which is absurd, blame moorhead who gave the guy the job to be in charge of travel. Which of course is absurd. But........

Based on your logic why not blame Keemun too while we are at it? He's in charge of the university.

[Todd4State]

Well Then, if you are so pissed about it and want to blame someone on staff that a plane broke down, which is absurd, blame moorhead who gave the guy the job to be in charge of travel. Which of course is absurd. But........

Based on your logic why not blame Keemun too while we are at it? He's in charge of the university.

I would blame Keenum if I didn't know who the AD was.

And like I said- it's an easy fix. Use a different charter next time. And I bet we do. Not saying anyone should be fired or blamed other than the charter service. Really odd that any MSU fan would defend the charter service in this case. I guess you don't want our players to enjoy their entire bowl trip which they earned?

[Homedawg]

I would blame Keenum if I didn't know who the AD was.

And like I said- it's an easy fix. Use a different charter next time. And I bet we do. Not saying anyone should be fired or blamed other than the charter service. Really odd that any MSU fan would defend the charter service in this case. I guess you don't want our players to enjoy their entire bowl trip which they earned?

Well you know who the head coach is. He's responsible for football. Blame him. Which again is stupid. Your argument about it not being first class is just beyond absurd. It wasn't like we were flying commercial. And no I'm not defending the charter company. But guess what? Shit happens. And I am defending the people who didn't have one thing to do with a plane leaving the ground. And essentially the only thing we missed was a night in a hotel. Inconvenient? Yes. But otherwise you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Especially since this is one of the improvements you want to see. Not on the list of important

[Todd4State]

Well you know who the head coach is. He's responsible for football. Blame him. Which again is stupid. Your argument about it not being first class is just beyond absurd. It wasn't like we were flying commercial. And no I'm not defending the charter company. But guess what? Shit happens. And I am defending the people who didn't have one thing to do with a plane leaving the ground. And essentially the only thing we missed was a night in a hotel. Inconvenient? Yes. But otherwise you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Especially since this is one of the improvements you want to see. Not on the list of important

I disagree. I think it's very important to be first class in everything that you do. Again- "shit happens" but has this ever happened to Alabama? Or ULL? It's the small details that differentiate programs.

[Homedawg]

I disagree. I think it's very important to be first class in everything that you do. Again- "shit happens" but has this ever happened to Alabama? Or ULL? It's the small details that differentiate programs.

Where did I say being first class wasn't important??? I didn't. I said this mishap had nothing to do with being first class. Again, we were flying charter. We weren't going lowlife. As for the bama and ULL reference, I have no idea. But I'm positive we aren't the first p5 program that had a bad charter experience. Again absurd.

[Todd4State]

Where did I say being first class wasn't important??? I didn't. I said this mishap had nothing to do with being first class. Again, we were flying charter. We weren't going lowlife. As for the bama and ULL reference, I have no idea. But I'm positive we aren't the first p5 program that had a bad charter experience. Again absurd.

You absolutely are saying that being first class isn't important if you defending the people that screwed up in your lame attempt to make this sound not that important. However I heard that Cohen AND Joe were pissed about it so I guess it was important to them. But you can tell them how "absurd" they were being about it. Instead of using Southwest we used a charter called Miami Air and that was a mistake period. Whoever you want to blame. But I bet it doesn't happen again no matter how "absurd" you think it is.

[Homedawg]

You absolutely are saying that being first class isn't important if you defending the people that screwed up in your lame attempt to make this sound not that important. However I heard that Cohen AND Joe were pissed about it so I guess it was important to them. But you can tell them how "absurd" they were being about it. Instead of using Southwest we used a charter called Miami Air and that was a mistake period. Whoever you want to blame. But I bet it doesn't happen again no matter how "absurd" you think it is.

Whatever dude. Have fun.

[WinningIsRelentless]

You absolutely are saying that being first class isn't important if you defending the people that screwed up in your lame attempt to make this sound not that important. However I heard that Cohen AND Joe were pissed about it so I guess it was important to them. But you can tell them how "absurd" they were being about it. Instead of using Southwest we used a charter called Miami Air and that was a mistake period. Whoever you want to blame. But I bet it doesn't happen again no matter how "absurd" you think it is.

Miami Air isn?t a small operation.

[BrunswickDawg]

You absolutely are saying that being first class isn't important if you defending the people that screwed up in your lame attempt to make this sound not that important. However I heard that Cohen AND Joe were pissed about it so I guess it was important to them. But you can tell them how "absurd" they were being about it. Instead of using Southwest we used a charter called Miami Air and that was a mistake period. Whoever you want to blame. But I bet it doesn't happen again no matter how "absurd" you think it is.

Miami Air's New Slogan: "Good enough for the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers, but not good enough for MSU."

[Political Hack]

1) our brand is shrinking. It was growing. I was a fan of the Cohen hire and did not have a high opinion of Strick (too soft), but Strick makes Cohen look like a rookie when it comes to fund raising and marketing.

2) Team discipline is the worst it's been since Jackie Wayne.

3) you can't call a play call with 5 seconds left in the play clock and not allow your QB a chance to scan the field pre-snap.

4) RTGDF with RBs.

5) Tweak the system to your personnel, at least a little, every single season. You need knew wrinkles and this helps create that and gets your players in the best position to win. The reluctance to make changes at times this year reminded me of Croom a little. And that's scary.

6) JoMo needs to be who he is. When fans were pissed he wasn't showing enough "fire" he came out the next game and looked "fake mad" (at least to me it looked forced). This isn't an acting contest. It's not a PR stunt. Just coach football to the best of your ability and tell the fans to deal with it while you try to win games.

7) if your offense depends on the deep ball to work, you'd better throw it in practice until it works. If it doesn't work, you'd better find someone who can make it work.

8) Related to #2, hold your team leaders accountable. Our team leader, who was already no-contact last spring got suspended for game 1. What in ever loving hell!?!?! Inexcusable as a player. Unacceptable. That's a locker room killer out the gate for the entire spring and week 1. Low and behold we fail our first two major tests in SEC play. We weren't ready.

9) Tell the SEC they can kiss our Mississippi Mud if they ever try to group us with Ole Miss ever again. A dumpster fire of a program under constant investigation that's trying to actively hurt our student-athletes (physically (Fitz) & legally (Leo)) causes 99% of the problems in the rivalry. Their actions resulted in us getting called to the commissioners office because things got heated on the field. Cohen should've declined the meeting with Sankey and invited him to a one in one sit down. Under no circumstance are we behaving like them. Not on the field. Not out on the town. Not at the police station. Not in the classroom. Not in recruiting. And not in brothels.

[Prediction? Pain.]

2) Team discipline is the worst it's been since Jackie Wayne.

For those of you who've coached football, what do y'all think most affects team discipline? Is it straight-up coaching? Are some groups of players just better at it than others? Or is it an unpredictable mix of both?

I ask because all the discipline talk spurred me to look up penalty stats and I'm not sure if I can make heads or tails out of them. If I was to venture a guess based on numbers alone, I'd say this group of players seemed to just be a little worse at on-field discipline than other groups we've seen in the past decade. But I'm not sure that squares with all the numbers.

So here are our SEC ranks in penalties per game and penalty yards per game in SEC play since 2009:

2009 - 1st, 1st
2010 - 1st, 1st
2011 - 4th, 4th
2012 - 1st, 5th
2013 - 2nd, 2nd
2014 - 7th, 4th
2015 - 2nd, 4th
2016 - 5th, 8th
2017 - 7th, 7th
2018 - 7th, 8th

So the last three years have been markedly different from the previous seven. Maybe it's a little more a function of this specific group of dudes?

But then if you look at national penalty-yards-per-penalty stats, the recent numbers are more variable (and this excludes games against FCS opponents):

2009 - 22nd
2010 - 32nd
2011 - 23rd
2012 - 53rd
2013 - 27th
2014 - 5th
2015 - 108th
2016 - 84th
2017 - 64th
2018 - 47th

Now, keep in mind that the yards-per-penalty range is fairly small, usually between 7 and 11 yards per penalty each year. So unless you're in the top or bottom part of the range in a given year, the relative rank may not mean too much. Still, it's surprising to see the drop from Mullen's first six years and his last three. Equally surprising to see the relatively good number this year (borderline top third nationally) given that our penalties per game and penalty yards per game were unchanged from the past couple of years. But maybe the addition of 4 non-con games to the mix -- 3 FBS non-cons in the regular season and 1 in each year's bowl -- made a big difference some years, including this one. I don't know.

Oh, and just in case anyone was on the fence about whether we seem to get hosed an abnormal amount year after year, here are national ranks for opponents' penalties and penalty-yards-per game:

2009 - 116th, 117th
2010 - 72nd, 87th
2011 - 55th, 46th
2012 - 102nd, 87th
2013 - 92nd, 85th
2014 - 119th, 122nd
2015 - 115th, 114th
2016 - 109th, 118th
2017 - 107th, 79th
2018 - 123rd, 127th

Same goes for SEC-only stats. Since 2009, we've been ranked 10th or lower in the SEC in SEC opponents' penalties per game seven times.

Hail State, y'all!

[Political Hack]

Holy hell. Nobody ever commits penalties against us!!!!

Penalties is certainly one measure, but arrests, suspensions, social media, and locker room commitment are tougher to measure. This team seemed to be lost at times this year and was undisciplined in key moments (drops show lack of focus, etc... in addition to penalties).

Looking at the improvement the team made after a couple of years under a new staff gives me hopes that it's just an adjustment phase with a new staff.

[Jarius]

1) our brand is shrinking. It was growing. I was a fan of the Cohen hire and did not have a high opinion of Strick (too soft), but Strick makes Cohen look like a rookie when it comes to fund raising and marketing.

2) Team discipline is the worst it's been since Jackie Wayne.

3) you can't call a play call with 5 seconds left in the play clock and not allow your QB a chance to scan the field pre-snap.

4) RTGDF with RBs.

5) Tweak the system to your personnel, at least a little, every single season. You need knew wrinkles and this helps create that and gets your players in the best position to win. The reluctance to make changes at times this year reminded me of Croom a little. And that's scary.

6) JoMo needs to be who he is. When fans were pissed he wasn't showing enough "fire" he came out the next game and looked "fake mad" (at least to me it looked forced). This isn't an acting contest. It's not a PR stunt. Just coach football to the best of your ability and tell the fans to deal with it while you try to win games.

7) if your offense depends on the deep ball to work, you'd better throw it in practice until it works. If it doesn't work, you'd better find someone who can make it work.

8) Related to #2, hold your team leaders accountable. Our team leader, who was already no-contact last spring got suspended for game 1. What in ever loving hell!?!?! Inexcusable as a player. Unacceptable. That's a locker room killer out the gate for the entire spring and week 1. Low and behold we fail our first two major tests in SEC play. We weren't ready.

9) Tell the SEC they can kiss our Mississippi Mud if they ever try to group us with Ole Miss ever again. A dumpster fire of a program under constant investigation that's trying to actively hurt our student-athletes (physically (Fitz) & legally (Leo)) causes 99% of the problems in the rivalry. Their actions resulted in us getting called to the commissioners office because things got heated on the field. Cohen should've declined the meeting with Sankey and invited him to a one in one sit down. Under no circumstance are we behaving like them. Not on the field. Not out on the town. Not at the police station. Not in the classroom. Not in recruiting. And not in brothels.

On point 3, I know you're off because the qb at Penn State was able to do it just fine (and the qb everywhere else he has been). We did not have the personnel to run what he wanted to run and he had ZERO clue how to adapt his offense. Snapping the ball too late had nothing to do with our issues on offense. The rest of your points look pretty fair to me.