2nd practice interviews. Arnett and Coordinators.

[dawgday166]

Lol @ 10-2

Haha ... I?ve been trying to get with the spirit of this board?s usual preseason enthusiasm by saying 10-2 and have been somewhat kidding around with tongue-in-cheek. However, last night I dug in and researched a little just to see what is what.

Last year 10-2 was predicted with Bama & Georgia on our schedule. Everyone was pissed at how we played against both last year, especially Bama. Last year Bama had just lost @TN and the refs or SEC or whoever wasn't gonna let our game be close and the refs were absolutely handing out calls in Bama?s favor in that game. Looked similar to 2018 game which in reality was 10-7, not 24-0. In 2018, on Bama's 1st two TD drives we recovered legitimate fumbles during those drives that were never reviewed and even Danielson was speechless about those. Then there was the phantom block in the back on our TD before the half too. Tua had been lighting everyone up, but we held him to a little over 160 yds passing.

Last year everyone was mad about LSU & KY too, especially KY. I wasn't happy about those either however, even tho KY was last in SEC scoring offense last year (a lot of that had to do with Levi's up & down injury situation and he played against us) ... KY was 5th in SEC in Total D and 3rd in scoring D (vs conference only) and we played them at Lexington. We have not beaten them in Lexington since 2014 and that year we barely got out of there alive with arguably our best team ever. They smoked us worse than anyone did in 2018 too. They play real dirty in the trenches up in Lexington and they get away with it too.

But all that doesn't matter since we know that all our football woes in the last 3 years are because of Leach's antiquated AR system not being able to work in the big, bad SEC. Even tho we had more upsets and our 2 largest come from behind victories ever in last 3 years. But ... I?m gonna concede the point that the antiquated AR was really holding us back from being our best. And I'm gonna truthfully concede the point that we would not find anyone that ran the AR like Leach did.

Honestly, I don't care as long as we get 1st downs and lots of pts.

Moving on to this year's team. Everyone on our 1-deep on offense & defense is a GR or a SR, with the exception of WRs. GA has been replaced by USCe at Columbia. Looking at our top 3 most talented opponents which I consider to be Bama, LSU, and TAM ... all have some youth in places and Bama has a lot of youth on offense. We play Bama & LSU in Vegas. TAM is very young. USCe has more experience but not to our level of experience and ... they ain?t Gawga.

So we've basically replaced our offensive coaching staff and literally upgraded everywhere in doing so. Barbay has never coached in the big, bad SEC but he been great at other places and can adapt to any personnel set. Our culture is set and hasn't changed. Our D staff hardly changed and we were tied for 3rd in total D (conference only) last year. We lost Sharp, Wheat, and Forbes but mostly have everyone else back. Our Dline is very deep. Oline is a bunch of very experienced road graders.

Arkansas has replaced both coordinators. Auburn has whole new coaching staff although Freezus is a helluva underdog coach. TAM has replaced coordinators, although Petrino & Durkin are top shelf. Petrino is pretty concerning but ... he working with a lot of youth.

Sooo .. the more I look at this ... here is the summary. We play our two arch nemesis (KY & OM) at home along with 2 of our 3 most talented opponents (Bama & LSU). On the road we play at USCe, but they don?t have quite as much experience as we do and ... they ain?t Gawga. So that leaves Arky, TAM, and Auburn on the road, and ALL of them have replaced coordinators and/or coaching staffs too. And TAM is pretty darn young most everywhere.

If our 4 year starter at QB is half as good as Bucky says he is, then we should score LOTS of points next year and our D should be VERY stout too. Heupel put up 34 pts/game (conference only) in his 1st year at TN. So I ain't buying any excuses about WRs that can't get separation. Bumphis should take care of that if he's half as good as folks think he is.

So I'm taking back the joking part of my prediction. We should be no less than 10-2 IMO. Of course I also know that we are Ms State and we'll probably fumble/stumble around against Auburn and TAM and lose those games on the road, even tho we've owned both teams the last several years, at home and away. But ... I will be pretty darned pissed myself if either of those happen.

The schedule/playing field doesn't get any better for MSU football as it is this upcoming year. Realistically since we're MSU ... probably be 9-3.