Why do people think we are going to suck this year?

[missouridawg]

Did Bracky self-impose another penalty that we have to play them with last year's team and coaches?

I think this year's team would beat OK State 6 out of 10 with an overtime loss in Game 8

Coach - You and I agree on a lot of things, but this just ain't going to be one them. And I swear on everything holy, that I hope I'm wrong... but we lost a LOT of leadership on D (Banks, Slay, Broom, Lawrence, Boyd). Our entire secondary, sans Nickoe, will be new. Ok-State's entire offense returns minus a few lineman. If Quay, Nick, PJ, Preston, Denico, and the rest of the front 4 have their shit together, we've got a punchers chance. Our offense will get between 24 and 38 this game... but will our D hold them below 30? Not many defense have done that to Ok-State... much less a defense that's brining in 5 new starters and purged a lot off the 2-deep.

I really, really, really hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see our defense doing much this game that prevent Ok-State from scoring. In college football there are 3 or 4 spread teams/coaches that are elite. Oregon, Kevin Sumlin (at Houston and aTm), and Ok-State are ALL going to get their points.

[missouridawg]

That would have been true last year.

How do we match up with them this year?

After hearing Mullen talk this spring, I don't expect our offense to be much different than last year... so we're most likely going to be pretty average again unless we learned how to throw a screen pass or to our tight ends.

Our defense is being re-branded and it is definitely the wild-card in this. If it's the kind of turnaround that Manny did from Torchbush in 2010, then we've got a shot to win... but we're so damn young on defense that I just don't see us coming out on fire in game 1.... especially against the best offense after Oregon, year-in year-out, in the country.

[Coach34]

They lost 4 of their 5 starters on the OL- that's huge. They lost half of their Secondary also- and it was shitty to begin with.

I'll be surprised if we don't score 35-40 points

[mic]

After hearing Mullen talk this spring, I don't expect our offense to be much different than last year... so we're most likely going to be pretty average again unless we learned how to throw a screen pass or to our tight ends.

Our defense is being re-branded and it is definitely the wild-card in this. If it's the kind of turnaround that Manny did from Torchbush in 2010, then we've got a shot to win... but we're so damn young on defense that I just don't see us coming out on fire in game 1.... especially against the best offense after Oregon, year-in year-out, in the country.

taking nothing away from OSU very very good offense.. But the best all around defense that they played against last year was TCU from a stats stand point.. ranked around #20 and they only faced 3 in the tpo 50 and one of those was Texas tech.. 6 teams they faced finished with an overall def of 86 to 119.. Baylor coming in at 119 Arizona at 118 and Kansas at 113.. they lost 2 of those games and squeaked by Kansas..
we should be from an athletic stand point as good as they have faced in a while.. saying that they may put up 50. but I don't see it.. and they finished around #80 in defense.. we may put up some good numbers against them..
so yes we have a punchers chance for sure...

[Political Hack]

oh, it'll be a shoot out. they score and are damn efficient on offense. we don't have to mess up, blow a coverage, get beat, miss a tackle or anything else for them to get 6.

[Pollodawg]

Well, God forbid we got better in the off season or anything.

[Coach34]

Young on defense?

We are going to start:

3 Sr's
7 Jr's (many of them redshirts)
1 Soph

[missouridawg]

Young on defense?

We are going to start:

3 Sr's
7 Jr's (many of them redshirts)
1 Soph

Remember the last time we lost 3 Nfl players off of a defense in pernell, white, and wright? Our defense struggled early in 2011. We lost slay, banks, and Boyd this year... As well as our defensive captain and another 4 year starter. We have experience if you look at the game day program.... But if you look at actual game reps, we are young.

[mic]

Young on defense?

We are going to start:

3 Sr's
7 Jr's (many of them redshirts)
1 Soph

the 2nd string DL we have could turn out to be as good if not better than the first string before years end.. and the 2nd string LB's can come in and we wont miss a beat from an athletic stand point..

[mic]

Remember the last time we lost 3 Nfl players off of a defense in pernell, white, and wright? Our defense struggled early in 2011. We lost slay, banks, and Boyd this year... As well as our defensive captain and another 4 year starter. We have experience if you look at the game day program.... But if you look at actual game reps, we are young.

we also lost Manny that next year.. and we all saw the past 2 years that Wilson was not the answer..
I think we got a pretty good idea of what Coach Collins can do at the Bowl game with only 2 weeks to prepare for it.. and I KNOW DT is an upgrade over old man Melvin.. and Coach Turner is as good as Wilson with the DL..

[Coach34]

Remember the last time we lost 3 Nfl players off of a defense in pernell, white, and wright? Our defense struggled early in 2011. We lost slay, banks, and Boyd this year... As well as our defensive captain and another 4 year starter. We have experience if you look at the game day program.... But if you look at actual game reps, we are young.

They only game we struggled early in 2011 was vs Auburn- and that was a coaching issue on how we played them.

Skinner, Whitley, McKinney, Eulls, Autry have all started for at least 1 season
Love, Smith, Jones, Wells, and Hughes played in every game last season...Love was our nickel guy, Smith led us in sacks, PJ has played a good bit the last 2 years, Wells has started a game or two, and Hughes was outplaying #25 the last 1/3 of the season
Cox is coming in from juco

I just dont see all this inexperience you talk about...that's the whole reason we are redshirting people and slowly putting them in for experience- so we wont ever be real inexperienced

[mic]

They only game we struggled early in 2011 was vs Auburn- and that was a coaching issue on how we played them.

Skinner, Whitley, McKinney, Eulls, Autry have all started for at least 1 season
Love, Smith, Jones, Wells, and Hughes played in every game last season...Love was our nickel guy, Smith led us in sacks, PJ has played a good bit the last 2 years, Wells has started a game or two, and Hughes was outplaying #25 the last 1/3 of the season
Cox is coming in from juco

I just dont see all this inexperience you talk about...that's the whole reason we are redshirting people and slowly putting them in for experience- so we wont every be real inexperienced

agree

[Political Hack]

There will be some inexperience in the two deep, but the starting 11 should all be experienced players minus Cox and he's not a pup.

Autry
Smith
PJ
Eulls
Skinner
McKinney
Wells
Cox
Jiles/Love
Nickoe
Hughes

That's in all likelihood going to be the lineup game 1.

[engie]

There will be some inexperience in the two deep, but the starting 11 should all be experienced players minus Cox and he's not a pup.

Autry - Started 10 for us last year -- played in 13. Yes -- Wilson actually didn't start probably our best defensive player in 3 games.
Smith - Played in all 13 in 2012. Played in last 8 in 2011.
PJ - Played in 9 last year(suspended first 4). Played in 13 in 2011 and drew one start.
Eulls - Started 13 for us last year. Started 13 in 2011.
Skinner - Started 13 for us last year. Played in 13 in 2011 -- started 11 of those. Played in 10 in 2010.
McKinney - Started 10 for us last year -- played in 13. Yes -- Wilson actually didn't start probably our best defensive talent in 3 games.
Wells - Started 4 for us last year -- played in 13. Started 3 in 2011 -- played in 13.
Cox - incoming JUCO. Was the best DB in the NJCAA last year.
Jiles/Love - Jiles played in first 3 last year. Love started 2 games and played in 12 last year(suspended first game). Love played in 13 in 2011.
Nickoe - Started all 13 last year. Started 7 in 2011 -- played in 9 prior to injury. Yes -- Wilson actually started Bonner ahead of him twice. Started 11 in 2010 and played in all 13.
Hughes - Started final 4 games and played in all 13 last year. Played in 13 games in 2011.

That's in all likelihood going to be the lineup game 1.

So, we bring back 13, 21, 22, 26, 36, 13, 26, JUCO, 3/25, 35, 26 games of experience.

The JUCO is jumping a guy with 13 games of experience. If Jiles offseats Love, he will be jumping a guy with 25 games of experience. Personally, I expect both Jiles and Love to start against OK State -- and us to be in nickel practically the entire game...

I don't see the inexperience that everyone is talking about.

The "we only bring back one person in the secondary" line is BS as well. Jay Hughes took Broomfield's spot prior to the final 4 games of the season -- and Jamerson Love was our nickel CB all year last year. In actuality, we bring back 3 of 5 in nickel -- and we've got another corner that got a ton of experience in Calhoun that has been injured and surpassed by the talent that is Justin Cox...

[MSUDawg4Life]

So, we bring back 13, 21, 22, 26, 36, 13, 26, JUCO, 3/25, 35, 26 games of experience.

The JUCO is jumping a guy with 13 games of experience. If Jiles offseats Love, he will be jumping a guy with 25 games of experience. Personally, I expect both Jiles and Love to start against OK State -- and us to be in nickel practically the entire game...

I don't see the inexperience that everyone is talking about.

The "we only bring back one person in the secondary" line is BS as well. Jay Hughes took Broomfield's spot prior to the final 4 games of the season -- and Jamerson Love was our nickel CB all year last year. In actuality, we bring back 3 of 5 in nickel -- and we've got another corner that got a ton of experience in Calhoun that has been injured and surpassed by the talent that is Justin Cox...

You can go further than that. The only people without experience on the entire two-deep or who will play significant minutes on the defense are Beni Brown, Richie Brown and Chris Jones. Everybody else has played. Even in the secondary.

[HancockCountyDog]

So, we bring back 13, 21, 22, 26, 36, 13, 26, JUCO, 3/25, 35, 26 games of experience.

The JUCO is jumping a guy with 13 games of experience. If Jiles offseats Love, he will be jumping a guy with 25 games of experience. Personally, I expect both Jiles and Love to start against OK State -- and us to be in nickel practically the entire game...

I don't see the inexperience that everyone is talking about.

The "we only bring back one person in the secondary" line is BS as well. Jay Hughes took Broomfield's spot prior to the final 4 games of the season -- and Jamerson Love was our nickel CB all year last year. In actuality, we bring back 3 of 5 in nickel -- and we've got another corner that got a ton of experience in Calhoun that has been injured and surpassed by the talent that is Justin Cox...

This type of analysis is exactly the opposite of what every major publication does. Every publication simply looks at guys lost (Lawrence, Boyd, Slay, Banks) and thinks wow MSU lost a lost, their defense is going to be young. What they don't do is actually look at the stats of the players coming back and realize that they spent a lot of time on the field and have been successful.

The more and more I Think about this year, the more excited I get. Plus if you need to get pumped even more, just watch this:

Go to the 19:15 mark, and enjoy yourself

[Bullmutt]

Alright, gentlemen! Based on the evidence presented, you've convinced me. If we play our best on both sides, it's a 50-50 proposition. If OSU comes in thinking all they have to do is show up, we kick dey ass!

[Coach34]

Plus, they dont take into account one of the problems we had defending Spread teams last year was that we were playing with 2 Strong LB's in Lawrence and Skinner, instead of a smaller, faster hybrid LB to play the Weak LB spot. Skinner moving to SLB, which is his natural position, and Wells sliding in to WLB gives us more speed at LB. Wells can line up and play the run or he can bump out and play a WR in coverage if he needs to. Skinner struggled some last year doing that because he was simply out of position- but too good to be on the sideline watching

[ShotgunDawg]

Well....., I' glad I started this thread, and we were able to get this discussion out of the way before media days begin.

Here is what we have established in this thread:

1. We have experience at important positions

2. Our schedule is brutal

3. Although our schedule is brutal, it doesn't mean that the games are un-winnable.

4. Much of the perception of us is shaped due to how we played in the final games last year. However, that has nothing to do with this year, and could actually motivate this team more than they otherwise would have been. Our team and coaches haven't been sulking for the past 7 months.

Next week, SEC media days begin Birmingham. There is an exceptional chance that we are going to be picked 6th or 7th in the SEC West. However, when that happens, just remember this conversation. We will have a damned good team that is capable of winning most every game they play this year. Don't let the Hugh Kellenberger's and the fat faced Bama writer discourage your excitement for our season when they make fun of us next week and laugh when Mullen says our goal is to get to Atlanta(Because you know he going to say that, as he should).

For the people who said that the Tucson article was really good, they had us ranked 64th and that is totally absurd when you when look at our depth chart. The point is that the perception the media has/is shaping for this team is completely due to our schedule and lack of research on their part. I am not being a Pollyanna that only sees things through maroon colored glasses in this thread. There are some years where that could be said, but not this year. We are a top 30 quality team and program right now, and our schedule, the perception, and how we finished last season (which has nothing to do with year) is the only thing that keeps people from realizing that.

Don't let the media discourage you, we have a good team, will be underdogs a lot, but have the players and team to shock many many people this year.

[TexasDawg]

For the people who said that the Tucson article was really good, they had us ranked 64th and that is totally absurd when you when look at our depth chart.

The Tucson article hit the nail on the head, the rankings they were using were USA Today's and that writer was just using that as a basis.