Day after thoughts- MTSU edition

[War Machine Dawg]

1. We won. And the game wasnt even close really. Against a team we had a little trouble beating last year at home. Sly say if you can't see the improvement- you are blind

2. Congrats to Dixon for becoming the all-time leading rusher. After playing for Crooms 3 years and enduring all the 9 man fronts, he deserves it. You can see the life that playing in this offense has given him. Not to mention the creases in which to hit and get good yardage. Great job.

3. Where was Ducre? No way Stallworth should be getting his carries.

4. Was that a college secondary I spotted out there yesterday? 4 picks??? They have some stiff tests coming up, but they have looked better the last couple of weeks. We may only need one juco CB now.

5. Torbush is hard to figure out. He has come up with some very good plans on defense- and he has laid 2 turds in Auburn and Ga Tech. Interesting to see how we defend the 2nd coming next week and their lack of a great WR- especially with the fact that Mullen knows them inside and out. He should be able to give him some really good insight.

6. Tyson Lee played a really good ballgame. Thats about as good as we can expect. 70% completion percentage- no picks, long run for a TD. I hate some people cant realize we are getting the best QB play we have had since Madkin and Fant. Sure, he has limitations, but damn. After 5 years of being one of the worst offenses in the NCAA's, anybody is lying that says they thought we would be as good as we are this season on offense.

Tyson Lee is not an SEC QB? 6 picks so far in 7 games...other SEC QB's- Cox-Georgia- 9 picks, Crompton- Tenn- 9 picks, Smith- Vandy- 7 picks, Snead-Mississippi- 9 picks, Hartline- Kentucky- 6 picks...and 1 of Tyson's picks were the result of the ball bouncing off our WR's chests, another was basically a hail mary with 10 seconds left against Ga Tech.
Lee is also 5th in completion percentage in the SEC.

He isn't all-SEC, but he is doing an adequate job. Option teams are going to have fumbles and bad pitches, especially in the first year of installing that offense. All part of the growth process.

7. Mullen went conservative with the lead yesterday and ran the clock in the 2nd half. I think that was good strategy yesterday considering who we were playing. Get out of the game as quick as you can and limit injuries.

8. In all of the Tyler Russell debates, why has nobody questioned that fact that when Mullen is given the choice of backing up Lee with 2 guys he is wanting to RS, he chooses Stegall over Russell? One side of the coin says that you burn Stegall's first because he is older and more mature. Another side of the coin makes you wonder why he chooses someone that has played baseball the last 4 years, not football, arrived in camp very late, having no extra time to throw to the WR's like Russell did this summer, and shouldnt have as good of a grasp on the offense. I find that interesting as they head into Spring practice, Cam Newton or not.

9. We are very good at LB right now. Chaney has recovered and White has adjusted to SEC play. Very good group

10. Its a shame Fla and Bammer will play for the BCS championship in Atlanta in early December. Bammer does look to be the better team- right now.

Wow, it's amazing how much more I like you as a poster and how much sense you make when you're not talking about basketball.

Totally agree w/ you on Tyson Lee, and I think we're still in the minority. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Put 4-5 inches on Lee and a tad more experience, and maybe make him a little more wise about ball security, getting rid of the ball on time, and some other experience issues, and he's the best QB we've had.</span> He's already running the best offense we've had since 2000, and when he has a lane of vision to throw, he's pretty darn good throwing the ball. Secondary did look better, I thought Broomfield should've been playing more after the speed I saw him display in that JSU game (on the blocked XP return). Torbush is hard for me to figure too. I'll give him a pass since we were Malzahn's SEC "guinea pig" and no one else had seen his whole package yet, but it's also hard to figure Auburn out. GTech makes everyone look ridiculous, you can't judge a defense based on how they perform vs GT

That made me laugh.

No kidding. Essentially he's saying make Lee a completely different QB by changing every awful attribute about him and he'd be the best we've had.

 

[MSUCostanza]

[No message]

 

[dawgstudent]

but we need to have a spelling test for approval. Cowbell9 is grandfathered in.

 

[lawdawg02]

since realizing that our DBs can't cover worth a crap. we have blitzed the corners more this year than i've ever noticed before, even when JLD was running the D.

one thing that i don't like is when the corner fakes the blitz and drops into a zone, with safety help deep. several times against houston and mtsu we did this, and many times, their QB hit the WR for an easy gain over our CB's head, but in front of the safety. when the QB lines up, it's easy to see this play. the safety needs creep up to show that he is covering that area, then drop back.

 

[lawdawg02]

which was probably a factor in the play calling too. agreed on the 4th and inches - that play had NO chance.

finishing drives is the area we really have to work on. we seem to get bogged down around the 30 or so, regardless of the defense we're facing. turnovers also have killed our chances to score. hopefully, we've been working on that more. mtsu was trying to strip the ball early and often, but our guys did a good job of holding onto it (and not fumbling on the option read).

 

[lawdawg02]

8. In all of the Tyler Russell debates, why has nobody questioned that fact that when Mullen is given the choice of backing up Lee with 2 guys he is wanting to RS, he chooses Stegall over Russell? One side of the coin says that you burn Stegall's first because he is older and more mature. Another side of the coin makes you wonder why he chooses someone that has played baseball the last 4 years, not football, arrived in camp very late, having no extra time to throw to the WR's like Russell did this summer, and shouldnt have as good of a grasp on the offense. I find that interesting as they head into Spring practice, Cam Newton or not.

in the pregame, russell takes the second team snaps. not stegall. how do you explain that?

/ricco sanders also plays the slot on the second team snaps.