I just laugh at the people who think it was all Peterson's fault. He was fighting an uphill battle from day one.
For the Lebby pessimists out there
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If you go back and look at SEC-only games, Arnett was a lot closer to a Torbush or a Sirmon than he was to a Manny in points per game allowed.
Torbush 1year = 30.1
Sirmon 1year = 34.0
Arnett 3years+1HC = 28.6
Collins 3years = 26.7
Grantham 1year = 23.9
Diaz 3 years = 23.6
Shoop 2years = 23.2 (VERY wide range. 14.4 and 32.0)
I hope I'm wrong but I think AtM, Tulane, & Houston did better than us. No HC experience adds extra layers of risk. Since The Kang, we are 2-0 with it and 1-3 without.
Not sure how many were feeling really high on Arnett after spring ball was over. Last spring game we looked lost, the team looked much sharper and organized this year. I think that's a plus.
I blame Arnett mostly, and 'sorta' blame Keenum. While I think Keenum did the right thing as far as promoting from within, it's apparent we promoted the wrong guy, but even still, we should have stipulated that for at least one year, all staff remains in place. This whole business of "you can't promote him without giving him control", well, yes you can. We all knew it was a one year band-aid and more evaluation would happen after that year.
This is the key. I think we were all on board with Zach around this same time last year. He had just held together the recruiting class, had that young and hungry fire we seem to yearn for in a sideline coach, and just felt like he was going to be competitive. Yeah he probably should have been named interim while we conducted a real search but we all know that the recruiting class would have fell apart. Now hindsight is 20/20, so we have the luxury of knowing the collective coaching ability of him and his staff amounted to pile of freeze dried coffee on the sidewalk.
Lebby has had some hype and buildup for sure. For the most part, I liked what I saw at the spring game. Now it's just time to step up and deliver on what we've been promised. So yeah, about mid-season we should have a good feel on how competitive we will be. .
Hope that's a Big Big Plus. After back to back 500 seasons we had an opportunity to hire somebody with more promise than Arnett. We were in the schitter when we hired Croom but made a similar hire when we were not. Arnett shoulda tried to keep the staff and playbook intact but train Will to sneak in more draws and other run plays.
Leach was just a mediocre coach, should be a piece of cake to go 9-4 in the next couple of years.
Based on our history. back to back 500 in the SEC is bettern mediocre. 9-4 piece of cake? For STATE?
Edited to say I just wasn't getting it.
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Baylor QB looks like he can sling it. WR's looked good. Especially the Freshman. Defense not so good.
Maybe I'm naive, but there's been a lot of flux at State the past two years which has negatively affected recruiting. I hoping that Ole Miss has taken advantage of that and a stable coaching staff with positive momentum will restore balance in the state.
I’d like an explanation from someone as to why there is so much animosity towards Peterson. Not defending him but just wondering why he is so disliked by so many.
More like the last 7 years. I think we need more changes in what we're doing that simply coaching stability to catch up to them though (although that would help).
Urban legend that because he was standing beside and talking to Arnett during games that somehow the team's ineptitude was all on him. He called plays on neither offense nor defense of course, but you always need a scapegoat.
And as head of recruiting or whatever his title was, he was always going to take bullets for any shortcomings from the roster. But it's easy to blame someone in that position without understanding how 17'ing hard a job it was to recruit in that chaotic environment in the Arnett/ post-Leach era.
The real person to blame was Keenan. He's the one who drug his heels on hiring an athletic director to replace Cohen, when he knew very well that Leach was having health issues and there was at least a possibility we'd be hiring a football coach, and then he's the one who made the lazy hire of Arnett to begin with.
I haven't seen a Lebby pessimist. I'm sure they exist, but that's probably the same few who still wish we had Croom roaming the sidelines.
That's a pretty ridiculous comparison. Maybe they wish we had hired an experienced successful head coach instead of a completely unproven one.
I hear what you are saying. However, I choose to be optimistic until proven differently but that is how I approach most things.
I think people just associated him and others as part of the old guard RuN dA bAwL brigade, plus the morons like Peaches supported him so much. But fact of the matter, those guys were just pawns, they are as good or bad as the head coach. The problem is that Arnett had to rely so much on them because he didn't know WTF he was doing.
Me too. The only times I remember NOT being optimistic before the season was during Croom's entire tenure, the 2nd year of Shitshow Joe and last year.
I often hold onto hope/optimism longer than I should. It does set me up for more heartache but I would still rather live that way.
I was like that once. Years of being a State fan have pretty much beaten it out of me though. **
I understand. I have been a State fan for a long time too and I have remained optimistic most of the time with the exception that it was clear early on with Rick Ray. On the other hand, as a long time Saints fan, I haven't been optimistic since 2010. And if Dennis Allen has a job then anybody can have a job.
No one who posts on this board regularly is apathetic.
Got there with basketball in the late 90's and getting there with baseball now. Going to give football a couple of years to see how super conferences, NIL and transfer portal rules shake out then it may mean a couple more nice vacations per year for me.
That's sort of true, but you may have cared much more about what happens in previous years as opposed to this one when it comes to Mississippi State football.
I’m very close. It’s just that MSU is a part of me that I can’t separate from.
I’m ok with his dragging his feet in that it gave us Selmon. Best to take your time and get it right , imo. He knew Leach wasn’t well? That’s the first I’ve heard of that
How about you link the post you're referencing? Nah, you can't do that because it would make you look like a dumbass. But fret not, goat, everyone already knows you're a dumbass.
At the end of the year with 6 wins , you may be happy. But in the way to getting those 6 wins there will be missed opportunities to win more and maybe even a "we should not have won that one" moment.
I just can't say in April that I will be happy with 6 wins any more than I can say I am happy with the baseball team right now. There have been head scratchers in BB this year and there will be head scratchers in football. That is always the case with average to mediocre athletics programs.
First part is a joke, right? Second part, there were very strong rumors that Leach was having health issues all fall that year and would probably be resigning due to health issues at the end of the year, and he just didn't look good at all. So yeah, Keenum would have to be completely oblivious to not know there was a good chance we might have to hire a coach.
Maybe I should have said if we win 6 games, I'll be surprised. Lebby has a major rebuild on his hands, he's never been a head coach, and his defensive coordinator appears to be completely unprepared for a DC job in the SEC looking at his resume.
I guess I thought they were rumors, which usually aren’t true. And no the first part isn’t a joke. I think selmon is an excellent hire