In spring practice news....

War Machine Dawg

Redshirt
Oct 14, 2007
2,832
24
38
Secret Weapon Clark has moved back to WR. Sam Williams tore his ACL Tuesday and we needed the body at WR. Mullen says the freshmen are going to need to be ready to play this fall and it'll take 3 years of recruiting to get caught up to where we need to be numbers-wise at WR.

Relf took the 1st string snaps today. As Mullen said Tuesday, Russell taking the 1st string snaps wasn't a big deal and was simply a change of pace to see how both of them responded. But feel free to continue hating the guy and doubting how hard he works and battles to improve his game.
 

War Machine Dawg

Redshirt
Oct 14, 2007
2,832
24
38
Secret Weapon Clark has moved back to WR. Sam Williams tore his ACL Tuesday and we needed the body at WR. Mullen says the freshmen are going to need to be ready to play this fall and it'll take 3 years of recruiting to get caught up to where we need to be numbers-wise at WR.

Relf took the 1st string snaps today. As Mullen said Tuesday, Russell taking the 1st string snaps wasn't a big deal and was simply a change of pace to see how both of them responded. But feel free to continue hating the guy and doubting how hard he works and battles to improve his game.
 

jackstefano

Redshirt
Dec 28, 2007
2,368
0
0
I think it's a 6 or 7 win deal. If I was betting the house I might hedge toward 6. If the schedule was a little more favorable I'd say 7.
 

BoDawg.sixpack

All-Conference
Feb 5, 2010
5,302
2,757
113
Welcome to MSU Coach.....us fans started accepting that freshmen were going to be on the field since around 1900....and I've never heard of Sam Williams. Was he on Arceto's level or a mere mortal? It will take three years of recruiting to maintain what we usually are in this division... A team picked last hoping to somehow break 6 wins....aGAIN. </p>
 

War Machine Dawg

Redshirt
Oct 14, 2007
2,832
24
38
great walkon to have success for us. We really don't have near enough warm bodies at WR, and Wilder quitting didn't help that. I think Mullen is dead on saying it's going to take 3 years to get sufficient numbers at the position. Ridiculous Crxxms left us in such terrible shape at that position.
 
Nov 17, 2008
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South Panola Dawg said:
Ridiculous Crxxms left us in such terrible shape at that position.
Wrong South Panola Dawg. You canfind plenty of wideouts on any street corner in Miami. At least that is what Croom told us. (obvious sarcasm on my part)
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
55,786
24,691
113
8-4. Most of you guys are going to be very surprised at how good this football team is going to be.
 

windcrysmary

Redshirt
Nov 11, 2007
1,788
0
0
be....

3 years to get enough WR in the SEC? Time Warp.. back to rescue tacticts during the era of the titanic...


who would fall for that line of thinking? has anybody ever listened to bear bryant's frustrated interviews after a practice where he would predict gloom and doom and then proceed to go on to another successful season?

we've got a good coach..... he get's pissed off and uses it to push his players....

Life is Good...
 
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Goat Dawg

Guest
tell me your not pulling a "Coach34 crossed with an Ole Miss fan" and starting to think we're going to be just fine without a stud 240 lb. running back dominating people. I think our defense will be much improved for sure. But 8 wins? Name them, please.
 

LAMSUFAN

Redshirt
Oct 1, 2009
304
0
0
one guy. When in reality that's not even close to the truth, Mullen will employ a backs by the committee approach and still has Relf who is a very solid rushing threat at QB. Not to mention if Relf improves a good pit with his passing and TR plays some our air attack should only improve. You add in our returning o-line and Pat and we're set up to have another good season with rushing.

Dixon HAD to be our offense last year because of Mini-Lee...we'll have more options this year and will be better for it.
 
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Goat Dawg

Guest
We don't have anybody to make the plays AD did. That's what you don't realize. It isn't just the stats/yards/depth chart.
 

Todd4State

Redshirt
Mar 3, 2008
17,411
1
0
Why not?

I think we win all four of our non-conference games- Alcorn, Memphis, UAB and yes, Houston is the only one up in the air, but I think that is one loss that a guy like Manny Diaz could have made a big difference in.

Then we have UK at home, which I think is a win. Georgia at home is a toss up, and Florida on the road is probably a loss.

Finally, the SEC West portion- I don't see any gimmes in the SEC West for us- we have Auburn at home on a Thurs., and I think that will be awfully rowdy. Having Manny should help as well as the home field advantage. Plus the Newton factor will make it even more of an intense environment than your standard MSU/Auburn game. We have Arkansas at home, and they still have Ryan Mallet. Whenever Arkansas has had a really good player like that, they've beaten us, whether it be Matt Jones or Darren McFadden. I think our secondary is better, though so that will help. Alabama on the road is a loss. LSU we are jinxed, but I think we will play them tough, but I'm sure not going to call that an easy win. Finally, the Egg Bowl is in Oxford, and I do think that we have a better team than Ole Miss, but at the same time, you just never know with that game, especially with it being on the road. And Ole Miss had a better team than we did last year and lost as an exhibit A.


So, I've got four wins that I think we definately get, and a couple of definate losses in Bama and UF, so that's six toss up games that we have. I think we can win at least two of those. Worst case sceario is 4-8, best case scenario is probably 8-4, dream season (defined as a season where almost everything went right and said team would be remembered for generations a la 1980 and 1999 MSU teams) would be 10-2, and most likely season is 6-6.
 

MedDawg

Senior
May 29, 2001
5,177
795
113
Goat Dawg said:
We don't have anybody to make the plays AD did. That's what you don't realize. It isn't just the stats/yards/depth chart.
Dixon was definitely one of State's most consistent runners ever. However, we've had several quality running backs over the years. It's not like AD was our first good one. <div>
</div><div>AD is very talented, but another reason AD was able to make plays was because our whole offense is better. Heck, even Tyson Lee was able to break off 40 yard runs up the middle during the season.</div>
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
55,786
24,691
113
We'll have a good, experienced offensive line and a better passing game than last year. That's going to help those new RBs out a lot this fall. Not to mention that if Relf gets most of the snaps at QB, he looked to be almost as good a runner as Dixon in that last game.
 

EClass04

Redshirt
Feb 2, 2010
241
0
0
Forgive my ignorance guys, but how is it that a seemingly sizeable portion of our fanbase thinks we won't miss a guy who was arguably the best back in the nation's toughest conference last year? Oh yeah, and he was only our best offensive player and leader on that side of the ball.
 

Agentdog

Redshirt
Aug 16, 2006
1,433
0
0
Somebody posted the other day we would win all our OOC. I had to laugh. Because Houston beats us every damn time we play them. Just for once, I would like to beat them.
 

pDigital32Dawg

Freshman
Aug 29, 2009
2,996
85
48
Losing AD is painful but hopefully we will have more balance overall this season and with our new offense it is a lot easier to adjust it when you lose a guy like AD. Under Croom if we had lost AD we would lose the ENTIRE offense. I don't even think Tyler Russell ever had a shot of picking up the offensive tempo for us under Crooms.
 

KurtRambis4

Redshirt
Aug 30, 2006
15,926
0
0
we beat them. For one, we actually have a coach worth a **** (yeah i know he was here last year). Another, i think our players have revenge on their mind. That was complete BS last year, that we didn't beat them.
 

pDigital32Dawg

Freshman
Aug 29, 2009
2,996
85
48
But you are forgetting to see that our coach does a pretty good job of adjusting his offense to take advantage of the players we have. We arent running the ball up the middle every down. Dixon got most of his yards thanks to Mullen implementing the option and keeping the defense guessing more than it was attacking. It will hurt not having AD but we have 4 other guys now filling his spot and I bet Mullen will have a specific role for each one of them. Mullen will have our offense adjusted before opening kick next season and not having AD will only be really missed at first on goal line or short yardage situations.
 

Agentdog

Redshirt
Aug 16, 2006
1,433
0
0
.........is yards after contact. I can not think of one RB, that played last year and is returning, that could stiff arm a DB to the turf in stride and take the ball to the house.
 

stevo1a

Redshirt
Feb 27, 2008
533
0
0
pDigital32Dawg said:
But you are forgetting to see that our coach does a pretty good job of adjusting his offense to take advantage of the players we have. We arent running the ball up the middle every down. Dixon got most of his yards thanks to Mullen implementing the option and keeping the defense guessing more than it was attacking. It will hurt not having AD but we have 4 other guys now filling his spot and I bet Mullen will have a specific role for each one of them. Mullen will have our offense adjusted before opening kick next season and not having AD will only be really missed at first on goal line or short yardage situations.
Agreed.

We are returning 840 rushingyards (mostly Relf and Elliot) or roughly 31% of our total from last year. That's not an insurmountable climb.

Plus we will have a speed dimension in Perkins we did not have last year.Couple that with getting more screens and reverses to Bumphis, Heavens and Sanders and Relf/Ballard/Elliot/Conner shouldbe running through aloosened up middle of the defense.

We're still afew WR short of doing what Mullen wants on offense, though.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
55,786
24,691
113
and not even attempt to respond to the several good reasons several posters have made about why we really won't miss Dixon all that much next year. Nobody's saying we won't miss him at all, but there are a lot of reasons to think our rushing game is going to be very good this fall.
 
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Goat Dawg

Guest
go look at what I've posted. I know I'm kicking your *** in this argument because you're already throwing out the insults.
 

Hidog78

Redshirt
Feb 10, 2010
242
0
0
To really screw things up and mess with other teams, start TR at qb and Reif at tailback.
Then you would have qb that can throwbut not run and a qb that can run but not throwunles the waterboy is in the route.
 

patdog

Heisman
May 28, 2007
55,786
24,691
113
Goat Dawg said:
I know I'm kicking your *** in this argument because you're already throwing out the insults.
Says the poster who started with the "off their rocker" comment.
 

57stratdawg

Heisman
Dec 1, 2004
148,344
24,119
113

FlabLoser

Redshirt
Aug 20, 2006
10,709
0
0
EClass04 said:
Forgive my ignorance guys, but how is it that a seemingly sizeable portion of our fanbase thinks we won't miss a guy who was arguably the best back in the nation's toughest conference last year? Oh yeah, and he was only our best offensive player and leader on that side of the ball.
Was he a great player? Yes. Would we be better if he were still on the team? Hell yes.

Even without Dixon, the offense will be more productive than last year. The OL is better. Hopefully, the WRs are better. The QB passing is going to be better since Relf has improved and all of our QBs can see the middle of the field.
 

theepicone

Redshirt
Feb 26, 2010
170
0
0
All you did was give us a couple of reasons why you are wrong.

1) Very good touchdown run with people trying to strip the ball - (game we lost)
2) One stiffarm, other than that untouched - (game we lost)
3)2 extrayards were gained by him throwing the pads
4) A juke that gained 10 yards - (game we lost)
5) We would have won the MTSU game without Dixon

(game we lost) = completely ruins your argument
we will miss his ability to have some plays in the SC top 10 plays of the day, not in offensive production
 

pDigital32Dawg

Freshman
Aug 29, 2009
2,996
85
48
Dixon did have a mean stiff arm

<span id="temp-0"><span> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1zRDOMM0-2M&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" height="385" width="480" ></embed> </span><span> <span id="temp-0"> </span> </span><span> <span id="temp-0"> </span> </span><span> <span id="temp-0"> </span> </span> </span>

But you are forgetting Relf's. Please do yourself a favor and fast forward to the 1:38 mark in the video below and watch your wool grow

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YAlZEgk3tQo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" height="385" width="480" ></embed>

//ETA: I just got a little sheepish after seeing that video. Baaa