There are two metrics that are going to define the season other than just the score of the USM game. Yards per carry (for USM) and number of sacks. If either of these two metrics aren't solid we're going to get blown out the rest of the year.
SDS 5 Week 1 Upsets (yep, we're one)
- Thread starter Indndawg
- Start date
Yep. This schedule is even more difficult than last year. Games we might have a chance in are in the road.
I read the article I seen what we have up close unlike most of you on here. And let me say this as well to your argument… 20 players from a sun belt team who got ran by a mediocre Va tech team isn’t gonna come into a Program as washed as USM and automatically become some world beaters. USM was a train wreck even for the sun belt. What I don’t understand is that we go out and sign the 17th ranked portal class and USM signs the 52nd ranked class and yet they got better and we didn’t?? Poster are undervaluing out talent level. Let’s also not forget Huff walked into a much better situation at Marshal than he is at USM. 20 players from a sunbelt team doesn’t make up for what they have ahead of them.
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I don't think our offense was decent at all. Yeah, we got some garbage yards in games where we weren't competitive. How did that decent offense look against Toledo? We weren't able to get first downs and extend drives when it mattered. It was a problem all year.
Lebby is an offensive coach, so you'd expect him to find a way to move the ball. But to say we are loaded at QB is a massive, massive overstatement. We have a guy who can't string together starts because he's made out of porcelain. We've got a backup who sucked at his last place. And we've got a true freshman. This is a great example of falling in love with measurables and metrics instead of waiting on performance.
And one thing a State fan should know better than to EVER say: "it couldn't be worse."
Even with the garbage yards and points, we were still 14th in the SEC in both total offense and points per game. It was ugly. But it was better than our defense.
2 things can be true at once!
They might have hope, but they don't have Cam Skattebo. That guy came out of nowhere and ran like a beast on fire.
This is MSU football, we are never fine. We have to sweat every game unless it's against a SWAC Team. We even have to sweat out directional schools most years. It's sad, but undoubtedly true. When you don't have top level talent and they don't play well or turn the ball over, they cannot recover very easily. It puts us in positions to lose games we should win.
Cam Skatteboo and Toledo have about 0 in common.
Not to mention we still have a 1st time HC and 1st time DC. The jury's still out if they are any good or not. Talent is part of the equation, but who knows what kind of staff we have. There are a lot of ????? about our team. They could be much improved, or they could still be terrible. We'll find out soon enough. I am not optimistic until I see it on the field. I too think we win at USM, but will not be surprised if we lose.
Agree and add the home part USA, the UMass return trip and Toledo still pretty fresh and it at least "weighs heavy on the mind".
That said, I'm still hoping for the best and a few pleasant surprises over the season. I only have one team I can say that about.
Yeah, there is truly not one position on the field in which our fans should be thinking that we're "fine". Take the one group(RB) that everyone seems to think is our top strength.
Well, we're returning a group that finished 14th in the league in rushing for starters. Second, while I do like Booth, we are one injury away from having to decide between a G5 player that got completely bottled up by the one decent defense(LSU) that he played against last year and a couple guys that haven't proven anything. At absolute best, this is a mid-tier group of SEC running backs, and it's right there with our safeties, LBs, and WRs in terms of that we probably should be ok, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that it upper tier SEC caliber. We may be just good enough to beat some non-P4 teams, but that's about it.
I am sure you keep up with it more than I do, but which WR are we going to miss? The ones who didn't know where to line up, the ones who perpetually gave up false starts, the ones more interested in trash talk than playing the game, or the one who threw the game ball into the stands?
You make valid points, but to me those are more of a coaching issue (which we didn't change). But there's no question we lost a lot of explosive talent.
Kevin Coleman. 2nd in the conference in catches and 5th in yards. Lost him to Missouri
Coaching sure enough. But player attitude means something too. A player has to be coachable, and I just didn't see it with that bunch from last year. And why did this coaching staff run off Creed Whitmore? I will never understand why he was buried in the depth chart, although I have my suspicions.
Sure, if you look at the portal players Lebby brought in for last year , they were bad evaluations. if you look at the players Huff has brought in they are upgrades, pretty impressive for this season. Southern Miss this year is not in the position we were in last year.
I’ll take you up on this bet right now. We win both games
I'm assuming the worst until Lebby gives me a reason to think differently. We aren't cruising in that game.
Well, it's not apples to apples. Bad evaluations at State could be upgrades at Southern Miss.
What Huff did at Marshall last year was overrated. He's a fine coach but they didn't beat anyone of note. The two power teams on their schedule beat the shlt out of them (and VT wasn't that good). They also lost to Georgia Southern. Their best win was against the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns in their bowl game.
So now he's taken himself and some of his players to the program that he beat 37-3 last season.
Southern Miss is gonna suck this year. Like I said, if we don't beat them by 4 TDs, we've got big problems.
Agree on all counts. I honestly think if we played Marshall last year, we probably win. And Southern Miss this year won't be nearly as good as Marshall was last year.
I am not implying that a recruit to Southern Miss is a great player in the sec, they are an upgrade for their program and their conference. huff is going to have that team in a better position this year compared to last based on his portal transfers.
The players Lebby brought in last year were riddled with horrible evaluations.
The original post I replied to claimed Southern Miss as a program/team is in the same position we were last year, I don’t think so. they upgraded, we downgraded.
But our downgrade is still significantly higher than their upgrade, which is the point I'm making. There's a big gap between the two, and no reason to think we need to be on upset alert in week 1. Not saying it can't happen, but if it does, we have to fire everyone that night and napalm the program.
Skattebo is being replaced by former Army RB Kanye Udoh who averaged 6.2 yds/carry on 179 carries with a total of 1,179 for the season with 10 TDs. Skattebo averaged 5.8 yds/carry
This year we did upgrade, last year that’s not the case.
I was responding to this post.
Didn't they beat us? Maybe that's what they have in common. Let's throw '04 Maine, '03 Tulane, & '01 Troy State in the mix too. That was some bad times LOL.
Thats a two way street you are referencing. We ourselves have incoming portal transfers from N Illinois, Kennesaw St, Charlotte, UTEP, Eastern Michigan, Marian College, Coastal Carolina, S. AL, Old Dominion, etc. Do those translate to SEC caliber players, also TBD
I'm guessing you are still blaming him for the state of the roster.
Are we sure about that? We may have paid more money but we'll see if it's an upgrade. Everybody paid more money.
I think the DT brought in from Miami could be good , Trevion and dinkins have talent if healthy. Tenn linebacker should be good. Two coaches on defense with HC experience will help. Should be an improved defense.
It’s a fact we don’t have and didn’t lose a single defensive player that leach recruited who would have helped us last year.
Pretty sure Audavion Collins and Curtis Nicholson would have helped. Trevion, Dinkins and Deontae Anderson are all talented players. Garbage coaching and not developing players doesn’t mean you don’t have any players. Look what Arnett and Friend did to Albert Reese and the rest of that O line that performed so well in 2022