So someone tell me why

[missouridawg]

Everyone is expecting USA to be such a tougher matchup than UAB. I know their QB is talented but they struggled to move the ball against Kent State.

Do they have talent at ther positions too that I'm unaware of? I just can't figure out why everyone thinks we are in for a huge fight. At least moreso than UAB.

 

[121Josey]

Road Game. They've been preparing for this game for - say - six months now. They're probably (I mean hopefully) not as good as UAB.

 

[AFDawg]

I don't--but I think a lot of folks do because it's at their place and, so I'm told, there's a good deal of hype for the game in Mobile.

 

[HD6]

It's based off last year. They won 6 games, gave UT a good game in Knoxville, beat the hell out of Hudspeth and ULL.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Mainly last year's results. South was a .500 team with several, several close losses. Could have probably been a 10 win team. Granted, it's the Sun Belt. But that's ULL, Western Kentucky, Troy and others who have proven to be competitive teams. Meanwhile, UAB was busy winning eight games in the previous three years including a blowout loss to Southern at the end of last year.

South lost their quarterback who played most of the time last year (Metheny). The starter now (Bridge) is the the former Alcorn quarterback who showed flashes of ability when they came to Davis Wade a couple of years ago. I doubt he's the passer that Metheny was.

It may not end up being a tougher game than UAB, but there was reason to expect it to be as little as two weeks ago. Also consider that we didn't exactly look great against South the last time we played them, and our head coach seems intent on turning every game into his own glorified experimental lab.

 

[PiedmontDawg]

three things:

- our short-term memory, Dan Mullen 17around against C-USA opponent, on the road in a "billboard plastered game"
- this team dismantled ULL last year, which holds a lot of weight to State fans
- long term memory of losses from the likes of Maine, La Tech, Tulane, etc.

Hopefully 1) was taken care of last week, as we didn't show up mentally for UAB, after the season-opening, stadium christening, USM rivalry renewal victory. I think we'll have more focus on our first road game, especially after that wake-up call last week.

 

[SignalToNoise]

our head coach seems intent on turning every game into his own glorified experimental lab.

This is 99.9% of it for me.

 

[patdog]

Because people are really looking hard for things to worry about. This game will be more like the USM game than the UAB game.

 

[sipDawg98]

I'm hoping it will be a blowout, however if we start the "rotating" of players we may in fact rotate a W to an L, and effectively people on here will be calling for a rotating of a HC. I'll be at the game. Looking forward to seeing all the hype and seeing how our players handle it. Playing "easy" opponents back to back to back could be somewhat of a challenge in the mental aspect. Let's hope we take care of business as we should and not look ahead to LSU.



.... rotate.

 

[drt7891]

I'm worried because of how much hype there is around this game for south Alabama. You can't tell me our fans and players wouldn't be absolutely hyped up if we were in their position. Do we have more talent? Absolutely. SHOULD we win? Absolutely.

...But this much hype can cause a team to play well beyond what they are capable of if we allow them to start clicking, like UAB. We should have destroyed UABs hopes in the second quarter like everyone knows we should, but we screwed around and gave them a reason to fight harder. On the road, that's a very uncomfortable position to be in and I want no part of it. We should treat this as a dress rehearsal for LSU and go out with every intention to stomp their *** in the ground. I'm doubtful that happens, though.

 

[GoToHellOleMiss.sixpack]

It will be tougher because.....

1. Road Game with a fired-up sold-out stadium of crazy Sun Belt fans with an inferiority complex.
2. Mullen's rotation of QB's once again will keep us from creating offensive momentum which will feed the crowd...See No. 1
3. As mentioned....USA has had this game circled for a year.
4. Jags were very vanilla against Kent State....didn't want to show us what they got.****

 

[esplanade91]

Their offense is Croom-esk. Their defense is Ellis Johnson-esk.

There's a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. What I'm worried about is us playing to their level and them playing beyond their own. Their school's marketing department has been advertising this game down people's throats since the beginning of the year. They attempted a pathetic campaign to try and get College Gameday to come.

Do I think it will be close? No. But I'm not going to just completely write them off. They deserve at least an ounce of respect from us as fans.

 

[Hammer Down]

Can't judge by earlier games. Troy was 1-1 with a 10 pt win over UAB and a 14 point loss to ULL in 2012, and they gave us all we wanted. Chris Wilson was the DC though.

However, if your defense shows up, it should be a fairly uneventful 2 TD win.

 

[coach66]

and Bill Clark is great friends with Joey Jones and is about to give him the

best scouting report ever. Throw deep*

 

[Hanmudog]

Because Mullen takes more chances in real games than I do playing Madden.

 

[was21]

Rule #1: Respect the opponent. They are not just going to lay down. This is a huge game for them to try and get on the map and they are counting on State looking past them.

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Strangely, I'm not as worried about it now as I was last week. I was afraid we would have a trap game, but after last week's scare we should be taking every opponent seriously. However, Mullen may surprise us and stay in scrimmage mode.

 

[SwampDawg]

State has the inbred tendency to play down to the level of our opponent. We rarely (with the exception of a few like Southern Miss this year) stomp the crap out of people that we can, and should. I have been through this crap for more years than I care to remember.

 

[Hanmudog]

State has the inbred tendency to play down to the level of our opponent. We rarely (with the exception of a few like Southern Miss this year) stomp the crap out of people that we can, and should. I have been through this crap for more years than I care to remember.

Exactly. Its the same reason that no matter the opponent I still get a sick feeling before every MSU football game from Alcorn to Alabama.

To Mullen's credit, he has not lost yet to one of these patsies but how many times have we had to suffer through games that are a hell of a lot closer than they should be?

 

[was21]

I don't know how in hell Jack survived 88 years. Can only imagine how sick he felt

 

[ronpolk]

I'm worried because of how much hype there is around this game for south Alabama. You can't tell me our fans and players wouldn't be absolutely hyped up if we were in their position. Do we have more talent? Absolutely. SHOULD we win? Absolutely.

...But this much hype can cause a team to play well beyond what they are capable of if we allow them to start clicking, like UAB. We should have destroyed UABs hopes in the second quarter like everyone knows we should, but we screwed around and gave them a reason to fight harder. On the road, that's a very uncomfortable position to be in and I want no part of it. We should treat this as a dress rehearsal for LSU and go out with every intention to stomp their *** in the ground. I'm doubtful that happens, though.

Just because fans are hyped up don't mean anything. Does anyone here not remember #webelieve? How did that turn out? My prediction is we roll in this game. It'll be the second half before we see Williams.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

...beat the hell out of Hudspeth and ULL.

That explains it. Are they really slobbing over this guy's knob this early? ...again?

 

[esplanade91]

Just because fans are hyped up don't mean anything. Does anyone here not remember #webelieve? How did that turn out? My prediction is we roll in this game. It'll be the second half before we see Williams.

You cannot compared #webelieve to a school hosting an SEC team for the first time in school history and having 1 year to advertise it. #webelieve was lame even before we got booted.

 

[ronpolk]

You cannot compared #webelieve to a school hosting an SEC team for the first time in school history and having 1 year to advertise it. #webelieve was lame even before we got booted.

Yeah, I am comparing it. Hype is hype rather you think it's lame or not. The opportunity to beat the #1 team in the country and be instantly launched in the BCS title picture, to me, is worth more hype than hosting an unranked SEC team.

 

[drt7891]

I said fans AND players... the players being the much more relevant variable to that equation.

I also bet you thought we'd roll UAB by 42+ points, too? I never once said that we should lose this game, or even would... but you don't remotely believe that our football team (who has disappointed us how many times against teams we should have beaten) won't get off the bus and dick around for 4 quarters and possibly get upset by a team that 1. has had this game circled for the better part of a year and 2. playing very hard for respect in the college football world and has a real chance to gain some AT HOME against a quality opponent? Come on, dude...

I hope I'm dead wrong and this is a 40 point blowout going into the 4th quarter... I really do. I hope we get off the bus ready to slam heads and kick ***. But I've also been a state fan for many years... and have seen us lose to the likes of Maine, Tulane, Louisiana Tech... and barely escaped teams like La. Tech, Troy, Bowling Green, and UAB in just the past few years... so, yea, I'm a little worried we find a way to screw this up.

 

[esplanade91]

Yeah, I am comparing it. Hype is hype rather you think it's lame or not. The opportunity to beat the #1 team in the country and be instantly launched in the BCS title picture, to me, is worth more hype than hosting an unranked SEC team.

So because someone hung a banner with #WeBelieve outside of Montgomery Hall 2 days before we started a losing streak all hype from all universities, students, and players should he dismissed?

I have friends who played for USA. They think they're going to beat us. I'm sorry, I think we're just going to have to disagree... I think it matters.

We don't put up billboards advertising how we're hosting Alabama every other year 6 months before the game. Our university, students, and players also don't tweet at College Gameday every other year when Alabama comes to town (this does happen, but these people are idiots).

 

[TheStateUofMS]

Everyone is expecting USA to be such a tougher matchup than UAB. I know their QB is talented but they struggled to move the ball against Kent State.

Do they have talent at ther positions too that I'm unaware of? I just can't figure out why everyone thinks we are in for a huge fight. At least moreso than UAB.

Have you been a Mississippi State fan for very long?***

Seriously we will blow them out.

 

[onewoof]

#TheyBelieve

And the USA team is staying in a Holiday Inn Express