So the lifestyle has come out and said this morning that Mullen is....

[RebelBruiser]

No, especially at DT.

The DE spot won't be as bad in terms of experience. We have a lot of guys who have played at DE, though I wouldn't say they're world beaters as a group. Lockett, Dorsey, Jones, Rivers, Whigham and Thompson have all played, though some are obviously stronger than others. We at least have some solid experience at DE, though it's not quite as talented a group as I'd like overall.

The DT spot is a big question. Our 3 deep in no particular order includes two Jucos (Pena and Grant), two redshirt freshmen (Bennett and Martin), and two guys that have played before but only in somewhat limited roles (Gaines and Smith). Smith has actually started games before I believe, but he wasn't in the two deep rotation much of last year. We've got bodies there, but it's a huge question mark. There may not be a huge drop off from 1 to 2 to 3 at either spot, but I wouldn't call it depth since we haven't seen much from them.

I remember one year where we brought over a TE to try to work at DT just to give us a 5th body at the position, so things aren't that bad. We do have bodies that actually are supposed to play the position all along the DL. We just don't have experience, and whether they're any good is anyone's guess.

 

[pDigital32Dawg]

and I wasn't replying to the OP for that matter. Mullen quite frankly hasn't told the media anything. All of the interviews I have seen, he has given very brief answers to the media. Answers that tell you absolutely nothing, or a nugget of information that is so small they can't expand on its meaning when they write about it. Simply put, if you want real information from our practices you need to know some players, or people that have been out there on the sideline as guests. Coaches are keeping tight-lipped which has been the norm since Mullen arrived.

And before I dig myself into a hole I do realize and believe we have depth issues at offensive line.

 

[dawgstudent]

but your defense should be better than last year according to some?

Just admit - fans are hypocritical when talking about their own team.

 

[dawgstudent]

it's hard not too go in defense mode with Ole Miss fans on here sometimes.

 

[Married to a Dog]

I think the "better than last year" sentiment on defense is based primarily around just how bad we were last year. At least, that is my position.

We won't win with defense, but we should be able to improve upon last year's defensive output.

 

[whereisomaha.sixpack]

He has starts under his belt from his sophomore year and junior year. He's pretty solid, just injury prone. I think we have depth at DT because if anyone is injured there isnt much of a drop off in talent, mainly because there isnt a huge talent like Boyd or Cox, that we know of yet.

 

[olemissbydamn]

but your defense should be better than last year according to some?

Just admit - fans are hypocritical when talking about their own team.

Are SOME of our fans hypocritical? Yes. Are SOME of yours hypocritical? Yes.

What the hell does that have to do with this discussion? So far you have spun a MSU OL depth discussion to OM's QBs and now you have moved on to our defense.

I never said OM has depth at QB. I never said OM's defense will be better. Why do you want me to defend those fans? I speak for myself only. Our defense will be terrible again.

Do your beliefs mirror your sheepish fans?

Did I not make a fairly good explanation of why bodies don't equal depth?

Jeez.

If you'd like me to go off topic since you continue to nuke this discussion and explain why SOME fans may feel that way, I will.

As someone else said, its hard to be as bad as we were last year. However, SOME fans feel that there will be a huge improvement in coaching since Keith Burns was added to the staff. We lost DT, but we got Lockett back. Pressure from the DE position was lacking last year as Dorsey wasn't ready for SEC play. The hope is that he has adjusted to the SEC and is more ready than last year.

 

[msudogsrule01]

nothing to see here.

 

[aTotal360]

[No message]

 

[ReidRebel08]

Ya'lls season this year reminds me alot of our season in '09, coming off a great season, expectations higher than they have been in a long time. We had to replace 1st round LT(Oher) with Sowell, along with losing alot of other talent throughout our roster. Sowell was manhandled by eric norwood of south carolina, and schooled by a few other good DE's. We still ended up having a a good season and could've been better if we would've had better production out of sowell...now he's All conference LT.

The point is, your season this year is much like our season in '09, It is extremely hard to replace a LT like Sherrod, The DE's in the SEC are like (Land)Sharks when they come up against NEW LT's, just got to let them take their lumps...One good thing ya have going for you is that Relf is a 235lb running qb built like a brick sh*thouse, so if/when the DE beats the T he may receive more than he was expecting from a qb.

-just my .02c, I'm sure i'll get ripped on the Landshark but i couldn't resist throwing it in there.

 

[whereisomaha.sixpack]

but your defense should be better than last year according to some?

Just admit - fans are hypocritical when talking about their own team.

But we think our defense will be better because we've seen them, not because of whats on paper. We have either the same guy returning at a position or someonewho is faster and more athletic at every single position.Im not going to come on your boardand spout off about why our defense will be improved more than I already have, but its not really aquestion if you watched and compared thelast yearsD and this years D.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I think it's safe to say we won't be worse on defense. We can't be worse.

Do we have question marks at every defensive spot? Yes, but that doesn't mean we'll be worse.

I'm not expecting much from our defense, but I would feel pretty safe betting we won't give up 35 points per game again. We may give up 30 a game, but it won't be 35.

I also think we have a shot to be pretty solid on defense in 2012 once all these guys get another year under their belt, but this year is going to be a struggle at times. I just don't think it'll be a 35 points per game struggle.

 

[seshomoru]

Without Ole Miss fans, who would be the voice of reason for MSU football?

 

[chew1095]

On the flip side, I see a lot of similarities between MSU circa 2003 to Ole Miss 2011.

We will all find out in short order because its almost go time.

Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum! Mandelbaum!</p>

 

[Hanmudog]

but your defense should be better than last year according to some?

Just admit - fans are hypocritical when talking about their own team.

Of course they will be better. They are more athletic than last year dammit.*

 

[Columbus Dawg]

will be the same group that we start against Memphis minus Sherrod.

Questions about depth? Sure. You can say the same for about 95% of college football teams. </p>

 

[dawgstudent]

[No message]

 

[idog]

but your defense should be better than last year according to some?

Just admit - fans are hypocritical when talking about their own team.

But we think our defense will be better because we've seen them, not because of whats on paper. We have either the same guy returning at a position or someonewho is faster and more athletic at every single position.Im not going to come on your boardand spout off about why our defense will be improved more than I already have, but its not really aquestion if you watched and compared thelast yearsD and this years D.

your spring game? seriously.

 

[GroveHard]

of college football teams aren't 10 win teams.

 

[RougeDawg]

How could they not?** they lost their best players from last years defense and are replacing them with players who obviously couldn't cut the mustard last year. This has to mean they will be much improved in 2011. If you add less than you take away, then you have more accoding to Bear math professors. It's really very simple. Come on guys.

 

[RebelBruiser]

First off, that's not correct at all. 5 of our top 6 DTs last year either weren't on the team, didn't play because of injuries, or were redshirted last year. Our best DE didn't play last year except for a few games early. Also, quite a bit of our 2 deep in the back 7 are players that weren't on the roster last year.

That's not a great situation to be in with little experience, but it's not like the guys we have on our two deep this year were beat out by the players we had last year. They weren't around.

Also, I think some of you are getting the term "better" confused with "good". I haven't seen anyone say they expect our defense to be good, but I can just about guarantee you it'll be better than it was last year, because it would be really hard for it to be worse. We can check back at the end of November, and we'll review the stats. I can just about guarantee we'll be better. We may still give up 30 points per game, which won't qualify as good, but it would be better. See how that works. Better is a relative term.

 

[tommyboy1520]

Especially when you look at how "better" relates to the season itself. I don't see the point in making the point that your D will be better based on 30 pts/game compared to 35 pts/game. By definition, that's better. But the end result will probably be the same as last year. With that in mind, why would you care or or even bother defending that your Defense will be better? At the end of the season, all that matters is that your defense was either good (enough) or bad.

 

[patdog]

If the freshmen DTs were really better than the ones that were playing, they damn sure wouldn't have redshirted. They may or may not turn into good players for you, but this year they're not going to be any better than what you put on the field last year.

 

[skb124]

Great Will Ferrell reference there. I laughed.

 

[RebelBruiser]

I would agree with you, and I don't have high expectations for our defense. If they can create a few more turnovers and can be relatively better than we were last year, then we'll have a chance to win some games. I'm confident Nutt will find us something with the offense. He always does. We just need the defense to give us a chance.

The rest is just talk and speculation at this point. No one knows what changes in coaching staff and/or personnel will do for a team. No one knew Nick Fairley would be the best DT in the country last year, and no one knew Cam Newton would be THAT good. He wasn't even on a Heisman watch list pre-season. Likewise, no one thought Texas and Florida were going to struggle as much as they did last year. No one thought Brantley and Gilbert were going to struggle that much. You can project players based on what you think they're going to do based on what they've done in the past, but you don't know until you roll them out there with the rest of the supporting cast each year. No one knew much about Lattimore or Knile Davis last year at this time either. That's why they play the games.

 

[BigUgly55]

Can't stand bounds, but gotta say he was right on this one.