well, at least one person gets it

[markymark.sixpack]

http://www.presnapread.com/no-73-mississippi-state/

"As I wrote about Relf last month:

He’ll replace the departed Tyson Lee, who gave the Bulldogs grit, if little else. In terms of athleticism, Relf is a clear upgrade; how he develops as a passer will dictate the strides M.S.U. makes in Dan Mullen’s second season. If nothing else, Relf can keep the position warm for Russell, the unquestioned future at the position.</p>

Russell will see plenty of action..."

"Running back Anthony Dixon meant everything to last season’s offense, putting the Mississippi State offense on his back — such as he did against Kentucky — to offset a pitiful passing attack. He’ll be nearly impossible to replace, though Mullen and his staff hope increased production through the air can help recover much of Dixon’s lost yardage. "

 

[markymark.sixpack]

http://www.presnapread.com/no-73-mississippi-state/

"As I wrote about Relf last month:

He’ll replace the departed Tyson Lee, who gave the Bulldogs grit, if little else. In terms of athleticism, Relf is a clear upgrade; how he develops as a passer will dictate the strides M.S.U. makes in Dan Mullen’s second season. If nothing else, Relf can keep the position warm for Russell, the unquestioned future at the position.</p>

Russell will see plenty of action..."

"Running back Anthony Dixon meant everything to last season’s offense, putting the Mississippi State offense on his back — such as he did against Kentucky — to offset a pitiful passing attack. He’ll be nearly impossible to replace, though Mullen and his staff hope increased production through the air can help recover much of Dixon’s lost yardage. "

 

[Coach34]

we were <span style="text-decoration:underline">last</span> in the SEC in rushing in 2008 withjust over 100 yards a game as junior Anthony Dixon headed up our running attack
in 2009, we were #1 in the SEC in rushing with Senior Dixon and Relf leading our rushing attack.


Did Dixon get that much better in one offseason?
Or did the scheme get that much better?

scheme > any one player

We will get our production without Dixon this season...we have Relf and some very capable RB's

 

[LTblows]

And that was a good way of putting it. If you cannot see that the incremental success of Dixon's senior season was largely due to dumping the Gulf Coast offense, you're blind.

 

[Johnson85]

but it will be in those situations where he was able to say, "I'm going to get these yards." Don't know that you'll see it in the statistics b/c of improvement elsewhere. But I think we'll miss him when we need to convert a 3rd or 4th down.

 

[paindonthurt_]

in the SEC in rushing with Senior Dixon <span style="font-weight: bold;">and Relf</span> leading our rushing
attack.

Yes scheme is better than any one player, but again, all things equal we'd be that much better if we had a Dixon.

 

[Coach34]

but if we are getting the production that we had last year, then we really wont miss him.

The only way you can say we will miss him is if we fail to get the rushing yards we got last season. Thats it. If we equal or surpass those numbers from last season, then we won't have missed him.


Hey guess what, the Yankees are missing Babe Ruth this season....

 

[futaba.79]

and that offense could flat out run the ball. Haddix was in the backfield, backed up by Wonsley and we also had McDole. And of course, Bond. The key, however, was Donald Ray King. When teams took away Bond and Haddix, King made them pay

In '81, I thought we'd have the best runninggame in the country. Bond andHaddix were back,I never gave losing King a second thought. First game of theyear, Memphis, of allpeople,exposed us. Ourfullbacks weren'tgood enough. Take away Bond and Haddix andwe weren't that hard to defend.

Dixon, one of the best backs we've ever had, opened up everything else. If we don't have somebody good enough on the dive, Relf and the others won't get much outside.

</p>

 

[therightway]

I do not know if it was Dixon's head or Croom's zone blocking scheme or non blocking scheme that he wanted to break every run to the outside. I nearly went bald pulling my hair out when Dixon would break a 4th an 1 to the outside and get tackled for a loss. It seemed this year Dixon got most of his yards starting between the tackles. We may not have a 1000 yard rusher this year but I think that we will have as good of a year or better on the ground next season.

 

[jackstefano]

The only way you can say we will miss him is if we fail to get the rushing yards we got last season.

This is where I disagree with you. If you substitute "points" for "rushing yards", then I agree with you.

 

[PBRME]

Another contributor was holes developed for him last year. The year before the defense was 2 yards in the backfield by the time he got the ball. Of course that's what happens when you have 6 people blocking 9-10 on every play.

 

[TR.sixpack]

nm

 

[topdawg.sixpack]

I kid. I too agree, we will miss Dixon's leadership and talent, but I think we will have a serviceable running game.

 

[goldeneye]

im willing to bet you even with probably double the snaps he had lasyt year, Relf and no ONE MSU RB will have more yeards than Dixon and Relf had last year (1891). Keep in mind Relf only played in 10 games last year and only had 76 rushing attemps last season. Im pretty sure he will double that this season and he and Elliott or Ballard (any 2) wont have 1891 yards total next year.

 

[Coach34]

im willing to bet you even with probably double the snaps he had lasyt year, Relf and no ONE MSU RB will have more yeards than Dixon and Relf had last year (1891). Keep in mind Relf only played in 10 games last year and only had 76 rushing attemps last season. Im pretty sure he will double that this season and he and Elliott or Ballard (any 2) wont have 1891 yards total next year.

I'm willing to bet you that Relf and our 4 RB's in 2010 rush for as many yards as Lee, Relf, Dixon, and the RB's combined for last year in 2009

 

[goldeneye]

We had 2,731 rushing yards last year. If we get more than that this year, we will be up there with the option teams like Nevada, Gtech, Air Force and Navy. I cant see this happening, especially with defenses loading the box on Relf. I hope youre right but I doubt it seriously.

 

[Coach34]

against Relf. They loaded it against Lee because he could barely throw it 40 yards. Relf can beat them deep or hit deeper crossing patterns if they pull the safeties up. Teams are going to gamble some, and look for Relf to hit some long passing plays this season. Once that happens, you will see alot less of that happening. I'll take Bumphis one-on-one with a LB or SS running crossing routes. Teams can't afford to load up on Relf if he can just complete a few passes- not to mention he makes play-action passes much more effective

With Russell in the game, teams will play less man and keep a safety deep because he is not a threat to run the football-thus negating our numbers advantage in the running game.

 

[goldeneye]

I doubt we remember this by the end of the football season, but I bet we dont eclipse last year's rushing total this season. And when we dont, Ill say it was because we missed Dixon and you on the other hand will come up with some other excuse. We will just agree to disagree.

 

[Fdawg.sixpack]

we should actually have somewhat of a passing game...we ran more last year bc we couldnt pass so if the numbers go down this year its not necassarily bc we miss dixon its because we'll befinding other ways to move the ball

sure itd be nice to have dixon and the occasional bama/om leap over a player and carry 9 cougars on your back to the endzone but rb's are replaceable...the real key is our oline is another year older so hopefully what we lose in dixon will be made up by the hogs up front

 

[Coach34]

This has been a hot topic since Spring and I doubt it goes away- even after we rush for 300 yards vs Memphis

 

[myusernamesucks]

uh, okay.

 

[Coach34]

That's the starting point. And If you could comprehend, you would have understood that I said this discussion wasn't going away- even after a big day against Memphis- meaning the jury will still be out

 

[markymark.sixpack]

the more i think we all really feel the same about the offense, and in particular, the rushing offense. I think we are just saying it in different ways. i definitely don't expect us to take a step back in the running game next year, but it would be nice to have Dixon to run over people, get tough yards, and not have to worry about fumbles a whole lot. He brought a lot of pride and energy to the field. We don't have any one back that will run for 250 vs KY this year, but the 4 (counting Relf) will be more than capable of running for over 400 combined. It's semantics.

However, I do like how you ignored the parts about the QB situation. The guy basically agreed with both of my main points (QB & RB). I know it doesn't mean anything; i just posted it to egg things on a little.

 

[Coach34]

Mullen putting Russell in a game against Auburn, on a Thursday night national ESPN game, with it being anywhere in doubt. He needs to get experience, and I sincerely hope he plays a whole quarter vs Memphis. But with his passing skills no better than Relf's <span style="text-decoration:underline">at this point</span>, it gives us no advantage to put him in the game.

I would like to see Mullen have him a set of plays, running the no-huddle at a quicker pace, that Russell knows inside out. This change of pace could give us an advantage and would let him focus a particular set of plays to get really good at them. For an inexperienced player, I feel this is the best way to get comfortable and eases you into SEC football. Rather than being nervous about the entire playbook and knowing all the calls, it's shrunk down for him to be relaxed and confident as he takes the field.

One thing we all agree on- its really great to finally have some 17'ing excitement about football this time of year and to be able to discuss something other than how bad Crooms sux and did he really mean it when he said he was going to really going to open the offense up this season