How much difference did the preparation differential make on Sat?....

[thekimmer]

Looking at the SEC across the board last week it appeared that lack of preparation was perhaps a bigger factor than usual. Lots of ugly starts to games that shouldn't have ever been close. Good reasons for that. Lack of spring practice, lots of off time due to covid. It seemed that some teams were better able to handle that than others. I believe that was a factor in our game as well. The question is, how much of a factor do you think it played in our stunning upset? Would it have been a different story if we faced LSU in week 5 vs week 1? As time goes on and teams get their acts together, how will that affect our success? For example, I would love to catch UGA right now instead of in November. Bama its not going to make any difference. Thoughts?

 

[fedxdog]

I watched the Ark/UGA game with Ark fans. They said Ark was not in shape. And yes, we looked in much better condition.

 

[patdog]

I think it was a huge issue for a lot of teams. I was shocked we looked so well prepared with a completely new coaching staff and offensive and defensive schemes. Got to give our Leach and our assistants a LOT of credit for that.

 

[MSUDC11]

There were definitely varying levels of preparedness in the league but at the end of the day it's on the coaching staffs to get teams prepared. Leach and company did a good job of that, Coach O and his staff did not. Preparedness is a big key no matter who you are playing and regardless of if there is a pandemic. That's why I love Leach's "We beat them all week long" comment after the game.

As far as when you play somebody, I think it just depends on the team. With this particular LSU team, absolutely I think it was beneficial that we caught them early. By comparison, Ole Miss doesn't play them until December and I think that's unlucky for Ole Miss. Teams get better as the year goes on, especially as they are working in new pieces. I think back to the infamous South Alabama loss in 2016, that was our first game after Dak graduated and Mullen was still tinkering with the QBs and figuring out what he wanted to do (not sure why in hindsight, but whatever). If that game is played in October or November, we probably beat South Alabama by 2-3 touchdowns. But they caught us at the time we were most vulnerable and the rest is history.

Regardless of when you beat somebody, the wins all count the same. Leach and his staff did an incredible job of having us ready, no doubt about it. The excuses being made by LSU are totally irrelevant considering we had many of the same factors working against us plus had to work in a totally new offense. Leach's staff coached circles around Orgeron's staff all week long and that's all there is to it.

 

[GloryDawg]

State is the best in shape team. It has to be contribute to our guys doing a lot of work on thier own during the lockdown.

 

[Choctaw Dawg]

I watched a replay of the Arkansas game. That Arkansas team looked like a 5-7,6-6 team in the first half but in the second half they looked like the team of the past two years. Their defense was gassed quick in the second half.

 

[NWADawg]

I watched a replay of the Arkansas game. That Arkansas team looked like a 5-7,6-6 team in the first half but in the second half they looked like the team of the past two years. Their defense was gassed quick in the second half.

If they got gassed against UGA, I think it will be worse against us. I'm not saying we're better than UGA (but we may be), but our style of offense makes the D players chase more. Even on the line, trying to beat another 300 lb dude while chasing a QB seems it would require more than trying to beat another 300 lb dude in same basic spot while the back runs at you.

On the other side, our O line doesn't have to bulldoze people out of an area they just have to slow down/ redirect them enough.

 

[Shamoan]

i would argue that because we were so soft last season, it was a point of emphasis to reverse the damage done by the moorhead regime, which has obviously paid off.

 

[MSUDC11]

If they got gassed against UGA, I think it will be worse against us. I'm not saying we're better than UGA (but we may be), but our style of offense makes the D players chase more. Even on the line, trying to beat another 300 lb dude while chasing a QB seems it would require more than trying to beat another 300 lb dude in same basic spot while the back runs at you.

On the other side, our O line doesn't have to bulldoze people out of an area they just have to slow down/ redirect them enough.

I feel like I can confidently say our offense is better than Georgia's, especially with the 3rd and 4th strings guys they played at QB against Arkansas. Georgia is likely a lot better than us on defense, but offensively I don't know that it's close right now.

If Arkansas wore out against Georgia's offense then I'm not sure they are going to enjoy defending the Air Raid very much. Even if they limit the deep balls I think they are going to have a hard time defending us underneath, especially with Kylin coming out of the backfield.

 

[campshelbydog842003]

This season shows the difference in schools that hire used car salesmen recruiters and those who hired actual football coaches who know how to manage a program and some adversity. CFB has gone to the model of just hire the best recruiter possible and a lot of other things have fallen to the side. It was evident how much better organized and conditioned Mike Leach's team was compared to many others. Leach also proved the whole "need 2 years to install an offense" is complete ********. If you have an offense that can't be installed in one offseason then you need to find a new offense.

 

[ckDOG]

The preparation on offense was obvious and a breath of fresh air

I'm not just talking about it looking good bc we obviously were effective. That's easy to say. I tend to put a lot of weight on body language and it was very clear that players and coaches all knew their roles and knew it well. No walking around and looking lost for guidance like we did in the Moorhead years. That's all coaching right there. Players are trained in what they should be doing in any given scenario and they know precisely what is expected of them. When shoulders are shrugging and folks are lollygagging to position or constantly having to be shuffled around bc they don't know where be lined up - that's all preparation. We did have some snap issues and a couple missed blocks, but I'm confident that will get cleaned up with live game reps.

I still think back to the KSU game last year where we had a last minute chance to make something happen. The offense (many of which are the same players) looked like they wanted the game to end rather than try to win. Not bc they wanted to lose, but bc they had no clue what they were supposed to do. Total **** show that should be ingrained into muscle memory for coaches calling plays and players executing them. It was at that moment I knew we wouldn't be getting any better as a program until Moorhead was gone.

 

[patdog]

I still think back to the KSU game last year where we had a last minute chance to make something happen. The offense (many of which are the same players) looked like they wanted the game to end rather than try to win. Not bc they wanted to lose, but bc they had no clue what they were supposed to do. Total **** show that should be ingrained into muscle memory for coaches calling plays and players executing them. It was at that moment I knew we wouldn't be getting any better as a program until Moorhead was gone.

That was awful. We had the ball with the clock winding down and players were standing around looking for someone to tell them what to do. Complete lack of preparation.

 

[Vice]

I know that many here are sick of talking about the Moorhead era, but I think it’s just a natural by product when we have such a REMARKABLE change in the program in such a short amount of time. If we made a bunch of lazy mistakes, looked soft on D, and lost to LSU, no one would be talking about JoMo. But it’s hard not to talk about how truly grateful we are for this change.

But here’s mine: remember Monday press conferences when JoMo would go over the mistakes of the previous week and always say “so yeah, we’ll get that fixed...”

Turnovers, penalties, missed assignments, etc. “yeah we’ll get all that fixed.” I couldn’t help but sit there and say “how are you going to ‘fix’ that so it never happens again for the remainder of the season?”

Most coaches would just say they need to work on getting better as a team or we need to do a better job coaching or something like that. But Joe was just so confident in his coaching abilities. It was absurd. Always bothered me.