SEC post-spring football overreactions: This guy gets it
- Thread starter TheBannerM
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Just get ready for more excuses from the usual crowd; John Cohen left us in bad shape (Cohen leaving was the best thing that happened), Mike Leach died, no NIL, roster was in horrible shape, so many of you are too dumb to see and can't realize how bad it was, Arnett changed the offense, assistant coaches bad, blah blah blah blah.....
Cohen left 3.5 years ago. Lebby has been in town 2.5 years and has turned the roster and coaching staff over what, 3x now and we've still only won 1 conference game?
Maybe Arnett will give him some pointers on how to win a few
Cohen left 3.5 years ago. Lebby has been in town 2.5 years and has turned the roster and coaching staff over what, 3x now and we've still only won 1 conference game?
Maybe Arnett will give him some pointers on how to win a few
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All of these things are probably true to some extent. Lebby (& Selmon) were hired to correct the issues. I hope that we see significant progress this fall, but we cannot continue with the same leadership in the football program unless there is improvement.
Both can be, and are, true.
Cohen did screw us. Mike Leach did die, and that definitely hurt us. Arnette was a horrible hire. All those things you list as excuses did and still do hurt us.
It's also true that Lebby has been here 2.5 years and turned the roster and staff over several times. His record sucks. It's time for him to put up or shut up. So far, he's not been very good, to say the least. This is his last year if he doesn't show some improvement, imo. And it would be hard to argue cutting ties if he doesn't get it done this year.
Lebby put himself behind the 8 ball with his assistant hires, mainly DC and I guess OL coach too. Lebby just hasn't been good at much. The one thing I will say gives me hope that he can eventually be a solid head coach (not optimistic that it will be here), is that he has shown some flashes in his responsibility. We have gotten better at explosive plays. He's been able to get WRs in here and we are ok at RB. If he had been able to build a decent OL, we're probably reasonably content with his performance at this point. If he were better at game management, we probably feel a lot better right now, because we're coming off of a 6 or 7 win regular season. I think that is something that can be learned. So he's not hopeless, he just has used up all of his goodwill and has to get it right this year.
Even with the Oline struggles his DC hire was more devastating. That is his biggest mistake. Our defense was a joke the last 2 years. He created such a thin margin for victory trying to give this dude a chance. Arnett gives you more margin and we badly need it.
Leach was successful here with a just an okay offense. Lebby could do the same. It’s just a shame he’s backed himself into a corner with two terrible seasons to kill buzz around the program.
The root of all of it is Leach. What it took to run his kind of scheme was not what was readily obtainable our traditional recruiting profile/footprint, and what was he either didn't want or didn't care about(defense). It may or may not have worked if Leach had been around long enough to possibly get new pipelines established. He wasn't so that's a moot point. We were basically starting from scratch and that has been reflected in the talent we have been pulling. That this happened in a time that the total system itself was being blown up was just a perfect storm.
At some point you have to actually improve the situation you were dealt . We’re in year 3 now & it looks like it’s going to me more of the same.
This season Lebby has to
or get off the 
.What that means in terms of actual wins/losses, I don’t know, but 5 wins and a handful of “moral victories” won’t cut it.
All this is laughable
Leach coached at places reminiscent of Starkville… We’re talking Lubbock and Pullman… places not known for having traditional recruiting footprints
Mississippi State, Wazzu, and Texas Tech had not historically had success in football and the usual course of action is to do something different than the norm… which traditionally had been some sort of option oriented attack but seeing that SEC powers were also going that route meant he had to be different. At the same time, he respected good defenses….
For example, his better teams mostly had top 50 defenses (the exception being his ‘08 Tech and ‘15 Wazzu teams
https://247sports.com/college/missi...ssissippi-state-mike-leach-177334068/#1790527
Yawn. This Paragraph is Meaningless and just an exercise in Saying Nothing with a lot of words.
You basically say: “It could or it could not”
Well. Duh!
Commit to something!
Make a decent argument please.
Yep and honestly the only thing truly constant with MSU through the years is that good defense = good teams. Mullen, even being an offensive guy, knew he had to lead with defense and that's what he did first. Leach also had good defenses and the decent players we've had since then were all pretty much Leach guys or recruits.
It's just a laughable position. Plus the programs at Texas Tech and Washington State were in good shape once he left.
You misunderstand. It might have worked over time , but there was no doubt it was recruiting a completely different type of talent than we always had. The Leach fanboys never seemed to understand that, or if they did they blew it off. It was a major change that did not have time to run its course. Y'all know my feeling about it but having it abruptly cut off in the middle of it essentially meant we blew the program up twice in four years, and then did it again a year later. That is a recipe for disaster.
What can be recruited in state in Texas and at WSU (California) is different than what we can get here in Mississippi. Remember the JWS quote, and he was absolutely correct. There is no arguing that Leach totally changed what and where we recruited. It might have worked, for him.
Yes, the air raid is a system you have to recruit for, and before the portal and nil, it was difficult to turn over an air raid roster quickly. That is 100% true. The problem is, Lebs has turned over the roster, what three times now? Lebby is not the guy, and we are a year past really being able to blame our current ineptitude on CL.
You can label me the usual crowd but he’s got to win 6 this year
if he does yall should STFU
not bc 6 is great but bc he was handed a $h1t sandwich and shown consistent improvement
Yeah. I think everyone kinda figured Year 1 might be a mess (though it was even worse than we feared, as Toledo taught us). Last year there was definite improvement but there not being much to show for it in the W/L column didn’t help, I also thought we got worse as the season went on.
It’s gonna be really tough this year with that schedule, but this is 100% on him now to get the program back, no question. Not many coaches get a Year 3 when the first two years are 1-15 in the conference. I think the only way he gets a year 4 involves us winning 3-4 league games this year, and they’re hard to find given our schedule.
We didn't blow it up. Moorhead was already transitioning us to a pass-first offense. If you mean by run its course that Leach was going to eventually build us up to a 10-win season or equivalent? Yeah, you're right, because that was his track record. And he sure won a lot of games while he was here, in the process.
Oh, we know.......RuNdAbAwL.
Blah, blah, he recruited the same kids in MS that every other good coach did. He built it with defense like every other good coach did. And it's easier to transition away from the Air Raid or any other pass first offense than it is to build up to it. Both can be fast-tracked in this new era.
Texas Tech went 25-25 with two losing seasons in the four years after Leach left. WSU went 20-22. Better than us but hardly "good shape".
You do understand some of that is on the new coach? The rosters were solid.
Give it up boomer, this is one of the most outdated and stupid takes you've had over the years.
I think Lebby is a good offensive scheme guy, but his offensive line has been bad since he got here. That’s mostly on coaching in my opinion. Hevesy would’ve had a better result. With the portal and 2 years of development he better damn well have an average o line this year. Everyone says Arnett will turn the defense around in one offseason. Let’s see Lebby win some games this year for once. It could happen by the thinnest of margins. I’m pulling for him, but I’m not holding my breath.
Yawn. He needs to show improvement or he’s gone? Wow. Piping hot take here by Captain Obvious. The biggest question is not will we be axing him if he doesn’t (it’s a put up ot shut up season for sure), but how will this board react if we do exceed expectations?
My bet is that we move the goal posts.
My bet is that we move the goal posts.
Agree, but that did set the conditions for where we are to happen. Lebby has to produce this year, or we will probably fire him. You can argue just because of the quick trigger we had with the last two of our coaches who didn't die that we should wait another year, but we wont do that. It will be another rinse and repeat I'm afraid.
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I've already been moving them.
I can absolutely see a scenario with this team, with the veterans on defense, could sneak into 6-6 or maybe even 7-5 if things work out, Kamario is more Cam-ish than Walmart Milroe-ish. Folks will get fired up and we'll have to hear from the sheep about giving to NIL for another 9 months. Very reminiscent to the 2007/2008 offseason.
We all know what happens after that.
NO. Once again you make up a position to argue against, your standard tactic. One dimensional offenses do not work in modern football. Passing all the time is as bad as running all the time. And you are wrong about Moorhead, that was a multidimensional offense. Which what Penn State did when he was there. It wasn't the wishbone sure, but they did run, and pass, the ball.
Being a pass first offense opens up the run game.
No pass first offense is one dimensional.
Football 101. The Mississippi High School guard has never woke up to this fact.
People here always hated Hevesy, but he almost always had a serviceable offensive line. I'd take him back right now, with or without Mullen. You are correct in Lenny's lines so far, they have been about the worst I have ever seen here, and that's saying something.
You can't name a group of people that leach left that were NFL players or 1st team all sec or even second team all sec.
Name them. We know you won't b/c you can't. Even if they transferred you can include them.
WE ARE WAITING!!
I can assure you if he goes 6-6 this board will be melting down to fire him.
If he goes 7-5, they will scream that he should have been 8-4.
If you advocate for firing him after 6-6 you are dumber than i think which is possible i guess.
Correct
L4 is judging CL via NIL-era recruiting and attempting again to compare apples with oranges, which is ignorant
Here are some truths:
1. CL was great in his time
2. CL died
3. MSU went full Awful MSU in a changing environment and therefore went SOL with its flawed but necessary (TLDR — he should have been interim) hire of Arnett
4. MSU continued to go full Awful with Lebby and has since been putting lipstick on a pig with these advisor hires (good hires, mind you, I’ll admit) but Lebby has not yetshown that he is the guy.
Speculation time…
If he wins 6 in ‘26, he will have another season and be our modern day Shira & Croom
Yes, and you have to have a credible running threat to be able to pass it. If you can't or won't run or pass, a decent defense WILL stop what you can or will do.
You know you have L4 cornered when he starts the capitalizing and enunciating, haha.
You know goat knows he's cornered when he quits replying.
If he wins 6 this year he might be the best coach we have ever had. I'm not sure we win more than 2. Now you know where I am on that.
You still don't see what I'm talking about, and I was not talking about NIL era recruiting. I was talking about the recruiting Leach actually did while here: it was completely different than what we had always done. He abandoned a lot of relationships and ties we had, whether intentionally or just as fallout from the change in what we were looking for. There just aren't many Leach type players produced in Mississippi high schools. That was my whole point. That had always been our bread and butter, and it wasn't necessarily by choice. Remember JWS' maxim.
And you fall back on your other standard tactic, name calling and mocking. If I posted like you I would, and have been, banned.