OT: 2021 MSU Football

[ZombieKissinger]

We're in the midst of the sports doldrums. I get it. But, per the tracker, we're less than 25 days away from kickoff, and I'm starting to feel it. ZombieKissinger is waking up these days with a little bit of blood pumping through his necrotic veins. I am 100% not the most knowledgeable/dedicated fan. I don't know the depth chart four deep, and I couldn't even shoot the **** with Holly Rowe about a 3 Technique, but I do love Mississippi State, and I am really 17ing excited for football. Wanted to at least start a thread on football for my own sanity. Here's where my head is at for next season:

Offense
Looked at the depth chart, and I think we have tremendous potential. So much hinges on QB play this year. I liked Rogers last year overall, and his leadership/attitude are great. But I'm not sold on his arm strength or decision making. He did well as a freshman, but if his arm doesn't get much stronger, his decision making needs to be great going forward. I think we'll see a big step up with receivers this year. We have a strong group of backs for a Leach offense. The O-Line looks like a position to watch this year. Specifically, we need to block well when people rush three. If we have good QB and line play this year, I think we'll have a great offensive year.

Defense
No 17ing clue. Love having Arnett back. Seems like we have some decent production returning though definitely holes to fill. Someone share some insight/things to watch for.

Special Teams
Ruiz returning is great. Could make the difference in a win or two. I generally trust Leach's approach to special teams. I like having people involved who are talented enough to play on offense or defense. Not a huge concern for me. Comfortable with Tucker Day. Should at least not be a weakness for us and likely will be a strength.

 

[Ralph Cramden]

I think the D is gonna be pretty stout this year. We have solved the depth issue at safety. Great corners and linebackers. Strong at DT and those DE look impressive. I hope Jack gets back on the field for some depth behind Will. Tho Chance was a very accurate passer at USA.

 

[MSUDC11]

I think we have a real chance to surprise some people. Writing off Leach after Year 1 is a big mistake based on his results at other schools. I also think this is a year in the SEC where there doesn't appear to be the same volume of dominant teams as you might see in other years. We return the bulk of our starters from last year and kept our entire coaching staff in tact, while many other teams we play will be in transition due to new QB's, new coordinators (or in Auburn's case a new head coach), and having to address to some pressing personnel issues.

It's by no means a slam dunk, we have some steps forward we need to take, but I think you can pretty easily lay out a path for this being our most successful season in several years.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

I’m expecting improvement on the line, but QB is the biggest wildcard to me. That said, I agree with the optimism. Despite the unknowns, I’m as optimistic as I’ve been since before Moorhead’s first season. I think we go 7-5 with a shot at 8-4. Not an easy schedule but I’m hoping this is the year that we see some offensive firepower

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

We played a BUNCH of young players last season and it showed. This was forgotten because all the conversation was about Leach's offense and the SEC. We are still going to be young early but I don't expect it will take the end of the season for us to see improvement. I hear we have some transfers that can help but the SEC West is not forgiving with a young team.

Our defense looks good to me. As long as we have Arnett we will be tough on that side of the ball.

I read a prediction on ESPN + that says we could easily be 3-9 or 9-3 and that's what I think so I'm predicting 6-6 right down the middle because I still think Leach needs more of his type of player and another full year of teaching. I do think Leach has a good chance to be successful at MSU if he keeps good assistants, recruiters, and defensive coaches so he can concentrate on what he does best.

 

[MSUDC11]

I’m expecting improvement on the line, but QB is the biggest wildcard to me. That said, I agree with the optimism. Despite the unknowns, I’m as optimistic as I’ve been since before Moorhead’s first season. I think we go 7-5 with a shot at 8-4. Not an easy schedule but I’m hoping this is the year that we see some offensive firepower

I feel like Rogers has a fairly high floor. Maybe he's not the most talented guy in the league but he's generally a good decision maker that doesn't force the issue. Our interceptions went down significantly once he became the starting QB (14 INT's in the first 5 games, 4 INT's in the last 6). When our offense sputtered down the stretch it was generally due to poor o-line play, not Rogers. He struggled a bit in the Auburn game and wasn't great against Tulsa in the freezing rain, but he probably gave you all you could reasonably ask of him last year as a true freshman behind a bad o-line. I think he is poised to have a good year.

OL play has to be much, much better. I thought they did make some improvements down the stretch, but Leach typically has one of the better OL's in the country and we were really bad for big parts of last year. I am optimistic that we will see better OL play this year given that this system isn't brand new to our team anymore. Just going to be a matter of how much better can they be? If it's only a little bit then we will have to really fight to get to 6 wins. If we make significant improvements on the OL then I think 8-4 becomes a realistic possibility.

 

[Ralph Cramden]

I totally agree with you guys. Im thinking 8 and 4. As usual I may be totally disgusted with them by game 3 as is the norm but I look at the schedule and honestly only Bama and A&M look scary. Everybody else is beatable. I just see a lot of problems with teams with new QB and new coordinators. We could be sneaky good.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

What are we expecting at RB? Mark/Johnson combo? I looked at the roster and those are the only names that I even recognize, which is odd. I usually always have some high expectation for some young guy that we recruited. I just don't have any of the youngers on my radar this year for some odd reason.

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

I saw somewhere that we played the most freshmen and second most sophomores in the country last year. One year more for them alone plus them actually having an offseason in this offense should make us much better.

 

[aTotal360]

Personally I think the results will be similar to Mullen's. We'll look extremely one dimensional against all the good teams. Rinse, repeat. It's not a coaching issue at this point. It's a resource issue.

 

[Wizard.sixpack]

I think the D is gonna be pretty stout this year.

 

[MSUDC11]

What are we expecting at RB? Mark/Johnson combo? I looked at the roster and those are the only names that I even recognize, which is odd. I usually always have some high expectation for some young guy that we recruited. I just don't have any of the youngers on my radar this year for some odd reason.

Generally speaking the RB's are going to get more touches than anybody in this offense, and I expect that to be the case again. Marks has bulked up a bit, which is exactly what he needed to do. Johnson is a good in between the tackles back and is underrated in space. They'll be our two primary backs, but I expect Ketravion Hargrove to play as well. We seem to have gotten a real steal with him, 4 star talent that other big schools backed off of in the recruiting process because of injury concerns. Heck we were considering blue shirting him at one point. But he has gotten himself healthy and has looked good in practice from all indications. He is the fastest back we have, track and field guy in high school. He is a real home run threat out of the back field, and it appears that he is a great fit for this offense, so my anticipation is that he's one of the true freshmen that won't be redshirting this year.

 

[OliveBranchDAWG]

We're in the midst of the sports doldrums. I get it. But, per the tracker, we're less than 25 days away from kickoff, and I'm starting to feel it. ZombieKissinger is waking up these days with a little bit of blood pumping through his necrotic veins. I am 100% not the most knowledgeable/dedicated fan. I don't know the depth chart four deep, and I couldn't even shoot the **** with Holly Rowe about a 3 Technique, but I do love Mississippi State, and I am really 17ing excited for football. Wanted to at least start a thread on football for my own sanity. Here's where my head is at for next season:

Offense
Looked at the depth chart, and I think we have tremendous potential. So much hinges on QB play this year. I liked Rogers last year overall, and his leadership/attitude are great. But I'm not sold on his arm strength or decision making. He did well as a freshman, but if his arm doesn't get much stronger, his decision making needs to be great going forward. I think we'll see a big step up with receivers this year. We have a strong group of backs for a Leach offense. The O-Line looks like a position to watch this year. Specifically, we need to block well when people rush three. If we have good QB and line play this year, I think we'll have a great offensive year.

Defense
No 17ing clue. Love having Arnett back. Seems like we have some decent production returning though definitely holes to fill. Someone share some insight/things to watch for.

Special Teams
Ruiz returning is great. Could make the difference in a win or two. I generally trust Leach's approach to special teams. I like having people involved who are talented enough to play on offense or defense. Not a huge concern for me. Comfortable with Tucker Day. Should at least not be a weakness for us and likely will be a strength.

“Why do you care? What’s the point?” -HoopsDawg

But seriously, good stuff. I’m predicting 8-4, we’ll have a top 25 defense and offense will be much improved. Also what’s being overlooked is how good our special teams will be with Ruiz & Day back.

The amount of nonchalant 8-4 predictions thrown out on this board prove how far our program has come over the last decade. 10 years ago we would be giddy as hell predicting 8 wins. It’s easy to overlook slow & steady progress. MSU football is totally different than it was in the 2000’s

 

[MSUDC11]

“Why do you care? What’s the point?” -HoopsDawg

But seriously, good stuff. I’m predicting 8-4, we’ll have a top 25 defense and offense will be much improved. Also what’s being overlooked is how good our special teams will be with Ruiz & Day back.

The amount of nonchalant 8-4 predictions thrown out on this board prove how far our program has come over the last decade. 10 years ago we would be giddy as hell predicting 8 wins. It’s easy to overlook slow & steady progress. MSU football is totally different than it was in the 2000’s

We've slipped a bit since Mullen left but I think Leach is capable of getting us back to that level we were at a few years ago. You are definitely not wrong about expectations changing though. Look no further than what became of Joe Moorhead.

 

[messageboardsuperhero]

We are a 7-5 team, IMO. Could see variation there of a game or so, but 6-6 sounds more likely than 8-4. Of course if we have some key injuries, 5-7 would be on the table too.

Defensively we should be very solid, assuming CBs stay healthy. The front is really deep and safety play is expected to be much better now that we have a bunch of guys back from injury.

Offensively we will keep progressing, although we will still not be a finished product until 2022. I expect us to show some flashes of looking really good and then have some sputters. We could struggle to move the ball against NC State or Memphis early, then give a more talented team or two some fits. I kind of expect us to drop a game as a heavy favorite but also upset someone.

People writing off Auburn, LSU, and even A&M as sure losses are mistaken. Just like people counting NC State, Memphis, or UK as sure wins are getting ahead of their skis. Back when Mullen was here you could almost go down the schedule and predict it game by game. With Leach I don’t think that will be the case.

 

[johnson86-1]

Personally I think the results will be similar to Mullen's. We'll look extremely one dimensional against all the good teams. Rinse, repeat. It's not a coaching issue at this point. It's a resource issue.

This is what I'm expecting in general. I think we're going to be shut down when there was a big talent difference (just like with Mullen every year except for 2014, when Dak combined with a good offense meant we weren't really overmatched by any defense, and just like Leach was against Washington consistently) but we're generally going to have a competent to pretty good offense that allows us to be bowl eligible consistently. The only difference is that we'll be much more likely to lose one we shouldn't and also to win one we shouldn't.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Thanks. I'm not sure why, but this year I'm pretty disconnected from our roster and any assumed expectations. Maybe it's a defensive mechanism...