Perfect Timing: Basketball Schedule

The 07-08 mens basketball schedule has been released. At least its something to look at to take your mind off of last night and so you'll have something to look forward to. It can be viewed in the sidebar, or if you prefer it can be found here as well. The sidebar doesn't have the dates so you may want to visit the link if that is important to you.

......That Went Well

That was a complete debacle. That is about all that can be said concerning last night's 45-0 loss. New year, same old s**t. Look, Croom is not head coaching material, we already knew this. His offense is poorly designed and he doesn't know how to run it. He doesn't know how to make in game adjustments and he doesn't know how to manage a football game. I'll say what everyone else is thinking but afraid to say, Croom is a terrible football coach. Don't give me any of the BS about he is such a good guy, he has class, blah blah blah. He is a head coach in the SEC. All of that classiness and "doing it the right way" along with $.25 will get you a coffee at Starbucks. Its about winning games, I don't give a crap about how classy you are you buffoon. Lets be honest, if he was really that classy, he would fire himself right now. Is that going to happen? Of course not.

The second thing we already knew, Henig is atrocious and is not even close to SEC material. Hell, forget the SEC, he isn't SunBelt material. Look, I don't know how much more I'll say on Henig, he tries hard but he sucks, it is a fact. He simply does not have the talent. Henig is one of the worst quarterbacks in the country, bottomline. He has no accuracy, he has no poise, he is as far from being a leader as you can possibly be, he gets rattled easily, etc. 11-28, 120 yards, 6 int. Need I say more? Baffling enough, if the post game interview is any indication he will still be the starter against Tulane. When is enough enough Croom?? When will you have seen enough of Henig to know that the guy couldn't play on most D III teams?? Whatever, Croom sucks and is an idiot, Henig is awful, we know this so I'll try not to bring it up too much more in the future. I'm going to go back and watch the game and break down how the rest of the team outside of Croom and Henig looked. I'll get that put up today or tomorrow.

The Long Wait is Finally Over: LSU v. MSU

As I am typing this, there is only 3 short hours before real football is kicked off, excluding any DII games and whatnot. ( 4 hours till MSU v LSU). Isn't it wonderful? Collegefootballnews.com has a couple of preview type things for our game here and here. Of course there is another on ESPN/CBS Sportsline, and no I am not linking it. Stop being so lazy and find it yourself.

I've never been the kind of guy that predicts scores. I'll pick a winner but that is as far as it goes. Not suprisingly I will be going with LSU in this one. They're preseason #2 for a reason. Can MSU win? Of course, I just don't think they will. I've seen too many of you guys confuse a prediction with a statement of certainty. If you're one of those people, you should really think about working on that. I personally find it annoying and quite frankly it makes you look stupid. Sorry about that, I got a little sidetracked. LSU lost a ton of talent on offense and it may in fact take them a game or two to start hitting on all cylinders. That is where the defense, which returns 8 starters, comes into play. The Mississippi State defense may be able to keep the score low, but I just can't see the offense putting anything together against LSU. Croom's offenses struggle against mediocre teams, what will they look like against possibly the best defense in the country? I'm thinking it won't be a pretty sight.

Upsets do happen though. Thats why they don't just crown a champion before ever playing the game. What?! Thats happened before?!?! Guess I shouldn't be surprised, this is after all the sport that still can't figure out how to implement a playoff system. There I go getting off track again.

Gameday Cam

Here is a cam of the junction. Kind of cool. Check it out if you have a few seconds to kill.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: Special Teams/Coaching

Special Teams Depth Chart
K	P	KR	PR
Adam Carlson RJr.	Blake McAdams Jr.	Derek Pegues Jr.	Derek Pegues Jr.
Brad Moore RFr.	Adam Carlson RJr.	Wade Bonner Fr.	Lance Long Sr.

Well, let me start off by saying that special teams was atrocious last year. Every single facet, save punt return and kick return, was a complete embarrassment. Now with that out of the way, Adam Carlson wasn't any good last year. He doesn't have much power and he isn't accurate either. Carlson connected on only 6 of 12 field goals. Making 50% of your field goals isn't exactly impressive. McAdams was equally putrid, finishing with a 38.2 yards per punt average. Now the good news is the two of them went to a kicking camp over the summer and supposedly they came away much improved. Cross your fingers that that is indeed true. True freshman Eric Richards was the backup kicker and was going to be handling kickoffs. He has a much stronger leg than Carlson and would've been able to get it into the endzone even with kickoffs moved back 5 yards. He got injured in practice though and is probably out for the year. That leaves us with walkon Brad Moore as the backup and I know nothing about him.

I don't have any numbers but you'll just have to trust me that kick coverage and punt coverage was an eyesore. Croom had 3rd stringers and walkons on special teams last year and shockingly they weren't any good. Look I understand the thinking, you don't want your starters getting hurt. I get it, but the problem is more and more, teams are using more starters and 2nd stringers on special teams. When that is the case, you have to follow suit, otherwise you get what we saw last year. Croom has said he has worked on this, but we'll see.

Pegues was, and maybe still is, the lone bright spot on special teams. He averaged 14ypr and had a touchdown on punt returns and a 23.7 ypr on kickoff returns. He isn't the best in the country but he is a legitimate threat.

My Rating: 5/10
Until I see it, I can't assume Carlson or McAdams have gotten better. Maybe they have, I certainly hope so. Kickoffs will probably be a problem as Carlson rarely got them anywhere near the endzone last year and that was kicking from the 35 instead of 30. Pegues is a threat in the return game and salvages things somewhat.



Coaching
My Rating: 2/10
This is looking at just the head coach along with the offensive and defensive coordinators. I'm sorry, I refuse to break down the individual position coaches. The rating would have been a 0/10, but the defensive coordinator has been doing a pretty good job. It has been carrying this team for 3 years now. Why does it have to carry the team? The offense looks like a peewee head coach is running things. They have made their home in the bottom 100 in almost every major statistical category. I don't know what McCorvey and Croom are running, but it is not the West Coast offense.

Now we get to Sylvester "Doing it the Right Way" Croom. What can I say? He has made mistake after mistake after mistake. He lost to Maine. A Div 1-AA team. A mediocre one at that. A bad Tulane team destroyed us for 3 quarters last year. It was only when Croom stopped trying to run his offense that MSU started to make a futile come back. Against Georgia in the fourth quarter, he went for it on 4th and short from Georgia's 40. After getting it, a few plays later he was confronted with another 4th and short from the 30. He punted. Seriously. That has to go down as one of the most baffling decisions in the history of college football, I kid you not. Why are you willing to take that risk at the 40 but not 10 yards closer to the endzone? It makes no sense. When Richt saw us come out in punt formation he called a timeout, presumable because he had to assume it would be a fake. Sure enough Georgia came out looking to defend against a fake and was stunned to see a punt instead. I have to give Croom credit, he outsmarted the entire Georgia sideline with that one. Way to go coach. He lashed out at fans last year when they had the audacity to question his brilliant offense. You know the one that had yet to score a point 8 quarters into the season. How dare we question him, after all we must be blind if we can't see improvement. 3-8, 3-8, 3-9, IMPROVEMENT!!! WHAT ARE YOU BLIND!!?!? LOOK AT ALL THAT IMPROVEMENT!?!?! How dare we question him when we can't even see that a 5-6 Maine team was far superior to our own. We're lucky they didn't run us out of our own stadium, and we expected to win?? What fools we are. Thank goodness we have Croom to show us the error of our ways. You think I'm being to hard on Mr. I Do Things the Right Way?? You want me to give him a break?? Win Croom. That is all it will take. Maybe it will start tomorrow, I would love to be shown how wrong I am. Until he starts getting some wins though, he is a buffoon and all of this talk of his is nothing more than a giant steaming pile of B.S.

Maybe he has learned from his mistakes though. The heat is starting to be turned up. There was a time where Croom was under the impression he had 6 years before the team had to show an ounce of improvement (Thanks Templeton). That isn't exactly the case anymore. Its amazing how much harder a person will work when they find out the status quo isn't going to cut it anymore. So with that there is a small glimmer of hope.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: DB

DB Depth Chart
LCB	SS	FS	RCB
Anthony Johnson So.	De'Mon Glanton RJr.	Derek Pegues Jr.	Marcus Washington So.
Jasper O'Quinn Jr.	Keith Fitzhugh Jr.	Demario Bobo*** RJr.	Tay Bowser RSo.
Keon Humphries RJr.	Zach Smith Fr.	Wade Bonner Fr.	Chris Nance Jr.

***Demario Bobo has mono. Who knows how long it will take him to get back on the field.

MSU will be breaking in two new cornerbacks. Marcus Washington will be replacing David Heard and Anthony Johnson will replace Derek Pegues who was moved to FS. Both were top reserves last year. Johnson should be fine as the coaches were confident enough in him to move Pegues to another position, even though Pegues play at cornerback was never stellar at CB in my opinion. I'm not so sure about Washington though, Heard played well and will be difficult to replace. O'Quinn is the top reserve and has looked good over the summer. Being yet another JUCO transfer, I haven't seen him play so I can only go by what I've heard. After O'Quinn though we have two converted WRs in Keon Humphries and Tay Bowser. They do not inspire any confidence in me and I'll just leave it at that.

De'Mon Glanton starts at SS after starting 4 games there last year. Glanton had 24 tackles, 3 pass breakups and 2 INT. last season. He'll be backed up by Fitzhugh who was moved from FS to accomodate Pegues. I'd feel comfortable with either one starting, although Fitzhugh isn't the best tackler which is a problem at SS, so there is very good depth here. Pegues will start at his new position of FS and we can only hope he does better than he did at CB. He wasn't bad at CB by any means, but he was far from spectacular which is what you tend to be expecting from a 5 star player out of high school. Bobo would be a good backup but with him getting mono, I don't know when he would be available.

My Rating: 7/10
If Pegues can make the adjustment to FS, then the safety position could be a strength. On the other hand the cornerbacks don't have much in the way of experience so I fear they could be burned more than a few times this year.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: LB

LB Depth Chart
SLB	MLB	WLB
Gabe O'Neal Sr.	Jamar Chaney Jr.	Dominic Douglas Jr.
Anthony Littlejohn RJr.	Jamon Hughes So.	Anthony Littlejohn RJr.
K.J. Wright Fr.	Jamie Jones Fr.	Karlin Brown Fr.

LB might be the strongest position on the team, and definitely is the strength of the defense. Gabe O'Neal has tons of experience having started 16 games in his career, 6 of them coming last year. He had 40 tackles, 3 for a loss in 2006 and should be dependable in 2007. Jamar Chaney moves inside from WLB, where he was the starter, to replace the departed Quinton Culberson. He was 3rd in tackles last year with 66 of which 7.5 were for a loss along with 2.5 sacks. Chaney has had rave reviews in the offseason and should be an adequate replacement for Culberson, maybe he'll end up being better. Incoming JUCO transfer Dominic Douglas came along quickly and was able to secure the WLB job. He's very fast and had 77 solo tackles last year at Hinds CC, but we'll have to see him in a game to know for sure how good he is.

Depth is a concern unfortunately. Jamon Hughes, 17 tackles last year, has looked great over the summer and was making a push for the starting MLB job. If one of the linebackers goes down, he'll likely be the first to replace him and the team shouldn't miss a beat. Anthony Littlejohn is the next in line. He has been around a while and contributed 19 tackles and a sack last year. Once again there isn't a huge dropoff if he is pressed into being a starter. After that though, MSU is left with a bunch of true freshman.

My Rating: 7.5/10
The starters look to be a very good unit. There are only two players with experience to back them up though. That might be enough as long as injuries don't pop up.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: DL

DL Depth Chart
LE	LT	RT	RE
Titus Brown Sr.	Cortez McCraney RJr.	Jessie Bowman Jr.	Avery Hannibal RSr.
Tim Bailey Jr.	Kyle Love So.	Quinton Wesley RSo.	Brandon Cooper RFr.
Charles Burns*** Jr.	Rodney Prince RFr.	LaMarcus Williams Fr.	Jimmie Holmes Jr.

***Charles Burns is out for the year after having shoulder surgery.


This is the biggest question mark not only of the defense but of the whole team. A starting DE, two starting DT and a reserve DT are all gone from last year's team. Titus Brown is the only returning starter but he is a great one. Brown had 38 tackles (14.5 for loss) and 7.5 sacks last year and was 2nd team All-SEC. He is a pass rush specialist and will anchor the line. Avery Hannibal will start at the other end after after being a reserve the last 3 seasons. With Brown on the other side, he won't have to be spectacular, just good enough to keep the other team from keying in on Brown. He hasn't played much but he has been around for a while so that should help. Depth at DE is paper thin, especially with Charles Burns being out for the year. To make matters worse, Brandon Cooper was carted off the field at practice yesterday. No word yet on what is wrong with him or how serious it is. That leaves Tim Bailey who was moved from LB to DE this year, and Jimmie Holmes who is another JUCO transfer. Basically if Brown goes down, we are screwed.

At DT, JUCO transfer Jessie Bowman has locked down one spot. He was a monster in Junior College so if that translates to the SEC we will be in good shape their. The other spot is a toss up between Kyle Love and Memphis transfer Cortez McCraney. McCraney was a DE at Memphis and was moved inside once he got to MSU, so he is a little undersized at 272. Kyle Love had 7 tackles as a reserve last year but he comes off as out of shape to me. Maybe I'm wrong though. Quinton Wesley was highly rated coming out of high school but hasn't done too much as of yet. Williams was also very highly rated but I doubt he will be ready yet.

My Rating: 6/10
The starting DEs are talented and should cause headaches. There is very little in the way of depth though so if either Brown or Hannibal goes down to injury, MSU will have problems. The DTs are inexperienced and haven't shown anything yet. I'm afraid this is going to cause run defense to be a major weakness. They might turn out to be great but they have to show me in a game. Until then I can't give them much credit.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: WR/TE

WR/TE Depth Chart
WR X	WR Z	TE
Jamayel Smith RJr.	Tony Burks Sr.	Eric Butler RSr.
Brandon McRae RSo.	Lance Long*** Sr.	Jason Husband RSr.
Co-Eric Riley Jr.	Aubrey Bell Jr.	Dezmond Sherrod RSr.
Ryan Mason RJr.	Tyler Threadgill RSr.	Brandon Henderson RFr.
Ben Shelton Sr.	Alex Carpenter RFr.

***Lance Long has turf toe. Thats one of those injuries where you never know how long it will take to heal. May or may not play against LSU.


I may have went a little overboard by listing the WR position 5 deep. It isn't very likely Ben Shelton (walk on) or Alex Carpenter will ever see the field. Just in case Burks, Smith, Long, and McRae all have season ending injuries though, you'll know who to be looking for.

Tony Burks is without a doubt the #1 guy in the WR corp. and was the only consistent threat at the position last year. He had 35 receptions for 850 yards, a whopping 24.3 ypc, to go along with 5 touchdowns. The second WR spot is more fluid. Jamayel Smith, a former walk on, came out of nowhere last year and provided an adequate second target for Henig. He caught 20 passes for 335 yards and 2 touchdowns. Smith being the incumbent gets the starting nod from me and probably the coaches, but he has stiff competition from Brandon McRae and Co-Eric Riley. McRae, a transfer from Morehead St., is a big target at 6-4 200 pounds and has looked very good in practices. There is a reason he went to Morehead St. in the first place though and until he proves otherwise I will assume he is another player who looks great in practice but can't put it together in the game. Co-Eric Riley was highly rated coming out of JUCO so I'm interested to see what he can do. If he puts it together I see him grabbing a starting position. Burks and Riley might actually provide a good WR tandem, as rare as that has been here at MSU. He has to prove himself first though. Lance Long, a former Tulane transfer, had 25 reception for 177 yards and a TD last year. He isn't even close to explosive and isn't dangerous after the catch, but he does have fairly good hands which is a rarity here in Starkville.

Tight end is probably the best position on the team and as you can see definitely the most experienced, with 3 fifth year seniors. Butler is the all around most talented but has been plagued by injuries almost every year. If he stays healthy he can be dangerous. Husband is a former WR and predictably is much more of a receiving TE than a blocker. That is balanced by Demond Sherrod who is more of a pure blocking TE and not much of a receiving threat.

My Rating: 7/10
TE is in really good shape and would be about an 8/10 by itself. The WRs look like they have promise, but at the moment Burks is the only proven threat. I'm leery of getting my hopes up to high about anyone else until they show it on the field. Especially given the fact that there is obviously something in the water in Starkville which turns all WRs hands to stone.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: HB/FB

HB/FB Depth Chart
HB	FB
Anthony Dixon So.	Jeremy Jones RJr.
Arnil Stallworth So.	Brandon Hart Jr.
Christian Ducre RSo.	Eric Hoskins Jr.
Justin Williams RSr.	Ethan Stockett Fr.

This is one area of the team that is in pretty good shape. Anthony Dixon is pretty much locked in as the starter but he could be pushed by either of the incoming freshman, Robert Elliot and Marcus Green, later on in the season. I'll get to them in a bit. Dixon's first year was plagued by injuries but he showed alot of promise. He had 169 rushes for 668 yards and nine touchdowns, all of which were true freshman records. Thats a 4ypc average which is pretty good especially considering he is a bruiser and depends more on running over people rather than outrunning them. Even so, he is still surprisingly fast for his size. Dixon is up to a weight of around 240 which concerns me some. Like I said he is a power back, not a speed guy, so adding weight might not be a bad thing. Still that seems awfully large for a runningback, but we'll see how he looks in 4 days. It also has been mentioned that he could play fullback a couple of plays a game, which could be interesting.

After Dixon it is a pileup for the #2-4 spots. You have four people you could realistically put in at #2, maybe even five people. I think Elliot will end up the #2 runningback by the middle of the season along with Marcus Green being in the mix somewhere too. Until they get their feet wet though, I am going with the experience which is why you don't see Green or Elliot in the depth chart. Stallworth had 42 carries for 137 yards and 1 touchdown along with 14 receptions for 97 yards. He is an adequate backup though we could do better. Also his running style is too similar to Dixon's, I'd like to see something a little different from the backups. Ducre transferred from Tulane last season but didn't see much playing time because he had fumbling problems in practice. Can't say much because I haven't seen him play much. Justin Williams is a walkon and I put him there more as a honorary type of thing than anything else. He had 32 carries for 89 yards last season. In reality Elliot/Green should go here, but its fourth string so meh, whatever.

Fullback is more of a question mark. The former tightend Jeremy Jones has the starting spot for now, but Brandon Hart isn't very far behind. We're talking about fullbacks here so I really don't know what I can say about them. One thing I can tell you is that Jeremy Jones is 275 pounds. Good lord that is going to be a massive backfield, a 240 pound Dixon led through the hole by a 275 pound Jones. It sounds nice on paper, but I don't know how well it will work out on the field. I'm afraid Jones is going to be slow as molasses and all that size will be useless. We'll see.

My Rating: 8/10
The rating will depend on how Elliot comes along. If he lives up to the hype, you can bump that up to an 8.5/10, if not push it down to a 7.5. It might be a little generous considering the question mark at Fullback, but I'm allowed to be optimistic every now and again.

A Flawed and Incorrect Preview: QB

QB Depth Chart
Michael Henig RJr.
Josh Riddell Jr.
Wesley Carroll Fr.
Zack Harrington RSo.

***Riddell was charged with a DUI about a week ago and has been suspended indefinitely from the team. I would guess he winds up with a two game suspension but you never know with Croom. He plays favorites so it all depends on if Riddell is one of "his boys" or not. It could range from a game if he is all the way to kicked off the team if he isn't. I'll stick with my two game prediction though.


The QB position is in shambles. It is an embarrassment that in 4 years, this is the best that Croom has been able to put together. Bottomline, Henig has shown nothing to prove he is an SEC quality quarterback. Heck, he hasn't even shown anything as of yet to make me believe he is a Div I caliber QB, that includes IAA by the way. (I'm not calling it the Playoff Subdivision. Screw you NCAA.) Yes, he does have a strong arm but that is just about his only positive. He is horribly inaccurate (He had a 43.7 completion percentage last year and broke the 50% mark just once, 53.6% against UK), consistently makes poor decision, has poor pocket presence, forces throws, and is injury prone. It doesn't look like anything will be changing this year either. Henig was 7-18 for 63 yards in the 1st fall scrimmage and 11-25 for 172 yards in the 2nd. He can't even complete 50% in the scrimmages. How on earth are we stuck with a starting quarterback for whom a 50% completion rate is not just a good game, but a great game? How has Croom not addressed this?

As far as depth goes, Riddell put up big numbers in JUCO, 5,333 yards and 54 touchdowns in two years. Based on the statistics alone (which is always dangerous and I would rarely recommend, in this case though it is all I have to go on) he was outperforming Henig in the fall scrimmages. Henig remained atop the depth chart but you have to remember this is Croom making the decisions. Enough said. At the very least Riddell looked like a capable backup but with the DUI charge, who knows what his status with the team will end up being.

That leaves us with true freshman Wesley Carroll as the backup, at least for the time being. He looked pretty good in high school and has reportedly been surprisingly good in practices and the scrimmages. I really think in a year or two he could be the starter, and a capable one. Right now he is a true freshman though, and if he has to come into a game I have a feeling it could get ugly. Yes even uglier than Henig. Zack Harrington is 4th string (3rd until Riddell comes back). He is a walkon and has not thrown a collegiate pass yet. I don't think I have to go into what happens if we end up relying on him in a game. 4 years and we still have walkons filling out the depth chart. I hate you Croom.

My Rating: 4/10
That may seem harsh but I actually think that may be a little generous. Without Riddell this falls to a 3/10. I am working under the assumption he will be back after a short suspension though. Henig simply is not SEC material and even with Riddell in the fold, none of the backups have any Div I experience, let alone SEC experience.

One Short Week Away: Preview Time: OL

The end is in sight and I must say I am officially excited. I didn't get as much accomplished as I would've liked before the start of the season. What can I say, things happen. We move on, and with the season kicking off in less than seven days and 2 weeks (give or take) of practices in the books, I can really start to sink my teeth into what the team may look like. We'll start off this series of guaranteed to be flawed and incorrect previews with the offensive line. Programming note: I have little knowledge of how to break down an OLs strengths, weaknesses, improvements, etc. Typically, my theory regarding all offensive lineman is if I don't hear their name called during a broadcast, they are doing a good job. Given this fact, the following is sure to be an utter disaster. Lets get to it.

OL Depth Chart
LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Mike Brown RJr.	Anthony Strauder RJr.	Royce Blackledge RSr.	Craig Jenkins RSo.	J.D. Hamilton Sr.
Mark Melichar RFr.	Michael Gates Jr.	Johnny Carpenter RSo.	Michael Gates Jr.	Roland Terry RJr.
	J.C. Brignone RFr.	Chris Spencer RSo.		Derek Sherrod Fr.

As you can see I listed the players eligibility as well. For those of you who are wondering, the R indicates redshirt, so RJr. for example indicates that player is a redshirt junior. It might as well be said now, my depth chart my not completely sync up with the one on the official website, though the majority of the time it will. This is partly my opinion regarding who I think should play, thus discrepancies may occur.

With that out of the way, one thing that must be said, this is a very experienced line. All five were starters at some point last season. Craig Jenkins has moved from RT, where he started all 12 games last year, to RG to replace Brian Anderson. J.D. Hamilton moves from LT to RT to replace Jenkins. Hamilton started six games at LT until he was sidelined by an injury. He was replaced by Mike Brown who has yet to relinquish the job. Anthony Strauder and Royce Blackledge man LG and C respectively for another year.

As you can see, MSU basically has five starters (or the entire offensive line) returning. Having another year of experience and training under their belt, along with the cohesion that comes with playing together, I have to assume the line will be better than last year. That might not be saying much because the line was pretty bad last year. At least they were for the first seven games, during which they gave up 23 sacks. When Mike Brown became the starter at LT for the last five games, the line seems to have become exponentially better, giving up just 6 sacks. Can one person really make that much of a difference? I know LT is the most important position on the line, even so its hard to believe Brown really makes that big of an impact. Its hard to argue with results though.

The left side of the line looks to be in good shape. As you can guess from that little statistic I just threw at you the transfer from Florida, Mike Brown, is easily the most talented player on the line. Unfortunately, if last year is any indicator, if he goes down it is only a matter of time before Henig gets broken in half. Strauder has tons of experience, having started 17 games, and is solid in both pass protection and run blocking. Blackledge won't wow anyone, but he won't screw up much either. He was also voted 3rd team preseason All-SEC by the coaches and is on the Rimington Watch List. He must be doing something right. The right side may not be in as good shape. Jenkins left alot to be desired at LT. We'll have to hope guard will be a better fit for him. Hamilton is servicable, but not much more than that.

As far as depth goes........well I have no idea. I know Michael Gates has gotten a good amount of playing time but everyone else has very little to none. Derek Sherrod is the highest rated OL to come out of high school to Mississippi State in probably 6 or 7 years. Being just a freshman I doubt he is ready yet. Its fairly rare to see an OL come in and play much as a true freshman.

My Rating: 6.5/10
I would say they were below average as a whole last year. I am hopeful that another year playing together and the expected improvement will push them over to just above average. When I think of this line, serviceable is the first word that comes to mind.

More Help on the Defensive Line

The 7th commitment for 2008 came on July 13th from DE Devin Jones. Scout has him as a 3 star and the 14th ranked player in Mississippi. Rivals gives him just 2 stars. ESPN gives him an upper 3 star rating and ranks him as the #48 DE. He has an offer from Ole Miss and if he has any from anybody else then I don't know about it.

Jones is 6-2 240 and plays both DE and DT in high school depending on the situation. Actually the clip I saw of him he was almost always inside. Everyone says he projects as a DE but I could see him ending up as a DT. He is the state power lifting champion which to me seems to be more of an accomplishment that would fit in with a DT. We'll see though, MSU needs defensive ends more so I'm sure he'll get a shot there first.

This seems like a pretty good pickup but he did have a knee injury in spring practices. Serious enough to require surgery, but beyond that I'm not sure. I would think this has scared some people off until they see how he does his senior year. Personally I don't have a problem taking a chance on a good player with an injury, as long as there is only one in a class.

Does This Guy Ever Shut Up?

Behold the wisdom of Croom:

Asked by a reporter if he thought the added depth at receiver and other key positions would enhance MSU's West Coast offense, Croom responded quickly.

"We haven't run our offense in three years," Croom said, to some laughter. "What we've been trying to do is manage the game and give us the best chance to win the game."

Unbelievable. You haven't run your offense in 3 YEARS?? You still haven't got this ridiculous West Coast offense of yours installed??? With as long as this thing takes to learn, it better be the most prolific offense in history. I'm talking 60 points per game minimum. Croom, do you know this is college football? Do you know that every 4 years you have 100% new players? Whats the plan, spend three years sucking while the freshman learn your joke of an offense, then their 4th year maybe they can be decent enough to go 6-6? Three more years of crap, 1 decent year, rinse and repeat. Thats assuming of course this offense can be learned by the 4th year. He never said he would be running it this year afterall. No wonder it is taking so long to rebuild, Croom still hasn't installed an offense yet. Its only year 4 though, give him a few more years.

New Basketball Rankings

Scout updated their 2008 basketball recruit rankings today and I believe Rivals did as well some time ago. Some of our guys have been moving up:

-Scotty Hopson: Hopson has exploded over the summer and the rankings reflect that with both sites now rating him as a 5 star. Rivals has reclassified him as a SG and rated him as the #2 SG in the class. Also they moved him up to the #9 player overall. Scout now ranks him as the #3 SF and the 11th rated player overall. Rumors continue to swirl about how firm he is in his commitment, but at this point the only real threat would be Kentucky. Kentucky fans are confident he will end up with them in the end but that is mainly because they are too arrogant to believe it is possible for a recruit to prefer lowly little Mississippi State to the wonder and splendor which is UK basketball. When asked Hopson has maintained that he is just as firm as ever in his commitment.

-Romero Osby: Osby is pretty much in a holding pattern at the moment. Rivals has him as a 4 star, the #17 ranked PF and the #52 player overall. Scout also gives him 4 stars, ranking him as the #13 PF and #50 overall.

-Dee Bost: According to Rivals, the #28 point guard #130 overall. Scout has come out with a 2008 post graduate rankings, which I had never heard of before. Here he is the #6 ranked post graduate player.

Commit #6

The sixth verbal of the year also comes to us out of Florida. Thats two in a row, pipeline baby!! On July 6th, WR Charles Bailey joined the class of 2008. Disclaimer: Croom has shown zero ability to scout and find WR talent at the high school level. He has yet to recruit a high school receiver who has been good enough to make any kind of significant contribution. So Mr. Bailey has that working against him already.

Scout gives him 3 stars while Rivals gives him only 2. ESPN also gives him 3 stars and rates him as the #113 WR. (NOTE: You should have figured out by now that ESPN doesn't give stars, rather they give out a grade on a 1-100 scale. This is easily convertible to the star system though and in the future I will be giving you the star equivalent only. You've been warned.) He's a pretty big receiver at 6-2 and approx. 175 lb. He isn't all that fast (4.57 40) and from what I've seen on film is anything but a deep threat. This was a highlight reel and I don't think I saw a catch over 20 yards downfield. He'll be the intermediate route runner and the one that goes over the middle. His run after the catch ability didn't look all that good and I didn't see him breaking many tackles. Route running is definitely a strength from what I hear. All this adds up to a possesion receiver. Hopefully he has good hands.

He has at least one other offer from Indiana and so called "interest" from Southern Miss., South Florida, and Florida International. All in all, not really anything to write home about but a big improvement over the typical receiver Croom brings in. Wide receiver is the 3rd biggest need after TE and DE so expect at least one more and probably two.

Football in in the Air

27 days. The long and brutally boring (sports wise) summer is nearly at an end. Practices have started and foolish message board posters are spouting off about how much better the team is going to be based solely upon looking at pictures of the players at practice. We're not even talking about action shots here, these are just pictures of players standing around. I just shake my head in disbelief at our fans sometimes. It is preseason though, if you can't be ridiculously optimistic now when can you be.

One of my favorite sites, collegefootballnews.com has ranked every team from 1-119. Mississippi State came in at #62. Coincidentally, Southern Miss ranked #63 and Ole Miss was #60. Good lord, the state of Mississippi just sucks at football doesn't it? They also have put up their Mississippi State preview. It is depressing at times, though I have to question how much these guys know seeing as they talk about Derek Pegues being a CB. He is a FS now so, yeah. Maybe it just slipped through the cracks, who knows. This little snippet in particular though caught my eye:

Key player to a successful season: Junior QB Michael Henig. He’s not accurate, he’s not a winner quite yet, and he doesn’t have much in the way of skills, but he’s the quarterback the coaching staff will go with, hoping he can do just enough to give the Bulldogs some semblance of a passing game. If he’s awful, the MSU offense will be, too.

My goodness. He isn't accurate, he isn't a winner, and he doesn't have any skills but we are going to start him anyway. Wonderful, that is great news. Personally I don't think he is quite that bad. Don't get me wrong, he is pretty bad but that little paragraph really buries him.

One last thing I want to point out. Jeremy Jones is now listed as the starter at fullback. According to mstateathletics he weighs 275 pounds. Does anyone else think that is a little too big? That is an offensive lineman not a fullback. Once again message board posters rant and rave about how he will be unstoppable as a blocker and how he and Anthony Dixon will run over everybody. Well that is all well and good, but can the guy move? Fullbacks have to be able to block in space, they are often the lead blocker for the running back so they have to be able to quickly lead him through the hole. If he is as slow as an offensive lineman running plays will be blown up before he crosses the line of scrimmage. Defensive ends will just run around him when he is pass blocking. Can you see the problem now? All that size is power is worthless if you can't use it on anybody because you are too slow. Maybe he can move fine though, I have no idea but it is a concern. Of course if Brandon Hart takes back the starting job, all of this will be a moot point.