-South Carolina's MLB Jasper Brinkley is out for the season. He's probably the best player on their defense and his loss is a big blow to a run defense which was already porous. However, I don't see this as having much of an impact on the game tomorrow. Of course I know nothing about their depth at LB, so maybe Brinkley is all they have. Somehow I doubt it though.
-Croom is maintaining that he hasn't decided which QB will start against South Carolina and that both will play regardless. My interpretation? Carroll will start.
-Walk on QB Zack Harrington has decided to leave the team. He said it was just getting to be a "grind". He was the 3rd string QB at present and would have been 4th string upon Henig's return. Freshman Chris Relf will now take his spot on the depth chart and shouldn't see the field. Being as far down the depth chart as Harrington was the loss is very minor, although there are now only 4 QBs on the roster. That is generally pretty normal, but with Henig being as injury prone as he is I'd like to have all the depth at QB we can get.
-Montario Patterson's, a Mississippi State commit in case you didn't know, high school career is over. He broke his ankle and will be out for the year. He said he was worried that the injury would scare MSU off, but the coaches assured him that he still had a scholarship waiting for him. I give Croom a lot of grief but I do like that he is sticking with the guy. As far as what happens when he gets to campus, well its a broken ankle. As far as I know that isn't a big deal and he should be good as new by the time he gets to MSU.
It wasn't a very pretty win, but MSU came out on top of Gardner-Webb, 31-15. That moves State's record out to an impressive 3-1. That sounds good doesn't it? MSU even got a vote in the coaches poll. I'm serious, go check it out for yourself. It was a sloppy victory though and makes me worry about the rest of the season. Here's what I have been able to glean from other people:
-For the 3rd week in a row the defense returned an interception for a touchdown. This time it was De'Mon Glanton. That really is amazing, 3 games in a row with a defensive touchdown. I wonder when was the last time that happened?
-Unfortunately, I don't think we can count on the defense scoring every week. They're good, but nobody is that good. So, looking at offensive scoring we see only 24 points. This offense can only muster a pitiful 24 points against Gardner-Webb? Now admittedly they probably took their foot off the gas in the second half but still, 24 points? Come on.
-On to the QB mess. I am sick and tired of Crooms incessant B.S. and utter ignorance when it comes to this situation. More on that in just a few minutes. As far as this game is concerned, both Caroll and Riddell played and all reports indicate that Riddell was CLEARLY the better QB. The stats back it up too. Caroll was 4/8 for 42 yards and had 33 yards rushing. Riddell was 8/11 for 124 yard with 1TD and 1 int. Its pretty obvious who played better and for me at least, that is 2 weeks in a row that Riddell has looked better than Caroll. I thought he looked better against Auburn as well though that can be debated. Common sense dictates that the man who plays better in the games would start, but Croom never has cared much for common sense. It must not be the "right way". Once again, I'll elaborate in a few minutes.
-MSU was rolling in the first half to the tune of 28-0 at halftime. Apparently everybody forgot there are 2 halfs in football. An honest mistake, it could've happened to anyone and we all know how forgetful Crooms can be. In the second half, GW was having their way with MSU. They marched up and down the field at will and got MSU into one 3 and out after another. They did tend to stall in the redzone which saved this from being a disaster. Note to Croom, 28-0 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter is not an insurmountable lead. Next time can we try to play 100% for at least 3 quarters? Unless that isn't the "right way" of course.
Okay, enough about Gardner-Webb. I might be unhappy with what went on in the game, but ultimately I am thrilled to be 3-1. Ecstatic. What I read this morning tempered that just a tad. So lets get into this whole Croom/QB fiasco. From the Clarion Ledger:
But Croom said Riddell's performance wasn't necessarily as good as it looked to the untrained eye.
"Josh was inconsistent with his performance," he said. "I know everybody saw the big-play passes, he was very lucky on a couple of those. The touchdown he threw to Tony, that was a misread. ... Another time, against another safety, that one's going the other way."
I hate you Croom. Where do I begin? The touchdown to Burks was a misread? Tony Burks was wide-freaking-open in the endzone. Yeah, what a terrible read that was by Riddell, throwing to a wide open receiver. That clearly isn't the "right way" to do things. We know you'd rather throw a 3 yard pass to Lance Long on 3rd and 10. Or better yet run reverses with Lance Long, the most unathletic receiver on the team. Yep you guessed it, neither scenario ever works, but its the "right way" so we keep doing it.
A TD pass to a wide open WR is a misread. What a joke. What does it say about this offense that it takes a "misread" to get a freaking passing TD? So lets get this straight, Riddell throws a TD pass and all Croom can say about it is that it is a misread and another safety in some parallel universe, we'll call it WeBeCroomin', would have picked it off. Henig on the other hand throws 6 picks against LSU, 3 of them to the same safety, 2 of which there was no WR within 10 yards. What does he have to say about that? There was nothing fundamentally wrong with Henig and he didn't understand how LSU got all those INTs. Henig is still our guy, bless his heart. So recap: Riddell throws a TD to receiver open by a mile=lucky pass/Misread/safety should have picked him off--------Henig throws 6 interceptions, 2 directly to a safety with no WR around=Henig didn't do anything wrong/fundamentally sound/He's our guy! The double standard makes me absolutely sick. Somehow in Croom's little fantasy land, 6 INTS by Henig>a TD by Riddle. It makes absolutely no sense, but it must be the right way, eh Croom? If I was Riddell I would tell Croom to take his "right way" and misread crap and stick it where the sun don't shine.
I swear, I should just change the name of this blog to "Better Late Than Never". Oh well, at least I'm getting it out there before the GW game tomorrow.
-This isn't going to cut it offensively. I know, I know starting QB goes out on the first drive, I know. Even so, we only got 12 points offensive points, and that was while getting 4 turnovers (the 5th was returned for a TD so it isn't relevant). 5-18 for 41 yards passing? We need more than that, alot more. Somebody please recruit a friggin' QB. Please?
-Which leads us to who should start until Henig gets back? Based on Saturday I say Riddell. It isn't really based on the fact that he played all that well, because he didn't. He just seems much more poised and relaxed compared to Caroll.
-This is the best OL MSU has had in at least 5 years, maybe longer. It isn't even close. I called out J.D Hamilton before for his pass blocking. I stick by that, but he is much better at blocking for the run. The runs to the right, behind Hamilton and Jenkins, were much more effective than when they ran over the left side. Strangely enough, as good as Mike Brown is at pass blocking, he looked pretty ineffective run blocking.
-There were 5 total completions. From this you should be able to guess that I don't know what to say about the WRs. They can block I guess.
-It was nice to see a 2nd RB emerge in Ducre. He doesn't really give us a 1-2 punch with Dixon, its more like a 1-1 punch. Is there such a thing? Well my point is, they do much of the same thing. Ducre is a power, run-you-over back same as Dixon. He ran over 3 different Auburn players. You know, just for the record. He also did this.
-Anthony Dixon is 240 and he was still getting the corner on more than a couple of runs. How is that even possible? He isn't exactly a threat to go 80 yds at any moment, but that is still some pretty good speed. Especially for his size.
-The DTs didn't too much. They weren't getting blown off the ball, but they rarely got penetration and were able to shed blocks only sporadically. They weren't a liability, but I could see where they could be in the future.
-I'm really starting to like our DBs. Anthony Johnson seemed to be everywhere. He was making interceptions, tipping balls, stuffing short passes, etc. It seemed like he was around the ball at least 75% of the time. I really like what I'm seeing from him. Glanton is darn good against the run and can really lay a lick. It also looks like the move to FS was a good one for Pegues. He made a number of plays on the ball and looks to fit better there. His tackling was iffy on a couple of occasions but the FS doesn't need to be the best tackler on the team. I have for your viewing pleasure:
AND
-Welcome back Demario Bobo. After taking a medical redshirt last year and sitting the first two games with mono, he finally made his return to the field Saturday. He also came up with the interception which led to the game winning drive. This really improves the depth at Safety, plus that is just a sweet name.
-Wow, they play a TON of people on defense. Outside of the starters I noticed all of the following get significant playing time: Zach Smith, Keith Fitzhugh, Demario Bobo, Jamon Hughes, Tim Bailey, Jimmie Holmes, Kyle Love, and Quinton Wesley. I could be missing one or two as well. Maybe I'm just now noticing this for the first time, I don't know.
-Ellis Johnson is the man. Give the guy a raise. I believe he had 4 returning starters on defense and they're just as good as last year. Possible better, but it is too early to tell.
-Carlson actually made both of his field goal attempts. YAY!!! They were 30 and 32 yards so they weren't chip shots, but I still have no confidence in him with anything over say 35 yards. I would've said over 30 before this weekend but his stock went up. While we're on the subject of kicking, Blake McAdams is really bad. He had punts of 33, 55, 30, 39, 30, and 73 yards. I don't think I need to give you an average per punt for you to see that these are some poor kicks. I will anyway. Taking out the 73 yd outlier we get a whopping 37.3 ypp. Outstanding. How is it that we are stuck with a punter, a scholarship punter at that, who barely gets it 30 yards on 3 of his 6 kicks? Just hold an open tryout to the entire student body for punter. I'd bet money you could find someone better. With all of that said, his last punt of 73 yards was instrumental in MSU pulling the upset. How often can you say that of a punt. State had been stuck deep in their own territory for several drives and that punt completely flipped the field.
-I neglected to mention this last week, but LB Gabe O'Neal was named the SEC defensive player of the week following the Tulane win. He had 4 tackles, a fumble recovery, and an interception returned for a touchdown. Not too shabby. Sorry about the delay there Gabe, busy week and all. You understand.
-While we are on the subject, Derek Pegues is the current SEC defensive player of the week following his performance against Auburn on Saturday. He had 5 tackles, a pass breakup and an interception returned for a touchdown. That was his third career interception return for a touchdown and is a new school record.
-Henig has a fractured bone in his throwing hand and will be out 2-4 weeks.
-CB Jasper O'Quinn is still questionable for this upcoming week. CB Marcus Washington is also questionable now after straining his back on Saturday. That won't good if we have to start Tay Bowser, but at least its Gardner-Webb this week.
-I've gotten hold of the game so I'll be watching it again and will be putting up some more detailed thoughts, hopefully tomorrow.
....and if you're like me, you had almost forgotten what it felt like. For Mississippi State, Saturday's 19-14 upset over Auburn was that jug of water after 6 years of wandering hopelessly in the desert. For Auburn, the game didn't have quite the same feeling. I suspect for them it felt more like this.....
...or maybe it was more like this.
Yeah definitely more like that. I don't really know how it happened. The passing game was nonexistent, literally. 3 quarterbacks combined to go 5-18 for 41 yards. How do you beat anybody with that? Somehow they pulled it off (5 turnovers certainly helped) and won on the road at Auburn. For all the grief I give Croom, I have to give him credit for Saturday. When Henig went out and Carroll threw what should have been a pick 6, he saw the passing game was not going to work on this day. From that point on Croom played Jackieball and ran the ball right down Auburns throat. Every now and then he would think about trying the pass again, but inevitably would soon go back to Dixon and Ducre. In hindsight it really was a thing of beauty and was reminiscent of the glory years of the 90s. Auburn knew the run was coming but Mississippi State was just more physical, that is all there is to it. On defense, MSU was again more physical, laying monster hits all over the field. There was confidence, there was attitude, that defense looked like they wanted to hurt you and it was so good to see. It has been too long.
In my personal opinion this is by far the biggest victory in Croom's career. That isn't hard to do considering he has only 11, but nevertheless. What about Florida you say? Or perhaps Alabama? Well those were all well and good, but they were both late in the year when the season was already lost. Sure they were big upsets but they were completely meaningless other than to make us fans feel a little less bad about our team. This victory though, this is different. MSU is sitting at 2-1 with one of those wins being a huge SEC road win. This is big, this is really big. Croom MUST, absolutely MUST build off of this. If confidence is any factor then the team should be sitting pretty. They blew out Tulane 2 weeks ago and followed it up by upsetting Auburn at their house. I would imagine LSU is pretty much forgotten at this point. Can this be sustained? Dare I even mention the B word? No, not yet. I don't want to jinx us. Besides this team has risen up briefly before to surprise under Croom, only to flounder back into the abyss of irrelevance. That is entirely possible again. Mississippi State is on a 2 game winning streak though (is that even a streak? I don't care, I'm saying it is.) and I am going to enjoy every second of this. My hopes are officially up.
This really is a huge game today, not only for the season but for the Croom regime as a whole. Mississippi State doesn't have to win, but this must be a game. MSU has to be in contention in the fourth quarter. If it is another 30 or 40-0 win, forget about it. There has not been one iota of improvement from year 1 to year 4. Strap yourself in for 3-9 all over again, and hopefully the end of the Croom train wreck.
I don't really think Auburn is that bad, but they have shown they have some very big weaknesses. They're very beatable. If Croom can't put together a competitive game against a flawed Auburn team in Year 4, then I officially wash my hands of him. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. (Of course winning seasons, bowl games, etc. will cause me to promptly unwash my hands of him.)
Game Notes: -Jasper O'Quinn is out. Not good. I'm guessing Tay Bowser will be the #3 CB now and I suppose he is capable. Beyond him though, yuck.
-Sophomore Anthony Summers has been moved from Safety to Wide Receiver. If he makes the move successfully he will likely be redshirted. Not really a game note but oh well. By the way, he should have been a WR as a freshman. Why Croom put him at safety in the first place I'll never know. There are a lot of Croom decisions I could say that about.
Note: I typed this up on Monday but apparently I neglected to click the publish button. Whoops.
A 38-17 thumping of Tulane was just what the doctor ordered. How much can really be taken from this though? Well, not much. I felt that little could be taken from the LSU disaster because they just may well be that good. In a similar manner little should probably be taken from this win because Tulane may very well be that bad. However, the weakness of the opponent has never stopped a Croom team from pulling out a defeat in the past. Saturday was finally a change though. MSU should have thumped Tulane and they did. As sad as it is to say, that isn't something we have seen in the last three years. So, have my hopes for the rest of the season skyrocketed? No, not really, but for at least a week I am happy. The Auburn game should tell us alot more.
Now I did not see the game, but a few thoughts can still be gleaned from several reports.
-Henig bounced back nicely against Tulane going 20-31 with 1 TD, 1 interception, and 223 yards along with an 18 yard rushing TD. This is quite possibly the best game of his entire career. In fact, I'll go ahead and say it was. He had a completion % of 64%. Henig has never even come close to that before, he has barely been able to crack 50%. If he plays that well the whole year, I think MSU could make it to a bowl. Unfortunately from what I have heard, this game appears to be the exception rather than the rule. Henig was still staring down receivers, he was still forcing passes and he was still sailing throws. Tulane was simply not good enough to make him pay for his mistakes. Better defenses likely will. I'm happy about his performance and certainly more optimistic than I was a week ago, but in the end I still think it will be the same old Henig most of the year. If all he needed was a confidence boost though, this game should have done the trick.
-We saw our first glimpse of Co-Eric Riley. Supposedly he had a spectacular TD catch that was overturned. I like the possibilities with this guy.
-The running game wasn't all that effective in the first half, which is concerning to me. Anthony Dixon had 131 yards and 2TD but 108 of those yards came in the second half. Apparently the OL once again looked good in pass protection but pretty poor in the run game again. Not good news. Now in the second half the run game was nearly unstoppable but it seems that that was due to Tulane getting worn down. Time of possession was 39:04 to 20:56 in MSU's favor. That is insane, a 2 to 1 advantage in TOP in nearly unheard of. Credit to the coaching staff for sticking with the run though. I thought they gave up on it far too early against LSU.
-J.D. Hamilton was replaced by 4 star freshman Derek Sherrod at the RT spot in the 3rd quarter. Whether it was because of an injury or performance I don't know. Apparently Sherrod looked very good too. It'll be interesting to see what happens, I think Hamilton is definitely the weak link, but true freshman OL generally struggle, even the outstanding ones. Even so, playing Sherrod is fine by me. Hamilton doesn't do anything for me.
-The defense was really poor in the first half. In the second half though, they absolutely dominated, not allowing Tulane a single first down. Even as bad as Tulane is, not allowing a first down for an entire half is quite impressive.
Well in the end everyone was pretty certain that MSU would be 1-1 at this point and sure enough here we are. The Tulane game gives me some hope but I need to see more than a beatdown of a C-USA bottom feeder. A dismantling of another team by MSU has been extremely rare these last 6 years though, so I'll take it where I can get it. Auburn is up next and they suddenly look beatable, maybe even by MSU. We'll see.
Just a few thoughts I had while watching the LSU disaster before we move on to Tulane.
-Henig should be on the bench for the rest of his college career. His fundamentals are atrocious and he cannot read a defense, both evidenced by his poor completion percentage. More troubling than his lack of physical skills is his lack of mental skills and/or intangibles. It is apparent he is terrified of getting hit. Nobody was near him and he would run for his life or throw off his back foot. It is embarrassing. In addition, he is not a leader. When the offense was struggling, due almost solely to his pathetic quarterback play, he sulked on the sideline. He was sitting off in a corner on the verge of tears. This is not a leader. When things get tough the QB needs to take control of the team, not go off into the corner and cry like a schoolgirl. I'm done with the guy and from what I hear so is the team, and to be honest I don't blame them. Croom on the other hand isn't convinced. Henig will be the starter against Tulane. Riddell's suspension has been lifted so he will be available. Pray that Croom will open his eyes, get over his ridiculous stubborness, and bench Henig when he inevitable plays like utter crap. If he remains stubborn and sticks with his "boy" Henig, I predict the team turns on him and Henig and the season goes right into the toilet. I'm talking 0-12 or 1-11. We'll see what happens.
-It is hard to make any judgments about the rest of the offense. When the QB is that awful nothing works. The OL is definitely improved. Pass blocking was pretty good but run blocking still leaves alot to be desired. J.D Hamilton looks like the weak link on the line. Anthony Dixon was was good in pass blocking and ran well. At least he did until LSU figured out Henig would have trouble completing a pass even with no defense on the field. Then they just put 8 on the line of scrimmage and laughed all the way to the bank.
-Arnil Stallworth is more than a capable backup. He showed he could hold up in pass protection just as well as Dixon. In addition he is a threat catching the ball out of the backfield. Dixon doesn't do that much so you like to additional skills like that from the backup.
-It was hard to get much of a read on Christian Ducre because he simply didn't play much. He made a play or too but what jumped out at me was him completely whiffing on a block on that direct snap to Dixon. That play might of actually worked had Ducre picked up somebody. At least chip a guy, slow him down a little, do something. You can't just miss your man entirely.
-Apparently the Jeremy Jones, 275 lb. fullback experiment isn't going as planned. Brandon Hart was the primary FB and was ok. He hit most of his blocks and would stalemate guys, but he really wasn't driving anyone back.
-I have nothing to say about the WRs. Again when the QB play is that bad, it is impossible to tell how the WRs are doing. One or two things I want to point out. Burks is your best receiver Croom, USE HIM IN THE GAME. I don't care if he shows up to practice naked and starts break dancing, PLAY HIM. I get the idea that if you don't practice hard you don't play, but it is obvious that he is by far the best receiver MSU has when you play the actual games. Even you have to see this Croom. I don't care what you see in practice he performs in the game. Second point, you have three receivers that are 6'4. If you are going to throw up a fade/jump ball type of pass, throw it to one of those 6'4 guys, not to a 5'11 Lance Long, the shortest WR on the team. You don't even have to know a thing about football to understand that. That is just common sense.
-Titus Brown is a monster as far as pass rushing is concerned. He was schooling the LSU RT the entire game. I feel pretty comfortable in saying he will be getting after the QB all year. The bad news is he was too aggressive. On most of the fake/misdirection type of plays he bit hard on the fake and would take himself out of the play. This needs to be corrected.
-Hannibal wasn't spectacular but he doesn't really need to be. I thought he played well enough. Jimmie Holmes was a pleasant surprise as a backup
-The DTs weren't as bad as I thought they would be but they weren't necessarily good either. McCraney definitely needs to be starting over Kyle Love. He has good speed but can still hold his own at the point of attack. Jessie Bowman was adequate but he rarely got penetration. He could usually stand up his man but that was about as good as it got. He got steamrolled a couple of times which was really troubling. It looks like a slightly below average unit, which is actually better than I thought.
-LB is a strength as expected. Dominic Douglas lived up to the hype.
-Anthony Johnson and Marcus Washington seemed to play pretty well at CB but LSU wasn't exactly throwing the kitchen sink at them either. I still need to see more. Jasper O'Quinn looked bad though. He got burned more than once. There isn't anyone who I can see stepping up for that 3rd CB spot so he'll have to get better. This was his first game outside of JUCO so he will likely get better, but he may not and it will be a big problem if he doesn't.
-Its really difficult to evaluate the safeties because 90% of the time they are off screen. How do I know what they are doing? I'll try though. De'Mon Glanton looked good in run support, he seemed to always be around the ball. Fitzhugh made some plays in the passing game which I was happy about. Pegues at FS is still a question mark. I didn't see him screw up, but at the same time I didn't see him make any plays. I'll have to reserve judgement for another time.
-McAdams still isn't a very good punter. He may have improved to average over the offseason though. A few more games are required to tell for sure.
We need a new QB so bad. Please put Riddell in, please.
