Game 1: Looking Back

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.