MSUBulldog

As long as Akharaiyi and Ellington are back by the time we head to Tempe then as a pass first offense, I think we'll be ok RB wise for at least the initial 3 games of the season to be in contention to be 3-0 when UF rolls into Starkville.

Some of my thoughts on the initial 4 games of the 2024 season are as follows. I like the odds for Miss St. in week 2. The Sundevils of ASU went 3-9 in the PAC-10 last season and is with only a 2nd year head coach themselves in Kenny Dillingham. We knocked off #11 Arizona last season with essentially poor offensive coaching and Arizona blew ASU's doors in last season. Also, the starting QB1 for the Bulldogs Blake Shapin is the Big-12 championship game MVP and has over 5,000 career passing yards and roughly 40 TD's while the starting QB for ASU Sam Leaveitt is a sophomore transfer from Michigan St. who threw for a whopping less than 140 yards with 2 TD's and 2 interceptions through 4 games last season as a freshman for the Spartans. Miss St. will be rolling into Tempe with a pair of highly touted 3-star, senior signal callers at both QB1 Shapin and center Ethan Minor offensively which will speed things along for Lebby's offense which will be one of hyper paced requiring the State OL to have few pre-snap penalties while forcing the defense to adjust on the fly. There's no way that ASU places winning this game on the shoulders of their QB, and they'll be looking to run early on in the season at home which is another metric I like with the deepest component of MSU's team being their linebacker core and it's for these reasons among others that I think MSU sneaks up on a Sun Devil in week-2 of the campaign respectfully. If we can manage to go 3-0 vs Eastern KY, ASU and Toledo then Vegas and the team will be juiced and Davis Wade sitting stacked nearly 60,000 plus deep in cowbells to welcome UF to town. Hail St! Class of 2010.

I absolutely agree that Miss St. can't and won't take ASU lightly in the 2nd game of the season but a lot of people who are chalking that game up to a loss for Miss St. pre-season should realize that Sundevils coach Kenny Dillingham is only in his 2nd season and is coming off a 3-9 campaign a year ago so I surmise there's hope yet for Miss St.

Had Lebby taken over directly following the passing of coach Leach then I don't think Miss St. misses a beat. Last season our QB1 Rogers went from 610 and 680 plus passing attempts under Leach as a freshman and sophomore before being limited to roughly 260ish passing attempts under Arnett which led to Rogers transferring to Washington after shattering SEC records. One smart move that Lebby made in the portal was to sign a senior QB and senior center in both Shapin and Ethan Minor. Having seniors calling signals on offense from the center and QB position is going to give Lebby a bit of an undiscussed edge in implementing a new offense year 1 vs most coaches who haven't necessarily traditionally held that advantage when taking over a program year one. This advantage is one that's developed due to the advent of the portal era of collegiate football.

OU and UGA at home as well as LSU on the road and maybe even UF could have UM out of the playoff picture in my opinion. I buy them beating OU at home but dropping the UGA and LSU games. Nothing against UM but it's only a matter of time before Kelly gets it rolling at LSU. Outside of Smart, Kelly may be the most credentialed head coach in the SEC win wise. Ole Miss may shock the world and have a 1 loss season, but it'll be tough as talented as UM is.

UM could win 11 or 12 and just as easily have 3 loses and out of the playoffs.

Eastern Kentucky, Arizona St., Toledo, UMASS as well as UF and Arkansas in Starkville all comprise winnable games for Miss St. in 2024. I'm not saying there aren't other winnable games on the schedule but these 6 stand out.

I don't sense the same old school vibes from Lebby. I sense someone who at the power-5 level has proven to connect with high school players on the recruiting trail at only age 39 and who has proven effective in the era of the portal of coming in day one and plugging holes for Miss St. I look for Lebby to run fast-paced offenses and to eventually see the same level of scoring effectiveness we saw under both Mullen and Leach. Lebby is considered among upper college level OC's until taking the job in Starkville and I personally get the opposite of an old school vibe from him. I don't believe him to be overly reserved and is well spoken and very much in tune with what appeals to high school recruits and deeply understands modern NIL, portal and PR at the highest levels of college football. Lebby may be old school. I don't know but power-5 success, cutting edge, NIL and Portal conscious, relevant, relatable, fresh, bit of a recruiter and a college football player himself at Oklahoma is what comes to mind over old school when I think of Lebby.

Also, I'm not as prominent on this site when it comes to starting threads so I'll simply add this tidbit in here that not only are roster sizes increasing from 85 to 105 but there's a vote upcoming which will more than likely see the portal window slashed from 45-days to 30-days jfyi.

The University of Georgia has dismissed senior defensive back David Daniel-Sisavanh from the football team following a February reckless driving incident in which he evaded police in Atlanta. You mentioned in an earlier post than none of the players charged or convicted on charges of reckless driving have been dismissed from the team but they have and David Daniel-Sisavanh is one of them respectively.

There's no question that larger roster sizes cater to larger programs and some Big Ten programs have already publicly stated that they will remain with 85 as their personal roster size regardless of the increase to 105 allowed by the NCAA. The era of the transfer portal allows for example the six four-star players who transferred from Alabama to FSU during the offseason to seek new potential NIL money by potentially seeing increased playing time at FSU vs sitting on the bench at Alabama. The era of the portal being linked to NIL funds should serve to negate to some extent players being locked in like they were during the days of Bryant that you mentioned. Kiffin actually had the number one ranked portal specific class in the nation not including national high school recruiting rankings. Lebby and Hutzler combine for a wealth of power-5 experience on both sides of the football and adding Barnes as a co-defensive coordinator after Barnes elevated Memphis's defense as the defensive coordinator during the prior two seasons makes for a nice DC-wing man in terms of a stabilization factor. Lebby and Hutzler are both power-5 veterans at this point and now they get to prove they can create and sustain the same atmosphere that saw MSU experience 13 consecutive bowl games up until last season. A savvy move that I feel like Lebby made in the offseason was utilizing two senior signal callers on offense in QB1 Shappen and starting center Ethan Minor both of whom come highly touted as upper-tier veteran 3-star athletes with proven track records. Shappen has already commented on how nice it is to have a senior center who can come in and call the plays, run the line and make adjustments from day one. Ethan Minor was the top-rated center in the country when Miss St. grabbed him out of North Texas. In spite of a new offense being installed, the pace should be helped along by the experience of Shappen and Minor vs utilizing a freshman or a sophomore year one under Lebby at the two aforementioned positions. Miss St. did a nice job in the portal of actually building what could be a SEC caliber offensive line to operate behind with transfers from LSU, Texas Tech and Memphis across the board on the offensive line.

Miss St. has enough options that it doesn't need wolves in the building with loyalties which lie elsewhere. If he moved on then it's probably for the best.

I haven't personally looked past anything in regard to reckless driving and have a spotless driving record personally. I would imagine the true reason for not kicking every player off the team who has a reckless driving offense is likely two-fold. Firstly, reckless driving isn't typically an offense that gets you kicked off a college football team. Reckless driving might get you reprimanded but typically not booted. Just because 23 other student-athletes had reckless driving offenses before the 24th guy, doesn't render the 24th guy with a reckless driving charge individually as representing someone who should necessarily be kicked off the team. There's also the notion that kicking 24 players off of your roster might leave a sizable gap to fill even for UGA.

Those 24 arrests were largely if not exclusively reckless driving related whereas the arrest of Thomas involved the physical abuse of a child and an element of physical violence.

Sowell played his college days in Oxford and as long as Sowell remains loyal to his current employer in his remarks then I don't take particular issue although it's considered taboo for coaches especially at the SEC level to publicly comment via fan message forums.