Dawg83

Preston Johnson looked good in a starting role, State actually may have its rotation kinda figured out. Kohn, the freshman lefty, seems like he will be a key contributor out of the bullpen this year and good chance to be a weekend starter later in his career.

With State you don’t have to be playing great right now but you also can’t afford just a ton of nonconference losses or it will hurt you come Selection Monday in terms of seeding. This State team is giving me some major 2014 vibes in the early going. Deep Omaha run the year before, lost some key guys but also returned a good bit, then had a lousy nonconference record and ended up having to travel for a Regional in spite of an 18-12 SEC record. Ironically that was also the same year as Bianco’s lone Omaha appearance for OM. Both teams had to make a trip to Lafayette in the postseason, State lost and Ole Miss won. That said, if any program has a track record of turning teams that don’t look very good into teams that somehow make a deep postseason run, it’s State.

State drops Game 1 to Northern Kentucky. Kind of an ugly loss to a team that’s historically pretty bad and who got swept by ETSU on opening weekend. Still don’t think it’s panic time yet but this team is clearly not playing at a high level to this point. Still time to figure it out, but you’re gonna have to figure it out against much better teams than the one you just lost to.

LOL. I actually really really like OM’s roster this year and with their schedule they might win the SEC. It’s just kinda the same old “wait and see what happens in June” mentality with this program.

State has a 6 game stretch coming up that is super tough. USM in Pearl, three games at Tulane, and two games vs Texas Tech in Biloxi. Almost feels like a 4-0 week this week is pretty important because you’re likely drop a game or two at least in that stretch.

D1 has Ole Miss at 3 in their newest poll, State fell to 7. Long Beach State is all the way up to 12 now.

Cade Smith looked good today, he is someone I’ve been high on for a while. And I still like this team’s offensive potential, just a matter of doing it consistently. I have no idea who fills what role in the bullpen, the games this weekend didn’t play out in a way that would tell you much on that. State should have a more manageable week this week with Arkansas-Pine Bluff and three games against Northern Kentucky. I’m sure they’ll fall in the polls but I expect them to still be in the Top 10 in most. I think you could see Long Beach State shoot up inside the Top 15.

It’s true, we will not be challenging your crew for that February national championship this year.

State has gotten it handed to them twice this weekend. Long Beach has looked really good and I expect them to skyrocket up the rankings after this weekend. They have played like a team that’s good enough to host in June and they definitely have talent. I’ll be curious to see how their season goes. This State team still has a ton of talent, just not super proven after a couple of guys. Sims might be the best pitcher in college baseball this year, but after that there aren’t many roles established on the staff. Offensively I think there’s a lot of boom or bust guys but it’s TBD if they have someone super steady like they’ve had in recent years with Mangum/TA/Rowdey. I fully expect them to get going eventually, definitely a rough start though.

I was more concerned about this series than most going in. Both of the last two years Long Beach State was a good team that had their season ruined by COVID. They went almost a calendar year without even being able to practice at one point. They smoked State out in Cali before the shutdown two years ago and several of those same guys are still around this year. State could get swept this weekend and I still wouldn’t be majorly concerned, there are 50-60 more games after this weekend. Just interesting to see how good teams match up with one another. LBSU has arms for days, State has a real challenge on their hands to come back and win the series.

If there’s a positive for State it’s that the Landon Sims starting experiment looks like it will probably work out just fine. 7 IP, 13 K’s, 1 R. Tough luck loser on a day where Long Beach’s staff was lights out and State never really came close to scoring. This series gives me similar vibes to when USM came to The Dude in 2019 or when Tulane came to town last year. State lost the Friday game in those series, too. Expecting the next two days to be a real battle between two good teams.

Happy Opening Day everyone! State hosts a ranked Long Beach State this weekend, Ole Miss hosts Charleston Southern, and USM hosts North Alabama. Starting rotations for each MS team are: State - Sims/Hunt/Cade Smith OM - Diamond/Gaddis/McDaniel USM - Ethridge/Riggins/Waldrep I will be at Dudy Noble at least once this weekend, possibly twice. Looking forward to getting this season going. As always, remember that it’s a marathon and not a sprint, regardless of what happens in the first weekend or even the first month or two.

It for sure is. Kermit being back is 50/50, Howland being done is almost a forgone conclusion now. I would not be shocked to see a “retirement” announced before the regular season is over.

I don’t know that it’s an effort thing with State. I think the roster was poorly constructed with no true PG and no real shooters, and they’re not particularly well coached. Molinar is very good, the interior duo of Smith and Brooks has been solid. That’s about it though. And it’s not enough for this team to do what it should be doing.

You can make a case that 6 of his 7 teams have underachieved. I’m willing to give him last year, I thought that team was going to really stink and they almost won the NIT. But every other team has just done the bare minimum until now, and it appears this team won’t even do that and there’s a good chance this costs him his job.

I said I was done commenting on basketball for the season barring something drastic, so I’ll try to make it quick. I think this is Ben Howland’s last year at State. I don’t think this tenure has been a total failure, as it is clearly an improvement from what his predecessor did, but 7 years in this still hasn’t been what most hoped for. One total NCAAT game in all these seasons, the inability to get buy-in from the fan base, constantly losing big game after big game and generally having teams that underachieve. It feels like it’s time to move in a different direction. This coach has already peaked here, and the peak wasn’t even that high.

Roughly a week and a half away from Opening Day now. A lot to talk about and a lot to look forward to with two Preseason Top 10 teams, plus USM should be good again as well. The defending national champion Mississippi State Bulldogs (just had to say it, LOL) have a really interesting roster. Lost some key contributors but have talent all over the place. It’s a team with a ton of potential, particularly on the mound and with power hitting. Sims moving to a starting role intrigues me, and I expect him to do well there, but the other rotation spots are TBD and I’m not sure who the go-to guy at the end of games ends up being. Generally speaking I expect a typical Lemonis team that’s contends for a Top 8 seed and has every chance to make a deep run in Omaha. I am fascinated by Ole Miss. I’m not sure anybody in the country returns more offense than they do, but the pitching staff? Who the heck knows. If they do figure out pitching then they might win the SEC. But we’ve all been through this enough now to know that the questions about this program start when the calendar flips to June. It will feel like another big missed opportunity if Bianco doesn’t make an Omaha trip with this core group of players. The SEC in general has an interesting dynamic this year, not much returning pitching but a ton of returning hitting. We may have quite a few Sunday games that resemble the Gorilla Ball era. We’ll talk about the first weekend as we get closer, State hosts a Top 25 Long Beach State team and Ole Miss hosts a more manageable series with Charleston Southern. Thoughts on the season ahead?

Heath would show flashes of being really good and would get you excited that he was about to really break out… and then he’d disappear for 4-5 games.

Malik Heath transferring from State to Ole Miss. LOL. Interesting move. Talented guy with some explosiveness, but super inconsistent when he was in Starkville.

Aaaaaand apparently Davis is already leaving after a month on the job.

I am in wait and see mode with Dart, admittedly. If you have high expectations for him it’s because you trust his recruiting profile and Kiffin’s track record with QB’s, which I think is reasonable. But he also has enormous shoes to fill and he’s not exactly proven at this stage. Good pickup, just not ready to declare him Corral or Kelly 2.0.

This is actually the first time he’s coached womens basketball period but I feel like he’s done a respectable job. He is dealing with some major roster issues, the girl they started at center yesterday was 5-9. How they finish the year will determine if he gets the full time job or not. The health situation with Nikki is very sad and I truly wish her the best. That said, you could tell last year that something was very off with the program. That was a preseason Top 10 team and they finished with a losing SEC record and didn’t even make the NCAAT. It really is amazing to see the program where it is now given what it was not even two years ago. Coach Yo has done an excellent job at Ole Miss. She inherited a truly awful situation and has absolutely turned it around in a big way. And frankly has put pressure on State in a way that I didn’t think was possible a couple of years ago. I’m not suggesting she will dominate the rivalry like Schaefer did, but State does need to get their hire right.

I doubt they are true but I’ll play along. You just go bring Lebby right back, don’t you?

State added a DB from West Virginia and a WR from Northwestern today. Still expect them to add a couple more guys. Sounding like Caleb Williams is most likely USC bound, which probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The flip side of that is Jaxson Dart from SC is now in the portal, and he will also be a sought after QB.

The Williams injury clearly affected Bama’s offense, but Georgia also played much better last night than they did in Atlanta. Good for Bennett, a former MS JUCO kid. Georgia fans have had a good few months between this and the Braves. Bama isn’t going anywhere, though. This was a young Bama team that was far more inconsistent than most Bama teams. It will be a huge surprise if they are not back in the Playoff next year and they are likely the favorite to win another title.