CFB Week 2 Thread

[hasbeen67]

MSU takes shotgun snap in the endzone for the final kneel down. 

[rebmus]

Just now, MSTSatchmo said:

Very good job by State’s defense and better job this week by the State OL.   I said after last week that State would win 3.   I’ll give them 4 now.

 

OM did what they were supposed to.  I didn’t watch any of it, but the score would be indicative of that.  
 

I think Arkansas would be the surprise of the week.  Huge win by them.  

Agreed.

[Dawg83]

NC State is a pretty good team but matched up poorly with State’s defense. With better QB play that might have gone differently, but Leary never showed much reason to fear him. And State did a great job of shutting down the run against a good running team.

 

Won’t pretend that this was a great offensive performance but there are still positives to draw. Pass protection was much better, Rogers made some really clutch throws in the middle of the game to stretch out the lead, and I really like this crop of receivers. Absolutely still a work in progress with the Air Raid, but the problems do seem more fixable than they did a week ago.

 

At the end of the day, many expected this to be a loss for State (myself included), and it was essentially a blowout win. You can definitely  nitpick certain things but make no mistake about it, this was a big W. Still a ton of toss up games left, including both of the next two weeks. But it’s reasonable to think this ends up being a bowl team.

 

 

Edited September 12, 2021 by Dawg83

[MSTSatchmo]

Biggest play of the day was the cat being saved by the American flag on September 11th at the Miami/App St game.   

[Bulldogs4]

Two weeks in a row, Tulu Griffin with a big KR to jumpstart our Dawgs. The blocking was great as well but he also broke a couple of tackles last night. 
 

Defense was lights out all night long. As 83 mentioned, offense is still a work in progress but we did some good things last night. 0 turnovers is a big stat. 
 

I think we all wondered which State team would show up? The 2nd/3rd quarter team or the fourth quarter team? It is safe to say that the fourth quarter team did show up last night. A very good win against a team that was supposed to beat us and beat us handily from what I could gather. 
 

As the Alan Parsons Project band said “Where do we go from here” is the $64,000 question. Memphis will be a tough game as they always play their Super Bowl against OM and State. But if we can take care of business and go 3-0, that will be a good start to the season before conference play starts. 
 

We will see. 

[rebmus]

I didn't get to see the MSU game, but the score was more what I expected from MSU this season. I'm sticking with them being a 6-7 win team. 

 

OM won easily, as they should have. Still, sloppy game overall. Way too many penalties, and the D is giving up too many yards. Scoring D matters most, I get that... but against better teams, the scoring will happen. There's no doubt this D is better than last year's D, but OM will still have some shootouts ahead this year. 

 

Also, kudos to USM for picking up a win this weekend. Coach Hall took last week's loss hard, hopefully he's enjoying this win. USM is just a tough job now, and with these "super conferences" headed our way... I'd wager USM will be division II in the near future. 

[Dawg83]

Shout out to Jett Johnson for having a big game at LB for State on Saturday. He’s frankly a guy I had zero expectations for and didn’t think he’d ever really be a contributor. But he was excellent.

[Vott]

15 hours ago, rebmus said:

I didn't get to see the MSU game, but the score was more what I expected from MSU this season. I'm sticking with them being a 6-7 win team. 

 

OM won easily, as they should have. Still, sloppy game overall. Way too many penalties, and the D is giving up too many yards. Scoring D matters most, I get that... but against better teams, the scoring will happen. There's no doubt this D is better than last year's D, but OM will still have some shootouts ahead this year. 

 

Also, kudos to USM for picking up a win this weekend. Coach Hall took last week's loss hard, hopefully he's enjoying this win. USM is just a tough job now, and with these "super conferences" headed our way... I'd wager USM will be division II in the near future. 

I agree. The Southland Conference with Southeast Louisiana, Mcneese State, NW State and Nicholls State would be good for them. They could, but not likely win a FCS title if that happens.

[Bulldogs4]

Unfortunately, for USM the future looks bleak. Will Hall is a very good coach who is going to do very well. But the region competition is much tougher now. UAB, USA and Tulane all have brand new stadiums with plenty of money to spend. 
USM has tradition but Ellis Johnson killed that in 2012 and the program has never really recovered from that debacle. 
 

The Sun Belt would also be a good conference as well. I just don’t see the discombobulated CUSA surviving in its present form. 
 

In the old days , USM recruited S LA, MS, AL, GA and NW FL and found many good players who were just under SEC level and in some cases , SEC quality. Those days are gone. Now you have ULL, La. Tech, Tulane, Troy, UAB, USA, GA Southern all recruiting those areas and the monopoly they had on the talent pool is over. They have no money, are in a small market so their options are limited severely. 
 

But glad to see him win his first game. 

[MSTSatchmo]

2 hours ago, Bulldogs4 said:

Unfortunately, for USM the future looks bleak. Will Hall is a very good coach who is going to do very well. But the region competition is much tougher now. UAB, USA and Tulane all have brand new stadiums with plenty of money to spend. 
USM has tradition but Ellis Johnson killed that in 2012 and the program has never really recovered from that debacle. 
 

The Sun Belt would also be a good conference as well. I just don’t see the discombobulated CUSA surviving in its present form. 
 

In the old days , USM recruited S LA, MS, AL, GA and NW FL and found many good players who were just under SEC level and in some cases , SEC quality. Those days are gone. Now you have ULL, La. Tech, Tulane, Troy, UAB, USA, GA Southern all recruiting those areas and the monopoly they had on the talent pool is over. They have no money, are in a small market so their options are limited severely. 
 

But glad to see him win his first game. 

That’s why I was surprised he took the job.  Considering the path his career had taken.   He was highly thought of as an OC and a major college coordinator position probably could have been his pretty soon.   

[rebmus]

B4,

Ellis Johnson sure didn't do USM any favors, but I don't think a ton of blame is on him... he was only there a year. 

After Johnson, USM went to bowl games in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. USM has competed OK on the G5 level the past 6 years. 

 

I think it's more the region competition being much tougher now... which came from multiple factors. Back when the AAC raided CUSA, CUSA lost a lot of respect as a G5 conference. That "respect" means money when it comes to TV deals. Tulane and Memphis were now AAC teams getting better splits of conference money while USM was left to try to compete with them. You also had surrounding SEC and ACC teams making TONS of more money with new TV deals. 

 

The AAC started in 2013 so I'll use that year to pose a question: 

What was Memphis and Tulane's revenues in 2013 vs now? 

What was the SEC and ACC team's revenues in 2013 vs now? 

Compare those answers to what was USM's revenues in 2013 vs now? 

I would highly wager USM's revenues grew at a MUCH smaller pace than the others I listed. 

[Bulldogs4]

Reb, 

 

But coming off the 2011 season where USM almost crashed the NY6 bowls with a 12-2 record and then losing 23 straight games was just a death blow to the on the field football team. Then combining that with getting left behind in the conference realignment was a double blow. 

 

Had they maintained the momentum of the 2011 football season through 2012/2013, by winning 8-9-10 games each season they would have been in a much better place at the bargaining table. They very well may have gotten a AAC invite because they had a strong football program with good attendance. Those two years going 1-23 destroyed any chance they may have had. 
 

That is not to say it would have actually happened but the on the field performance of the football team ensured that it would not happen. 
 

Yes they have recovered somewhat over the last 5-6 years but the days of “The Nasty Bunch” and “To The Top” are over and in the history books. 
 

I like Will Hall and have ever since he was the HC @ West Alabama. So I hope he can compete and win some games over the next few years. He is capable but just has a tough hill to climb going forward. 

[rebmus]

Just now, Bulldogs4 said:

Reb, 

 

But coming off the 2011 season where USM almost crashed the NY6 bowls with a 12-2 record and then losing 23 straight games was just a death blow to the on the field football team. Then combining that with getting left behind in the conference realignment was a double blow. 

 

Had they maintained the momentum of the 2011 football season through 2012/2013, by winning 8-9-10 games each season they would have been in a much better place at the bargaining table. They very well may have gotten a AAC invite because they had a strong football program with good attendance. Those two years going 1-23 destroyed any chance they may have had. 
 

That is not to say it would have actually happened but the on the field performance of the football team ensured that it would not happen. 
 

Yes they have recovered somewhat over the last 5-6 years but the days of “The Nasty Bunch” and “To The Top” are over and in the history books. 
 

I like Will Hall and have ever since he was the HC @ West Alabama. So I hope he can compete and win some games over the next few years. He is capable but just has a tough hill to climb going forward. 

Valid points B4, I'm not sold it would have been different had USM had a better season under EJ. 

USM just doesn't (and didn't) have much to sell to get into a better conference. The fan support has never been good, and one of the biggest thing going for schools trying to get a conference bid is TV markets... Hattiesburg isn't exactly a TV market like Tulane (New Orleans) or Memphis.