Arnett's persona, and other things...

[Faustdog]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Imagine if Arnett had known his role, and coached the defense himself (like many new head coaches do). Totally delegated the ready made offense to Spurrier Jr. and Hollinghead. Everybody knows this was a one-year thing and that half the team was leaving after this season. And if things had gone poorly, he could fire everyone.

It was just so easy to continue what we were doing, which was working. And if I have to hear this ignorant shlt about 'only Leach could run the pure Air Raid' again, I mean even Bo Bounds is spouting it. Talk about carrying water. It was worth a shot to do it one more year. Leach (RIP) is not the college football overlord, Spurrier and Hollinghead sat there and helped him run it for 3 damn years.

 

[NawlBennyDawg]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

I've been thinking this as well. Last year, you could not match Arnett's energy on the sideline. Any time the defense made a big play, he gave the get-back coach his money's worth with trying to keep him from running to midfield to celebrate with his players. He was all gas, no brakes for 60 minutes straight.

Now I watch him on the sideline, and every shot I see is just him is this:



Arms crossed, supervising, not saying a word. Standing 50 yards away from the play. I have no idea what happened. Where has that same fire gone? For the past couple of games, he has looked like a deer in headlights...

 

[ckDOG]

Imagine if Arnett had known his role, and coached the defense himself (like many new head coaches do). Totally delegated the ready made offense to Spurrier Jr. and Hollinghead. Everybody knows this was a one-year thing and that half the team was leaving after this season. And if things had gone poorly, he could fire everyone.

It was just so easy to continue what we were doing, which was working. And if I have to hear this ignorant shlt about 'only Leach could run the pure Air Raid' again, I mean even Bo Bounds is spouting it. Talk about carrying water. It was worth a shot to do it one more year. Leach (RIP) is not the college football overlord, Spurrier and Hollinghead sat there and helped him run it for 3 damn years.

Yep. It was ignorant for him to think resetting the offense in year 1 was his best transition into the HC job. What you describe above is exactly what should have happened with Arnett as HC (assuming they would agree to work for him). You let the roster you retained to continue building on what they learned and their strengths. You focus on your expertise - defense. It wouldn't have to be the exact system Leach ran but it surely would have retained many of the same terms and concepts being, at least, an air raid heavy scheme. If it didn't work out as well as you planned, then you use your reset year to go another direction in year 2. It would be much easier to get the roster and fans just to buy into that.

Ultimately it is what it is at this point. Arnett placed his bet and we all have to hope it pans out even though it violates all common sense. I'm more pissed at those that hired him if this was the sold vision. Green HC/rock the boat is the opposite of the correct approach with the death of successful coach. I understand an experienced HC heavy on air raid may not have been realistic given the circumstance but a green HC + stability/continuity was surely available.

 

[Shmuley]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

Some people are born to lead. Some people think they want to lead until they get an opportunity to lead and then they struggle, with mixed results. And some people have no business leading and should never be asked.

 

[KingBarkus]

Bottom line. Arnett made decisions and choices. Those decisions look like an exploding cigar in our program’s face. Now we see who the REAL leaders are.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Yep. It was ignorant for him to think resetting the offense in year 1 was his best transition into the HC job. What you describe above is exactly what should have happened with Arnett as HC (assuming they would agree to work for him). You let the roster you retained to continue building on what they learned and their strengths. You focus on your expertise - defense. It wouldn't have to be the exact system Leach ran but it surely would have retained many of the same terms and concepts being, at least, an air raid heavy scheme. If it didn't work out as well as you planned, then you use your reset year to go another direction in year 2. It would be much easier to get the roster and fans just to buy into that.

Ultimately it is what it is at this point. Arnett placed his bet and we all have to hope it pans out even though it violates all common sense. I'm more pissed at those that hired him if this was the sold vision. Green HC/rock the boat is the opposite of the correct approach with the death of successful coach. I understand an experienced HC heavy on air raid may not have been realistic given the circumstance but a green HC + stability/continuity was surely available.

You know exactly how this went down. Arnett probably stewed all year about how his defense won games last year at the expense of the offense. So he's gonna fix all that as soon as those lazy Leach guys are out of the picture. In other words, he thought just like the dumb side of our fanbase.

Now we all pay the price. Perhaps Keenum should have seen it coming? Or perhaps we should have hired Spurrier Jr.? All I know is that, like you say, it is what it is, which is another chapter of Mississippi State losing football.

 

[onewoof]

 

[blitz2Win]

Imagine if Arnett had known his role, and coached the defense himself (like many new head coaches do). Totally delegated the ready made offense to Spurrier Jr. and Hollinghead. Everybody knows this was a one-year thing and that half the team was leaving after this season. And if things had gone poorly, he could fire everyone.

It was just so easy to continue what we were doing, which was working. And if I have to hear this ignorant shlt about 'only Leach could run the pure Air Raid' again, I mean even Bo Bounds is spouting it. Talk about carrying water. It was worth a shot to do it one more year. Leach (RIP) is not the college football overlord, Spurrier and Hollinghead sat there and helped him run it for 3 damn years.

This is exactly what I assumed he would do. it is logical , allows the team to win 7-8 games, he keeps His job and furthers his career. Its mind boggling he burned the whole thing to the ground with no intelligent plan. it’s got to be an ego problem. he’s going to learn the hard way.

 

[The Usual Suspect]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

I’m not even really that mad at Arnett. He was not ready to coach. I am mad at the group above him that hired him, making no effort to do anything else.

 

[Johnnie Come Lately]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

Ya'll act like going from an annual salary of $900,000 to in excess of $3,000,000 in matter of weeks wouldn't change a person....

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

It happened sometime in-between his hiring and the start of this season. Arnett became less of a scowling, tough, no-nonsense kind of guy who could make an out of position safety or a Faulk asking a silly question quiver in fear. He's now apt to cracking jokes in pressers and giggling in post-game interviews. Give me the old Arnett. Some of the change is obviously nervousness in his new position.

I don't think I saw Nick Saban smile until 2021, and look where that's gotten him.

I'm only halfway joking there.

Obviously the question is whether or not he was ready for prime time. I do not think Matt Brock was ready. I wish Arnett would go back to calling the defensive plays. You don't even have to announce it.

We return as much or more production on both sides of the ball than anyone else in our league. Mike Leach put together a nine win season with a group not much different than this. Look back at how many nine win seasons MSU has had. It isn't many.

What Leach did was run a team and program with efficiency. His practices were down to a science. Everyone had a clearly defined role. He was a pro. What we're seeing now seems like a little bit of amateur hour.

I'm not writing Arnett off. The fact is he's three games in and still on schedule wins wise from where we thought we'd be. But man, he needs that edge back.

And I'm already seeing some blame-shifting back to Leach. Stop that. Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

I heard something today along similar lines, but way more to it. Take this for a grain of salt
Barbay told Will and his Dad he’d still run a ton of AR concepts. Will have NIL offers from Miami and Auburn at this time.
Petersen made all the coaching hires. Arnett has been a yes man and the s&c and intensity had dropped dramatically.
It could all be made up, but there made be some truth to it.
The Rogers family is not a fan of Barbay and everyone thinks he’s a snake oil salesman

 

[kired]

Again, the product he gave us with almost this same bunch last year looks night and day different so far.

Wait, what? Are you including defense in this as well? We only lost maybe the best corner in college football, two of our best defensive lineman, a linebacker we used as an edge rusher with double digit sacks, and most of the safeties from our two-deep.

Brock is not working with the same talent Arnett has had last 2 seasons

 

[blitz2Win]

and Whose fault is that ? We use nil money and ships on Roberson , Goede and an ineligible player and don’t sign an edge rusher when he’s the DC who knows the roster ?

Leach picked Charlton, jackie matthews and JRob out of the portal. it’s just more bad decisions and not knowing how to manage a roster.

 

[HumpDawgy]

Of course he is not ready. He is a 37 year old first time head coach coaching in the toughest conference in football for a non-blue blood program. Most of these guys have to get their starts at division II or mid majors to learn the ropes, but with Leach's passing, his first opportunity came here. We liked the guy and needed some stability, so the change was made. In hindsight we should have at the very least opened a search and at the most hired an experienced head coach.

 

[thatsbaseball]

I’m not even really that mad at Arnett. He was not ready to coach. I am mad at the group above him that hired him, making no effort to do anything else.

While some of the "group" you mention probably weren't even born then, in a way it's the same type "group" (with a few exceptions along the way) that have made athletic decisions at State since the 60's.

 

[blitz2Win]

While some of the "group" you mention probably weren't even born then, in a way it's the same type "group" (with a few exceptions along the way) that have made athletic decisions at State since the 60's.

It sounds like Brad Peterson is running the program, why is a high school coach running an sec program ? if Arnett can’t make any decisions without Brad Peterson, he cant Do this job and should never have taken it.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

It sounds like Brad Peterson is running the program, why is a high school coach running an sec program ? if Arnett can’t make any decisions without Brad Peterson, he cant Do this job and should never have taken it.

Yeah that sounds like a load of horseshlt.

I also don't buy the Auburn/Miami NIL stuff.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

The

Imagine if Arnett had known his role, and coached the defense himself (like many new head coaches do). Totally delegated the ready made offense to Spurrier Jr. and Hollinghead. Everybody knows this was a one-year thing and that half the team was leaving after this season. And if things had gone poorly, he could fire everyone.

It was just so easy to continue what we were doing, which was working. And if I have to hear this ignorant shlt about 'only Leach could run the pure Air Raid' again, I mean even Bo Bounds is spouting it. Talk about carrying water. It was worth a shot to do it one more year. Leach (RIP) is not the college football overlord, Spurrier and Hollinghead sat there and helped him run it for 3 damn years.

Concur that the Air Raid can't simultaneously be the simplest offense around, able to fit on a note card, and also be something that "only Leach could run"...

 

[blitz2Win]

Yeah that sounds like a load of horseshlt.

I also don't buy the Auburn/Miami NIL stuff.

Two separate issues, obviously someone suggested The all instate staff that has been disastrous. That would be BP.

No I don’t believe Auburn or Miami would want #2 at qb.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Ya'll act like going from an annual salary of $900,000 to in excess of $3,000,000 in matter of weeks wouldn't change a person....

I'd smile and joke a little more!

 

[The Cooterpoot]

Yeah that sounds like a load of horseshlt.

I also don't buy the Auburn/Miami NIL stuff.

It's pretty accurate.

 

[blitz2Win]

The

Concur that the Air Raid can't simultaneously be the simplest offense around, able to fit on a note card, and also be something that "only Leach could run"...

That got to be a talking point to dismiss anyone that said , hey wait what are we doing here on offense. Even though about a gazillion high school and college programs run variations of the air raid Including the entire states of Texas.

Chris Hatcher would have done well, Arbuckle at WSU has one of the top offenses in the country.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

It's pretty accurate.

I know that rumor is out there. Doesn't mean I have to believe it.

 

[MagnoliaHunter]

Imagine if Arnett had known his role, and coached the defense himself (like many new head coaches do). Totally delegated the ready made offense to Spurrier Jr. and Hollinghead. Everybody knows this was a one-year thing and that half the team was leaving after this season. And if things had gone poorly, he could fire everyone.

It was just so easy to continue what we were doing, which was working. And if I have to hear this ignorant shlt about 'only Leach could run the pure Air Raid' again, I mean even Bo Bounds is spouting it. Talk about carrying water. It was worth a shot to do it one more year. Leach (RIP) is not the college football overlord, Spurrier and Hollinghead sat there and helped him run it for 3 damn years.

The fact that that idiot bo bounds was saying it proves your point that it is wrong. Because everyone with any sense knows that bo bounds is always wrong about everything. It may have taken Spurrier Jr and Hollinghead some time to run it as well Coach Leach but it would still be better than this garbage.

 

[mcdawg22]

Kirby Smart the DC and Kirby Smart the HC were noticeably different. I am in no way saying we have anything equivalent to Kirby, just pointing out something.