Jackie Matthews, Jalen Green, and Randy Charlton...

[Faustdog]

In hindsight these were devastating losses. I'm as guilty as any for not seeing it. All portal guys signed by Leach who had huge impacts. Makes me wonder if he'd have plugged in a couple of portal safeties.

Having Matthews and Green back there gave us SEC speed on defense, which we clearly no longer have.

Combine those losses with a first year DC, and you get the Sirmon show we have right now.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

He might have, and those are legit losses.

But we also had from the portal: Banks, Morant, Washington, Jones, Rogers, Keys.

Those were all highly rated guys who are either sucking or on the bench. It's hard to believe they all just suck.

It's coaching. Again, with those losses, sure we take a step back. But not this far back.

 

[RiverCityDawg]

In hindsight these were devastating losses. I'm as guilty as any for not seeing it. All portal guys signed by Leach who had huge impacts. Makes me wonder if he'd have plugged in a couple of portal safeties.

Having Matthews and Green back there gave us SEC speed on defense, which we clearly no longer have.

Combine those losses with a first year DC, and you get the Sirmon show we have right now.

Collin Duncan too. Our fans always dismissed him because he was one time forced to play man coverage against the Heisman winner for some reason, but he consistently graded as our best safety. Much better than Matthews.

I also think we have a coaching problem with our safeties this year. Should have gone out and got a legit safeties coach, or Arnett should have continued coaching them.

 

[MSUDC11-2.0]

At the end of the day you’re in the plug and play portal era now. Everybody loses guys from year to year, you’ve got to be able to find adequate replacements.

 

[Rupert Jenkins]

Exactly. The coaching staff is suppose to know what they have and what they need. They get paid to assess and acquire talent. If you sign a bunch of busts and then don't even sign anyone to other spots maybe you aren't doing your job. Of course maybe those guys aren't busts. Maybe our coaches can't tell which players are the best. Look at Keyvone Lee. Finally played due to injury and averaged 7.5 yards per carry. Maybe he should be getting more touches ??

 

[blitz2Win]

No, Leach can get Charlton, Matthews, Green and Banks out of the portal, all defensive starters, but this staff who supposedly knows the roster goes out and gets Goede, an ineligible Spivey, Roberson a receiver we don’t need.......sheer incompetence

 

[kired]

My favorite thing about our secondary is seeing the CBs talk **** when 1 out of 10 passes finally falls incomplete.

 

[FlotownDawg]

What this season has shown is how important coaching is. Leach was a good, proven coach and we got results. The people on here saying we would be in this same situation we are now with Leach make me shake my head. This coaching staff is in so far over its head it’s not even funny. Before the season, nearly everyone on here was saying what a great veteran team we had coming back and how we’d win 8-10 games. Now it’s “Leach left us with no talent!” It’s coaching.

 

[Perd Hapley]

In hindsight these were devastating losses. I'm as guilty as any for not seeing it. All portal guys signed by Leach who had huge impacts. Makes me wonder if he'd have plugged in a couple of portal safeties.

Having Matthews and Green back there gave us SEC speed on defense, which we clearly no longer have.

Combine those losses with a first year DC, and you get the Sirmon show we have right now.

Great points. And I’m sure Arnett was actively involved in bringing those guys here.

I think its understated how much the 5 weeks of turmoil surrounding Leach’s passing affected our portal cycle. We didn’t even have an opportunity to get in the mix at all because no one worth a damn was going to transfer here with as much as we had up in the air with our program last December. By the time Arnett and the staff were finally settled, it was mid-January and everyone worth having had already found their destination. That’s got to be considered at least somewhat of a mitigating factor when evaluating this year’s performance from the staff. And if Arnett is retained, it’s the first thing that we need to check to see if it improves heading into 2024.

 

[Perd Hapley]

No, Leach can get Charlton, Matthews, Green and Banks out of the portal, all defensive starters, but this staff who supposedly knows the roster goes out and gets Goede, an ineligible Spivey, Roberson a receiver we don’t need.......sheer incompetence

The portal was 17ing done when the staff was finally settled. It was pretty much done before Arnett was named interim. If you don’t lock in your guys by mid-December, you aren’t getting any of the most desirable transfers. Leach passed away on 12/12/2022….our chances of getting significant help in the portal ended right there. We likely had more help on the way before that happened, but we’ll never know.

 

[BIGDAWG44]

This might be an unpopular opinion but I think Walley should have been a safety. he had a fantastic freshman year but I think he would've made an NFL team as a DB.