Let's talk about Lebby's preseason quote...
- Thread starter dawgstudent
- Start date
On the surface, we are a I-AA football program masquerading as and SEC program.
Much like our logo, we are quick to change lanes without much thought for the long run and choose to commit to the present moment.
You ask if we have the “right guy.” The real question is “Do we have the right team?”
In short, there is a critical leadership issue. You can point to individuals, but this is systemic failure. Period.
THIS is the real problem. Our young, inexperienced AD who thinks he knows everything made an unnecessary premature panic fire last year so he could hire his inexperienced friend from Oklahoma. And this is why we're where we are stuck with the same bad coaches next year.
Never heard a more perfect explanation of the situation. And once you finally see it (which I did in early 2023), it's hard to unsee it. We all know it, but keep that wool pulled over our eyes for years. I mean we have a poster that said we "have the right offensive system" as if we now have a piece of this thing figured out. What a joke.
I'm not as big of a Keenum hater as many here, when it comes to the school. But I do know he seriously messed up so many things the past few years in athletics, after doing so many things right for a good little while. I have no idea why he hired Jack Salmon, especially when the son of a gun turned the job down initially. And then we go back and beg him. Why, oh Lord, why? I think many speculate........and we know there is nothing new under the sun.
I think he gets a pass for this year. He inherited a mess with no doubt the least amount of talent we have had on defense in 20 years. Been playing a true freshman QB since the 5th game. Played 5 potential playoff teams on the road. I expected to be better than we are but our guys seem to have played hard for him. We keep fighting in games when we get down early which is every game. I think his offense will work at MSU. He has recruited some good offensive players. Hutz - I don't know how much credit he deserves for this defense, he deserves some for sure but we have no talent. Are overall talent on that side of the ball has gone down yearly since Mullen left. Are we better off firing Hutz and searching for someone and starting all over again? Who would we get? What are the chances that he is any better? Might be better off with some continuity and giving the guy a chance. Got to find some playmakers.
We have had 3 coaches in 3 years, which I would assume is unprecedented at this level. We need some continuity. We fired Arnett because he wasn't qualified and deserved it. We were awful last year. Our defense sucked last year too. We made every QB we played look like the Heisman front-runner. I think this years team beats last years by double digits and wins the same 5 games with that same schedule. Probably the only offense out there that our defense this year could shut down.
IMO - we just have to give Lebby time and if he thinks it is best to keep Hutz then I am not excited about it but get it.
We have had 3 coaches in 3 years, which I would assume is unprecedented at this level. We need some continuity. We fired Arnett because he wasn't qualified and deserved it. We were awful last year. Our defense sucked last year too. We made every QB we played look like the Heisman front-runner. I think this years team beats last years by double digits and wins the same 5 games with that same schedule. Probably the only offense out there that our defense this year could shut down.
IMO - we just have to give Lebby time and if he thinks it is best to keep Hutz then I am not excited about it but get it.
I agree with pretty much everything you posted except Hutz, he needs to go. We need an experienced nationally know DC who can give this defense an identity and can attract players from the portal. Find the guy and give him an offer he can’t refuse. I’ve seen flashes of improvement on offense but I’ve seen nothing from this defense to give me any hope for next year. We can’t fire Lebby, the bleeding of coaches has to stop. We really don’t need the optics of firing another DC but I don’t think we have a choice if the university wants any fan support next year.
I am good with that so long as we are certain that we can hire someone who fits your description. I am skeptical that we can do that though. I would assume that we will hire another assistant from somewhere...granted I would expect that guy's current role to be DC and not his team's ST coordinator.
It really is hard to know right now. Our situation was easily, right now, the worst situation for a new P4 head coach in the country. Hate to say.
I think what happened this year though is he identified his core group of young offensive and a couple defensive guys that he can now start to build a roster around to hopefully in 2 years get us to where we want to be. I think that was his plan for year 1 and that was the smart decision considering the state of the program.
If you knew anything about football going into this season you knew how bad it was going to be. There was absolutely zero talent on this team and the little we did have were freshman and smaller school transfers that had never played in the SEC.
There amount of posters predicting 6-8 wins in the preseason thread was pretty amazing to me at the time. Even after the spring game people were pumping sunshine and I was just thinking what the hell were y’all watching? Undersized and slow.
The plan for year 2 needs to be to figure out who we want to retain on offense to continue developing and get some guys in to help around the core players and get us ready for 2026. And the focus on recruiting and transfer portal needs to be all defense and use 2025 to get that side of the ball on the right track. We need to be building for 2026/27.
And Lebby might not be the answer but with the State of our program and the landscape of CFB now we were not getting any sitting head coach or big time OC/DC to come here without paying way over market value because your career as a HC likely starts and ends here. We are lucky to have even gotten him and likely only did because he is buddies with AD. Just the reality.
And people bitching all year about Hutzler crack me up. He may have been retarded but Saban would have had the same results with this defensive talent. That’s just the truth.
So I bet that is what Lebby’s plan is, and honestly it HAS to be because that is the only way out of this hole. He is seeing the big picture. 6 wins in 2026 should be the goal at this point. You can say “loser mentality” all you want but I’m right.
I think what happened this year though is he identified his core group of young offensive and a couple defensive guys that he can now start to build a roster around to hopefully in 2 years get us to where we want to be. I think that was his plan for year 1 and that was the smart decision considering the state of the program.
If you knew anything about football going into this season you knew how bad it was going to be. There was absolutely zero talent on this team and the little we did have were freshman and smaller school transfers that had never played in the SEC.
There amount of posters predicting 6-8 wins in the preseason thread was pretty amazing to me at the time. Even after the spring game people were pumping sunshine and I was just thinking what the hell were y’all watching? Undersized and slow.
The plan for year 2 needs to be to figure out who we want to retain on offense to continue developing and get some guys in to help around the core players and get us ready for 2026. And the focus on recruiting and transfer portal needs to be all defense and use 2025 to get that side of the ball on the right track. We need to be building for 2026/27.
And Lebby might not be the answer but with the State of our program and the landscape of CFB now we were not getting any sitting head coach or big time OC/DC to come here without paying way over market value because your career as a HC likely starts and ends here. We are lucky to have even gotten him and likely only did because he is buddies with AD. Just the reality.
And people bitching all year about Hutzler crack me up. He may have been retarded but Saban would have had the same results with this defensive talent. That’s just the truth.
So I bet that is what Lebby’s plan is, and honestly it HAS to be because that is the only way out of this hole. He is seeing the big picture. 6 wins in 2026 should be the goal at this point. You can say “loser mentality” all you want but I’m right.
Is it systemic failure or is it that Leadership expected this season to turn out the way it’s gone during this course of righting the ship for the long run of NIL sports AND knew We can’t handle the truth?
But the problem is We are M-State. We are quick to change lanes.
I don't completely agree. Our talent level on defense sucks but with some good coaching on that side of the ball, we could have gotten to six wins. We've had SEC games that would've been really interesting if we could've gotten off the field on third down a couple of times.
I don’t think we could have gotten to 6 wins. But there’s damn sure no excuse or blaming previous coaches or lack of talent that we shouldn’t have won 4. That’s all on Lebby & Mutzler.
I think we definitely could've beaten ASU, Toledo, Florida, and Missouri with any semblance of a pulse on defense.
If he keeps Hutzler, he will prove he's not ready to make bottom line head coaching decisions.
ETA: If he promises to have bi-weekly meetings with Art to learn how to HC, exclusive of handling non-football player discipline, we may be OK.
No we don't. He should step down and apply at OU for OC. He's not HC material.
So far, we have been provided with zero evidence to lead someone to answer "Yes" to this question.
A reasonable mind must either answer "No" or "I'm not sure yet".
A visceral reaction would say this is stupid, but if you think about it....makes sense. Dan would get us back to par and perhaps a crappy bowl. Love to see Dan hired as HC, get the program turned around and tell him AD is yours. Starkville is yours.
Seems like a watered down Lincoln Riley. Can be an OC at OU with five stars playing in the big 12 but way over his head trying to rebuild a program in the sec as HC. nothing against Lebby , ive been pretty neutral on him. Many OC rookie coaches would struggle in this situation.
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