First of all, it sucks that Newton is going to Auburn. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. And I think he made the wrong choice. Or his Dad did. Good luck on getting to the NFL now that you will be labeled a system QB for a guy in Mahlzahn who to my knowledge has produced zero NFL QB's and gave us the great Mitch Mustain, who is one of the biggest busts in college football history. Oh, and who knows if Mahlzahn will be around even next week. If he does leave, I sincerely hope Auburn hires a Paul Johnson disciple as OC and run the flexbone. He's also playing for a coach that is relatively unpopular and might not even be around if he has a losing season and loses to Alabama aGAIN for possibly- no likely the third year in a row. And then a fourth year in a row after that.
Conversely, you are turning down a guy who has MSU on the rise, and has been talked about much more than Chizek, was mentioned as a possible replacement at Florida for a few hours- vs a guy who had to have a private press conference because of fan backlash- and has actually put a QB in the NFL and is a QB guru. Whatever the Auburn booster gave Newton, I can guarantee it would be nothing compared to what Newton would have made in the NFL.
But Rule 17 him. I do hope that Newton gets hit late a few times and that we try to break his arm. Cameron Lawrence, you know what to do. Sweep the leg. And I will cheer for him to get hurt, and I don't give a damn if anyone thinks I'm classless or not. And while if I had my drouthers, I would prefer that we hurt him, I would even be OK with really anyone hurting the guy. Auburn may not know it, but they've just rattled a hornets nest and they'll find out about it in Sept.
But back to MSU- As far as our QB situation, I feel pretty good about it. Not necessrily because I think Tyler Russell is "the real deal" and it sure as hell isn't because I think Favre is the next Brett. But it's because of Mullen. Like I said, Dan knows how to develop QB's. And he will do that here to. My gosh- look at Chris Relf for Heaven's sakes. The guy has had essentially one year of coaching and is about as raw as you can get, and he's running the option about as good as anyone out there now by the end of the season. I mean, the dude's a freaking Egg Bowl hero now. The other reasons I feel better about our QB situation is because we have good skill players and a good offensive line. If our o-line is good, they're at worst a below average unit that is well coached and well conditioned. We have guys like Leon Berry and O'Neal Wilder, and Marcus Green that can stretch the field. we couldn't do that last year because Tyson couldn't get those guys the ball deep, save for one play to Wilder against UK. And of course Relf is inaccurate. That's not a bad receiving corp. And while Tyler will have some freshman mistakes, I have no doubt that he can stretch the field with his arm and get those guys the ball. Just having Tyler stretch the field is going to make Bumphis and Heavens better, and it will help our unproven running game. It's obviously going to be Russell and Relf next year, or possibly Vye, who I don't think can beat out Tyler.
So, now the question- why does this happen to MSU? I think a lot of it is what Lou Holtz would call "the culture" of the program. What we have to do is win and put guys in the NFL. We've had some solid players through the years- some like Kent Hull were Pro-Bowl and All-Pro type players. But we still do not have "the guy" that everyone identifies as "MSU football" like Ole Miss has with Archie and maybe now with Eli. Or like USM has with Brett Favre. I think a lot of it has been the offenses that we traditionally ran- not just with Croom, even back to the 70's- were not QB friendly. We almost always have built our offense around a RB, and that's what we're known for. And you better believe that people use that against us in recruiting. We have also developed QB's poorly by doing stupid things like play a QB prospect for a few snaps at WR or ST's, like Bellard did with Don Smith. I really believe that Mullen can fix this. In the past, we would have probably started Tyler Russell mid season or had him play a few snaps at TE. But I really beleive that Dan is going to develop QB's that are solid at worst. When you develop QB's, you start to attract WR's, TE's, and RB's. And o-linemen. And eventually, once we develop Russell and he does well, then people won't be able to say that we can't find a good QB.
Conversely, you are turning down a guy who has MSU on the rise, and has been talked about much more than Chizek, was mentioned as a possible replacement at Florida for a few hours- vs a guy who had to have a private press conference because of fan backlash- and has actually put a QB in the NFL and is a QB guru. Whatever the Auburn booster gave Newton, I can guarantee it would be nothing compared to what Newton would have made in the NFL.
But Rule 17 him. I do hope that Newton gets hit late a few times and that we try to break his arm. Cameron Lawrence, you know what to do. Sweep the leg. And I will cheer for him to get hurt, and I don't give a damn if anyone thinks I'm classless or not. And while if I had my drouthers, I would prefer that we hurt him, I would even be OK with really anyone hurting the guy. Auburn may not know it, but they've just rattled a hornets nest and they'll find out about it in Sept.
But back to MSU- As far as our QB situation, I feel pretty good about it. Not necessrily because I think Tyler Russell is "the real deal" and it sure as hell isn't because I think Favre is the next Brett. But it's because of Mullen. Like I said, Dan knows how to develop QB's. And he will do that here to. My gosh- look at Chris Relf for Heaven's sakes. The guy has had essentially one year of coaching and is about as raw as you can get, and he's running the option about as good as anyone out there now by the end of the season. I mean, the dude's a freaking Egg Bowl hero now. The other reasons I feel better about our QB situation is because we have good skill players and a good offensive line. If our o-line is good, they're at worst a below average unit that is well coached and well conditioned. We have guys like Leon Berry and O'Neal Wilder, and Marcus Green that can stretch the field. we couldn't do that last year because Tyson couldn't get those guys the ball deep, save for one play to Wilder against UK. And of course Relf is inaccurate. That's not a bad receiving corp. And while Tyler will have some freshman mistakes, I have no doubt that he can stretch the field with his arm and get those guys the ball. Just having Tyler stretch the field is going to make Bumphis and Heavens better, and it will help our unproven running game. It's obviously going to be Russell and Relf next year, or possibly Vye, who I don't think can beat out Tyler.
So, now the question- why does this happen to MSU? I think a lot of it is what Lou Holtz would call "the culture" of the program. What we have to do is win and put guys in the NFL. We've had some solid players through the years- some like Kent Hull were Pro-Bowl and All-Pro type players. But we still do not have "the guy" that everyone identifies as "MSU football" like Ole Miss has with Archie and maybe now with Eli. Or like USM has with Brett Favre. I think a lot of it has been the offenses that we traditionally ran- not just with Croom, even back to the 70's- were not QB friendly. We almost always have built our offense around a RB, and that's what we're known for. And you better believe that people use that against us in recruiting. We have also developed QB's poorly by doing stupid things like play a QB prospect for a few snaps at WR or ST's, like Bellard did with Don Smith. I really believe that Mullen can fix this. In the past, we would have probably started Tyler Russell mid season or had him play a few snaps at TE. But I really beleive that Dan is going to develop QB's that are solid at worst. When you develop QB's, you start to attract WR's, TE's, and RB's. And o-linemen. And eventually, once we develop Russell and he does well, then people won't be able to say that we can't find a good QB.
