What has to occur this football season where you worry about Lebby?

leeinator

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Just off the top of my head:
1. Right side o-linemen pulling left and left side o-linemen pulling right on the same play.
2. QB dropping back to pass with every receiver at the line blocking and nobody running a route.

Both of these things happened multiple times last year.
If the defense starts giving up huge yardage like Ole Miss has the last few years.
 

ETK99

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Unless he goes full Canz, not much to worry about year one. Won't be worse that last year.
 

TrueMaroonGrind

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Average to poor performance on offense would terrify me. We should be above average by mid season and if we aren’t we are in trouble.
 

MSUDC11-2.0

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If the offense stinks I’ll be concerned. We brought in solid portal pieces on that side of the ball. And he’s never had a bad offense before. I have no expectations for our defense and think we will give up a lot of yards and points some days.

I am anticipating some 48-28 type losses. What I don’t want to see is 48-7
 

horshack.sixpack

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Oct 30, 2012
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Discuss.

Damn it's going to be a long summer.
If we look incompetent on the field a la Croom. I still hold the Croom -> Mullen coaching change, year 1, as one of the best examples of what coaching can do. Last year of Croom, it looked like nobody on our team had ever played football, first year of Mullen we had some issues but it was clear that we had a lot more talent than Crooms issues would indicate.
 

Ranchdawg

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If we average 37 points a game but give up 45 to our opponents. I am really concerned with the defense. Lebby is an offensive minded coach and I have concerns with his choice for DC.
 

TrueMaroonGrind

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If we average 37 points a game but give up 45 to our opponents. I am really concerned with the defense. Lebby is an offensive minded coach and I have concerns with his choice for DC.
Prepare to be concerned then. We are most certainly going to be poor on defense. 45 a game average would be extra bad
 
Apr 6, 2024
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We have to beat Az St, Floriduh and Arky just to get to 6. But 5 is the floor this year. To get to 4 we'd have to lose one to EKU, Toledo or UMess; THAT would officially have me concerned.
 

greenbean.sixpack

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The bar is so low and we're down so far on talent, I'm not going to worry too much about the 2024 season, as long as there is improvement. I'm holding out for 6-6, but realize Levee would have to be coach of the year for that.
 

Seinfeld

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Nov 30, 2006
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Call me a pessimist, but it's been an uphill battle for State to compete for championships or even division titles my entire life, and that situation didn't get better with NIL. It got infinitely worse

So the first thing we've gotta do is recognize that aside from a once in a blue moon, lightning in a bottle type year, 7-5 and 8-4 are dang good years for us. On the flip side, by nature of being a part of the SEC, I'll still say that 6-6 should be the usual floor, even in today's world. We may not be able to compete with the UGAs, Bamas, and Longhorns year in and year out, but we should be in the mix with schools like Kentucky, Missouri, Ark, and OM.

For Lebby's first year, I'd like to see 6-6 at a minimum, but really the only way I'm going to be severely disappointed is if the offense is a mess. We brought him in to fix that, and we simply have to better offensively. In terms of wins and losses, I won't be too worried about things til his second season
 

Called3rdstrikedawg

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Call me a pessimist, but it's been an uphill battle for State to compete for championships or even division titles my entire life, and that situation didn't get better with NIL. It got infinitely worse

So the first thing we've gotta do is recognize that aside from a once in a blue moon, lightning in a bottle type year, 7-5 and 8-4 are dang good years for us. On the flip side, by nature of being a part of the SEC, I'll still say that 6-6 should be the usual floor, even in today's world. We may not be able to compete with the UGAs, Bamas, and Longhorns year in and year out, but we should be in the mix with schools like Kentucky, Missouri, Ark, and OM.

For Lebby's first year, I'd like to see 6-6 at a minimum, but really the only way I'm going to be severely disappointed is if the offense is a mess. We brought him in to fix that, and we simply have to better offensively. In terms of wins and losses, I won't be too worried about things til his second season
Here are the former Head Coaches that State has hired since 1973:
Bob Tyler was a High School Head Coach.
Emory Bellard -A&M
Jackie Sherrill- WSU, Pitt, A&M. Out of Football 2 years when Templeton hired him
Mike Leach- Tech, WSU

The rest have all been Assistants. 2 were RB coaches-Felker and Croom

The other 4 were coordinators - Mullen, Moorhead, Arnett, Lebby.

We are who they think we are!
A program with an overall losing record!

If you are a State fan because of Football, God love you! Otherwise, I suspect you are an alumnus.
 
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Big Dawg81

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If I can’t look at the product on the field and I can’t tell the difference between Lebby and Arnett. I’m confident that I will be able to tell pretty quickly that Lebby is night and day better than Arnett.
 
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MSUDC11-2.0

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If I can’t look at the product on the field and I can’t the difference between Lebby and Arnett. I’m confident that I will be able to tell pretty quickly that Lebby is night and day better than Arnett.
The first two games for Arnett last year were major warning signs, even in W’s. It was still a game against SE LA late in the 3rd. Lebby would be well served to hang 60-70 on Eastern Kentucky. Kinda like Mullen’s offense putting up 45 in his first game after we never scored 40 points a single time in the Croom years.
 

pseudonym

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Oct 6, 2022
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Arkansas is a 6-6 team based on who they have added on the roster and the coaching staff, they will be improved. not a great team but quite a bit better than last year. Enos was a disaster.

Florida is about tired of Billy and his schedule this year is brutal. They look like a 5-7/6-6 team. that however doesnt Change the fact Florida has a lot of talent, more than we do on both sides of the ball.

id favor arkansas and florida right now over this team Lebby is putting on the field. are those two games winnable ? Of course but both are less than 50% IMO.
6-6 SEC teams have a low winning percentage in road SEC games. We should expect to beat 6-6 SEC teams at home.
 

ckDOG

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If he doesn't act like an HC and upgrade positions and coaches that aren't performing. I feel pretty good about direction on offense at this far too early to tell point. Defense has me wary.

I get it. He's an unproven coach with little industry connections to defensive coaches so he did what he could do. There aren't a lot of proven guys that are going to hitch up to his wagon in year 1. If he proves he can coach a little on offense quickly and doesn't quickly upgrade coaches on the other side (assuming the gamble on whoever our DC is now doesn't pan out), he's not going to have a long HC career.
 

ronpolk

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It would be hard to have less expectations than I do, in terms of wins/losses.

Like others have said, I just want to watch the team and see that they are being coached well. It was so obvious they were not being coached well last year. Mullen and leach both didn’t do much record wise their first year but it was clear the team was coached well and both Mullen and leach got about as much as they could have gotten out of their 1st teams, based on talent and experience of the talent we did have. That’s really all I want to see out of Lebby this year.

I am not a huge fan of the hire and I really don’t have a reason why. I think it’s probably because state has typically been a good defensive team during our good years and I don’t think lebby is going to care too much about defense. But on the other hand, the game is an offensive game now, even the NFL is scoring more points at a quicker pace. This change may be what state needs.
 

leeinator

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Here are the former Head Coaches that State has hired since 1973:
Bob Tyler was a High School Head Coach.
Emory Bellard -A&M
Jackie Sherrill- WSU, Pitt, A&M. Out of Football 2 years when Templeton hired him
Mike Leach- Tech, WSU

The rest have all been Assistants. 2 were RB coaches-Felker and Croom

The other 4 were coordinators - Mullen, Moorhead, Arnett, Lebby.

We are who they think we are!
A program with an overall losing record!

If you are a State fan because of Football, God love you! Otherwise, I suspect you are an alumnus.
I consider Tyler a D1 assistant from Ole Miss. Whether he spent a year at a high school is irrelevant. Everybody knew he was an up and coming big time coach....except the Ole Miss Brass.
 

RopeDawg

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If we win our OOC games I will be happy. A lot of posters don’t seem to realize the talent disadvantage we are at with this team, it’s really bad.

This a complete and total rebuild. One we haven’t seen in a while.
 
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Mr. Cook

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You're not asking the right question.

Personally, I'll be worried when I start becoming emotionally invested in the program, which means it'll have to start winning consistently.

I don't see that happening in the decades to come.

winter is coming white walkers GIF
 

Maroon Eagle

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Personally, I'll be worried when I start becoming emotionally invested in the program, which means it'll have to start winning consistently.
I think the last time I was emotionally invested in the program was 1984.

Ever since then, anytime something good happens, I just wait for the other shoe to drop.

And it always does.

It’s like Gravity is a Law….
 

ETK99

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We can win 6. Doesn't mean we will, but we can.
I'd say 5 is most likely.
EKy, ASU, Toledo, FL, AR, Umass are all opportunities at a win.
 

was21

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I consider Tyler a D1 assistant from Ole Miss. Whether he spent a year at a high school is irrelevant. Everybody knew he was an up and coming big time coach....except the Ole Miss Brass.
Not to be picky but Tyler was OC at State before HC
 
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Bulldawg77

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If we win our OOC games I will be happy. A lot of posters don’t seem to realize the talent disadvantage we are at with this team, it’s really bad.

This a complete and total rebuild. One we haven’t seen in a while.
You really don’t have a clue about our roster. We did really well on the offensive side of the ball through the portal. Solidified our OL first by adding the best returning center in college football according to PFF, added a potential NFL LT, added a potential NFL guard. We added not one not 2 but three dynamic WRs. Added a P6 starting QB who’s thrown for over 5,000yds 36/13 TD/ints. Added Booth at RB from Utah state who has over 900yds rushing.
The defense will be better than most on here want to believe. We do have some young talent and added Blanton to the roster at LB, added Jones from UNC into a young but talented DL room. We filled some holes with some G5/P6 kick backs from JUCO at LB and safety. The corner room got better with the addition of Miller from WVU, who in the 23 portal season was a top rated corner from Kent state. People forget that Pollock was a freshman last year and more than held his own at corner . But if you had done any research whatsoever you would have known these things. To many people on here who just didn’t support the Lebby hire for some reason. Probably just a bunch of poor ol state saying we can’t win we cant compete .
 

Mr. Cook

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I think the last time I was emotionally invested in the program was 1984.

Ever since then, anytime something good happens, I just wait for the other shoe to drop.

And it always does.

It’s like Gravity is a Law….
“We can’t have nice things”*********
 
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Maroon Eagle

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Was that the year Ballard said at SEC media days, "we gonna win the sec." Because that fired me up..... at 11 years old.

end of 2014, killed a part of me.
That was 1985.

My freshman year at State and Bellard’s last year as head coach.

I went to the games but didn’t care too much because I think most people knew what was coming (5-6, 0-6)