Gameday

It's finally here. We've got tents in The Junction folks. Check it out: I'm sure there's some grillin', drinkin', smack talkin', sunshinin', and BSin' goin on right now. Ah yes, college football is once again upon us. Good stuff.

I'm set to leave in just a few minutes. I'm anxious to see everything - the gutted-out Union, the Cullis Wade Depot, the various construction, but most of all The Junction itself. Finally, after years of randomly spread out tailgating we have a central tailgating spot, and what better place than the South side of the stadium. I'm stoked to see it.

About the game itself, I'm the same. Apparently South Carolina lost one of their starting tackles and they are replacing him with a freshman. Now, while that has the sheep collectively drooling, I'm not getting ahead of myself here. Why? This fact remains - SC's offense will score 20 points. How do I know this? 3 things - Sidney Rice, Steve Spurrier, and the lack of depth of our defense exposed by our offense not giving them a breather. We must score over 20 to beat SC. No matter what happens to SC's offense, barring Sidney Rice coming down with the flu or something, they will break 20. This game is in the hands of our offense. They have to perform for us to have a chance. Until I see something to make me believe in them I cannot put any faith in them. I'm still saying 24-10.

1 Day

We're down to the final day before kickoff. In 24 hours I'll be on Highway 25 heading to Starkvegas. It'll be cool to be back in Vegas again. I am anxious to see this Junction I keep hearing about and seeing pictures on The Blitz. I want to see all this construction on campus. Basically, I want to see all those things I've missed since my last trip to Oktibbeha County. It's been a while since I was last there, Super Bulldog Weekend. I remember leaving the baseball game that Sunday feeling down, depressed, and angry all at the same time. What I thought was a top 5 baseball team was exposed to me in person to be nothing more than the team I saw a year before. In fact we were worse. I vowed not to return to another baseball game, and therefore have had no reason to grace campus again, until now.

I'm still not feeling optimistic about our chances tomorrow night. I just found out we are wearing maroon pants. I could really care less what we look like out there fashion-wise, but what sense does wearing white jerseys at home make if we wear maroon pants? A "white-out" I can understand, the team wearing all white and all that. But, we are essentially wearing the same amount of maroon colored clothing as before, only now as pants rather than a jersey. In the end, we can wear pink and orange as long as we find a way to win, which is why I'm able to complain about the wardrobe.

I'm sticking with my 24-10 prediction. I'm actually proud of myself in a way. Every year I allow myself to get swept up into the optimistic BS, but not this year. I've had enough and will remain skeptical until something jars me from this stance.

One more note, apparently Jackie made the sheep angry by picking Spurrier to beat us. Come on guys, Jackie is no longer affiliated with MState, the guy is now essentially an media "expert". He was asked his opinion and ,unlike Lou Holtz, gave a non-homerific pick. Hats off to Captain Mumbles for giving a straight answer for the first time I can remember.

2 Days Left

That is all folks. 2 days until we see the 2006 MState football team take the field against Steve Spurrier's South Carolina team. I'm excited about football finally getting here, but unlike years past, I am not optimistic about the season at all. As I have written before, this team looks frighteningly similar to last year's team.

I'll go ahead and give my prediction for the game itself. I say South Carolina wins 24-10. There is a lot of hype around our defense, but some facts remain. Our defense is good and much improved over a few years ago, but they are not dominant. The 1999 defense was deep and extremely talented. They needed no help from the offense to hold opponents to low scores. This defense, however, lacks depth and if left out on the field all game will eventually wear down, much like last year. Our offense looks to be no better than last year. Sure, we added some receivers, including having Omarr Conner fulltime at the position. But, the offensive line is still experiencing instability and the young players Croom has recruited are not stepping up to replace the crappy veterans. Our QB, Mike Henig, has a strong arm but is just so small it scares me. I don't see how he will make it through the year in one piece with our offensive line. Then we must consider the departure of Jerious Norwood. Every highlight I see of that young man in the NFL this preseason puts a smile on my face while, at the same time convincing me further that we will be bad offensively this year. We were bad, I mean really bad last year on offense with Mr. Norwood - I cannot see improvement without his skills at our disposal. I don't see this offense capable of outscoring Spurrier's South Carolina offense or even keeping our defense off the field long enough to not wear them out.

There has been a lot of talk about the amount of starters South Carolina lost after last year. Here are the only things I need to know: wide receiver Sidney Rice returns and he is awesome, their quarterback Mitchell returns and he is decent, and Steve Spurrier is their coach. I would not be concerned about this game if I were a South Carolina fan. Spurrier will have this team "coached up" and ready to go. All of their losses put together will not equal the loss of Norwood for State. South Carolina will score 20 points - I have no doubt about that. It follows then that State must match that output. The only SEC game last year we broke 20 points in was the Egg Bowl, and let's face it, Ole Miss was bad and their defense gave up. That game was an anomaly to the regular suckage that is the Croom Coast Offense.

I hope I'm wrong about all this. I hope we kick the living crap out of South Carolina. I hope our offense scores 38 points and makes me look stupid with all this pessimism. But I just don't see it happening. Here's to being wrong.

2nd Scrimmage

Apparently MState's offense was better in the second scrimmage held this past Saturday, not that it's saying a whole lot. Still, one shouldn't argue over any improvement at this point no matter how minute. Henig was 12-20 for 168 yards and 2 TDs, much better than his first scrimmage performance. Dixon ran 31 times for 145 yards. Now I don't know what OL he was running behind and what defense that came against, but that is a world better than the first scrimmage. I like the fact that Dixon can handle 30 carries.

Perhaps this team is getting a little better on offense. Could we be improving from horrible to just plain bad? It's possible. They better be improving because last year they sucked and sucked bad. When your running back goes for 257 yards against Houston and you score just one TD, a long run by said running back, it pretty much sums up your offensive ineptness. This offense has to move the ball and allow the defense to rest. Last year the D was hung out to dry again and again throughout the season. Despite this, the defense played hard most of the time and held their own. They cannot do it alone, they need help. They need rest. They need field position. They need the offense to score. They don't need 3 and outs or turnovers. I am, however, sticking with my prediction of 4 wins. I refuse to truly buy into any more pre-season optimism after the last 5 years. I'll believe it when I see it.

In other news, I beat Mario 3 over the weekend. I forgot just how fun that game was.

A little hoops update

We've got a little bball news today and it fits right in with the recent football news. Travis Gabbidon, a 6'-7" power forward, didn't enroll today. All I can say is it figures. Apparently this is the year of not getting recruits in school. It began with Archie Sims and Anthony Johnson last year. It continued with Courtney Jones, Alex Dekle, etc this year. Now it has spread to basketball. Stans hasn't commented and the CL has no idea why he hasn't enrolled yet. He apparently has until August 23 to do so. I can tell you this right now: we need depth in the post. Rhodes cannot play all 40 minutes or two positions simultaneously. He needs help. He needs sophomores Vernon Goodridge and Bernard Rimmer to step up, and he needs Gabbidon on campus to either provide depth or snatch a starting spot alongside him. We cannot compete without better play from the post players not named Rhodes.

Now back to football where things continue to be quiet. Supposedly the team is practicing better. I'll just say I hope so. Word is the wide receivers are catching better and the line is blocking better. I'll reserve judgement until I see them in person on the 31st. Let's just say after 4 years of "rebuilding" and sunshine being pumped down my throat I'm a little weary. I'll believe MState's offense is better when I see it actually gain first downs and score points.

Watched Fox Sports South's preview tonight. What a bunch of sunshine pumping. First they spend a bunch of time showing Norwood, and rightfully so, but then they go into telling us how the other positions are going to carry the slack with him gone. Come on guys, do you really believe that? The best part of all was the roundtable of "experts" telling us we should be satisfied with Croom and give him "all the time he needs". They say things like "he will continue to recruit down there". Do they know anything about our recruiting lately because we aren't exactly setting the world on fire. You can talk till you are blue in the face about giving time to rebuild a program, but the simple fact is the fans need two things: wins to show improvement, heading in the right direction, etc and good recruiting that will add the players necessary to turn the corner. Right now State has neither. Don't proceed to tell us how we should feel about our program, "experts". You don't follow this, you don't drive to Starkville and sit in that stadium to watch this team, and you certainly don't have a dog in the fight. Why do these personalities think they have the authority to tell fans of a team to back off a coach?

No news is good news

As far as good ole MState is concerned, that statement is true. With depressing things like the results of the first fall football scrimmage and Courtney Jones failing his high school exit exam, things were getting downright suicidal. All right, not quite but you get the picture. Well, things have been quiet. The team has been practicing, everybody that will play is on the field working out. No arrests, no major injuries, no suspensions, no players kicked off, no more players ruled ineligable, etc. Now, knock on wood this continues. Heck, let's all pray it continues, and while we are at it pray that the offensive line gels and plays well.

Seriously though, there is really nothing to report - that is other than the fact that I'm about to beat Super Mario Bros 3. I got it for my Nintendo DS (it's actually a Gameboy Advance game but those play on the DS as well). I haven't played this game in years. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent playing this game when it came out for the NES - still the greatest gaming console ever created - but it had to be a ton. I played it and played it and played it. Up until that point it was the coolest thing ever. Well now I've rediscovered it on the DS and it is better than ever. The cool power ups, the bonuses, the many worlds and levels - and now with better graphics and sound. The ability to save makes it much easier and less frustrating than before. I'm on World 8 with 30 something lives - in other words, Bowser is toast. It's just a matter of me rediscovering how to manuever through this level and then I shall kick his butt.

About the DS, if you get a chance check it out. It has two screens, one of which is a touch screen that is used by certain games. The graphics are pretty good, not PSP good but then again the system doesn't cost an arm and a leg. As I wrote above, it plays GBA games, which is a great plus. Also, the games are these small cartridges that you can save your progress on, so you don't need a memory card or stick. It's worth checking out as there are several old-school games out on GBA and DS, as well as creative new games.

Keeping up with Jones

Signee Courtney Jones, a running back from Pensacola, Florda, isn't going to be playing at State this fall. Why? Well he failed his exit exam.

This is a big blow to State. Croom didn't sign a running back in 2005 because he thought the next year would prove better. Well, he got committments from Jones and Kenny Ashley from California in late spring and it was looking like he was correct. He then reeled in Anthony Dixon, a pretty highly recruited prospect from Terry, MS. But then the week of signing day arrived and on Monday, two days before signing day, Pete Carroll offered Ashley a scholarship. Ashley signed with USC, which anyone with any sense would have done. I don't really blame Croom for losing him, but it turns out he wouldn't have qualified regardless. Now Jones has failed to qualify. That makes two players we left the state to recruit that didn't qualify. We scrambled and signed a recruit named Arnil Stallworth from Alabama, who was completely ignored until we signed him. We also have landed a running back from Tulane, Christian Ducre.

Problem with all this is we lost the leading rusher in school history, and our entire offense last year, Jerious Norwood. We have to replace him with a bunch of players and hope that somehow they can be productive. So we have Brandon Thornton, a player who was quiet until the Egg Bowl where he gained 80 yards on a bad Ole Miss defense. Not sold on him. Then we have Dixon who is apparently second string right now. He has talent and I like his progress so far, but he is a true freshmen. Can he carry the load? I'm not sold on that. Next we have Ducre, who has yet to have been cleared to play this year. I haven't seen him play, but he was on Tulane's team. That doesn't give me massive hope. Derek Ambrose is a former walk-on who looked good before getting injured last year, but is now coming off of knee surgery. Not sold on him. Brandon Hart should be a fullback.

This is the complete running back situation at MState. Pretty scary ain't it. Combine this with a few facts: the OL isn't looking good with Calvin Wilson being injured again and other recent recuits not stepping up, the Receivers aren't doing great with injury problems and failing to catch the football, and the Quarterback play has been less than stellar. The offense isn't looking too hot. I said something to the effect of "it can't get much worse than last year". I may end up being wrong about that. I certainly hope so.

More of the Same

Well, State had their first football scrimmage of the fall yesterday. The results? Surprise, surprise, the defense dominates. Hmmm, I seem to remember the same thing last year and the year before. This year appears to be more of the same, and it is damn depressing.

Last year our defense was dominant. That was the party line used when our offense sucked their way through every scrimmage. Our defense was going to dominate. And then I watched Ken Topps run all over us in the first half of the opening game last year and that thought went out the window. So what did that mean? Well, it meant our offense sucked. They failed to move the ball on a defense that played hard and didn't quit, but let's face it weren't dominant. Our defense last year played well and kept us in some games longer than we should have been in them. But they were not the '99 defense that was capable of winning games by themselves.

Now comes this year. We have a different QB, new JUCO WRs, a deep collection of RBs, and what is supposed to be a rebuilt OL. Well guess what, they got dominated again. They failed to throw it to those fancy new WRs, couldn't run it with those RBs, and the QB was something like 9 for 23 with 2 interceptions. Why? I've got an explanation - our offensive line sucks. The same crap happened last year, and the year before. The only good OL we have had in the last 3 years was David Stewart, who allowed Norwood to run off tackle in '04. Last year they sucked. This year appears to be, once again, more of the same.

This is exactly the reason to not be optimistic about this season. This team isn't any better than last year. In fact, we may be worse. We lost the guy who produced the vast majority of our offense: Jerious Norwood. He is suiting up for the Atlanta Falcons. So now we are left with a QB that looks like a little kid out there, a group of RBs that must work together to be productive, a group of either unproven or untalented WRs, and an offensive line that will make everything else null and void with their play. If we do not discover the ability to run and pass block, not only will our offense suck, but we will be looking at redshirt freshman Tray Rutland by midseason as Henig will be broken in half.

Yet there is Sly Croom saying he isn't worried about the offense. Again, that is more of the same. I remember these comments before. Wake up Croom, your offense sucks. Either you or McCorvey or both cannot teach it to these players. Perhaps you should take a hard look at Woody and while you're at it take a closer look at Mr. JB Grimes, the OL coach. The defensive staff is doing their jobs, but something tells me our offensive staff isn't getting the job done. Something tells me we need to clean house on that side if our offense doesn't improve dramatically. Something also tells me my predicition of 4 wins will not come to fruition unless we improve drastically in a quick manner. 3 wins = more of the same.

Inaugural Post

Well, I started a blog. I guess I have a lot to say. There's a lot going on. The main thing up is the impending doom that is football season at Mississippi State. I started as a student at MSU the year it all came crashing down, 2001. I went to nearly every home game and a few away games in the following years. I watched some terrible football. I was there to see us lose to Maine, win our only two games of 2003, watch Odell Bradley become the human revolving door at corner back, watch Avery House take up his torch but at offensive tackle, see Norwood make that incredible game winning run against Florida, see Norwood break the alltime school rushing record, and watch Jackie go out in shame in a miserably wet 31-0 blowout. Through all of that I stayed. Why? Well the answer is easy. Being a State fan is akin to having a virus with no cure. You can't help it, no matter how many times they make you mad, break your heart, embarass you, build up your hopes only to dash them on the rocks, or snatch defeat from the jaws of victory you come back. It gets in your blood and you cannot help it. So here I am back with tickets sitting in my closet waiting to be used to watch what will likely be more of the same. What can I say, I bleed maroon and white. And when I say bleed, I mean I really do bleed.

P.S.: Props to Jerious Norwood for ripping it up on CBS last night. In his first ever NFL preseason game he had 71 yards receiving and 1 touchdown. He made New England look foolish and showed why he was a steal in the 3rd round of the draft. Thanks for all the memories J-Rock, and looking forward to you tearing it up over in Atlanta.