Meridian High Represented for Bulldogs

 

Tyler Russell and Chris Smith on Signing Day

With Senior Chris Spencer as a back up Offensive Lineman, Tyler Russell as a freshman Quarterback, and Chris Smith as a freshman Wide Receiver, it is possible all 3 could get playing time Saturday against Jack St. and throughout MSU’s season. Who could play? 

What’s funny is that it looks like at the moment Chris Smith is the most likely to play and might even be a part of the main rotation of Wide Receivers. Honestly, Chris didn’t make as many big plays in high school as I would’ve liked. But, he was the one receiver you could just throw the ball up to and he would go get it. He’s not that fast, but is very big and strong for his age. When it’s 3rd and 6 and you need a sure reception on an out route or slant, Chris is the one who will make the play.  It looks like Tyler will get to play possibly as well. And if he’s not going to be redshirted, he needs to get some snaps this Saturday. Chris Spencer could be one of the first Offensive Linemen to come in as a back up. We potentially could see all three contributing by the end of the season.

Chris Spencer Bio 

Tyler Russell Bio

Chris Smith Bio

“We Want to Win Football Games”

 

MSU Doll Fanatic

“We want to win football games,” Tyson Lee said to reporters yesterday. “So outside of who’s starting, who’s second string, we want to win football games. That’s our No. 1 goal.”

It’s obvious none of us know who’s gonna start at almost any position on offense for our Dawgs. But one thing’s for sure, our boys seem to have a winning team attitude that I’ve not seen or even heard about before. None of them are afraid to say they want to win and expect to win every game. I like it. You may call it fantasy. But if that were true, there would be no reason to play the games. I know that it’s not realistic to think that we can win every game. But, I do believe we can. It’s important not only for our coaches and team to believe they can win. It’s maybe even more important for MSU fans to believe WE CAN DO IT!!! Mississippi State and Mississippi in general has always been passive and afraid to take pride in who we are. It’s time for us to step up. No matter what we face, we have to be optimistic. Come on, FEEL THE PEP!!!

John Hevesy: Offensive Line/Running Game Coordinator

 

Coach John Hevesy

The biggest question for the MSU offense may well be: Can the offensive line give our QBs, RBs, and WRs a chance to make plays? So far I’ve been very impressed with Coach John Hevesy. Hevesy is the one guy Mullen was able to bring along with him to MSU from Florida. Mullen and Hevesy are 2 of 3 guys that stayed with Urban Meyer from Bowling Green to Utah to Florida. Here’s an article from Hevesy’s days at Florida. From watching Hevesy coach, he pays a lot of attention to detail and the specifics of what each blocker is supposed to do. It’s not as much about overpowering your opponent as it is outsmarting your opponent.  

Without doubt, the offensive line was the most embarrassing part of last year’s team. Of course, it’s hard to block anyone when they know what play you’re about run. I can’t see our OL ever being any worse. I do think Hevesy brings a much better attitude and intellect to our OL. If this group finds some chemistry, I think we’ll upset some teams.

Connor (my son) and 4 other 7 year olds moving the blocking sled across the MSU practice field during Little Dawgs Football Camp w/ Coach Hevesy standing on the sled.

Will our OL be better? How many sacks will we give up? How many yards per carry will we average against Jack St.? Will we see a game as horrible as the Egg Bowl last year from our OL?

Labels

I dislike labels (or profiling) more than most people. I know labels are sometimes necessary. I’m sick of labels. It’s just when we use them to slander another that bothers me (seems that’s how labels are used 90% of the time). In my opinion, labels have become one of the greatest schemes of Satan to divide families, communities, churches, and our society. Someone asked me recently what I was and I replied, “I’m a male Christian Southern Baptist and depending on who you ask, I am a conservative, moderate, fundamentalist, or liberal, without enough points to be a Calvinist but not pointless. I’m a democratic Republican with independent thoughts, white, middle-class, suburban American, tax-paying, flag-waving, God-loving, Gen-Xer, fulltime husband, father, pastor.”

I wonder what God thinks of our categorizing people. Oh, here it is – “Do not speak evil of one another” (James 4:11). A disciple said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” (NLT) Jesus replied, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side” (Luke 9:50). Whose side are you on? Whose corner are you in? Which camp do you live in? What group do you hang with? I just want to be a pilgrim, on his way toward Christ-likeness.

Carl Torbush: Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers

 

Coach Carl Torbush (Bio)

Without doubt, Coach Torbush carries the most experience on his resume of all our coaches. He is the hard nosed down to business coach of the bunch. Not that the other coaches aren’t serious or disciplined. Torbush is the coach that rarely cracks a smile off the practice field and always has a dogmatic opinion about everything. These are all good qualities. He instantly gains respect (or fear) the moment you meet him. Here’s an article Brad Locke just did on Torbush. 

I know lot’s of people liked Ellis Johnson, but I still couldn’t stand the amount of 3rd and longs that were converted by our opponents when he coached our PREVENT defense. I won’t be surprised if we see a defense much improved over the 2007 team that won the Liberty Bowl. Expect more turnovers, sacks, short yardage stops, and gang tackling from our defense this year. Our defense may be good enough to get us to a bowl without a lot of offense. It did 2 years ago with what I thought wasn’t that good of a defense (definitely not a consistent defense). Last year our defense gave up less yardage and less points than the previous year when we had a winning season (3,930 yards, 296 points in 2008 and 4,313 yards, 301 points in 2007).

What do you think? Will our D be better than we’ve seen since the late 90’s? Does the D give up more or less than 20 points a game? Will we have more than 30 turnovers? 25 sacks or more?

Greg Knox: Running Backs

 

Coach Greg Knox (Bio)

With 14 years of SEC coaching experience, it’s good to see Greg Knox teaching our Running Backs how to run the football. I have no doubt that our RBs will produce more yards on the ground this year than last year. If our passing game comes together, we might even see more records than Anthony Dixon breaking an all time career rushing record. Even though Coach Knox coached Wide Receivers while at Auburn, he still got to see and work with the RBs…and we all know what kind of RBs Auburn has produced the past 10 years (Cadillac Williams, Rudy Johnson, etc.).

Coach Knox is a winner. He’s coached in 9 bowl games to prove it. Not only is he a good coach, but he was the Recruiting Coordinator at Auburn as well. I’m sure a lot of those Mississippi boys that went to Auburn made their decisions with Coach Knox’s help.

“I’m really excited about it,” Knox told the Clarion Ledger after being hired. “I always thought Mississippi State was a gold mine. Great place. Kids are going to want to come there.”

Will our Running Backs be extremely better, a little better, the same, or worse? And, how much of an influence do you think Greg Knox will have on the result?

“…Soon we’ll be making another Run!”

Here we go! Tomorrow, Jennifer and I make a run on a cruise from Mobile to Cozumel. We’re very excited. I have the best wife in the world. I’ll get back to MSU updates, USA goodies, and other stuff when we get back from the cruise. Have a great week!

Tony Hughes: Safeties/Recruiting Coordinator

Coach Tony Hughes

Coach Hughes Bio

Coach Tony Hughes is a great asset to have on our staff. He probably has more connections in Mississippi than any of our other coaches. That’s obviously the reason Coach Mullen has put him in charge of Recruiting. He’s only coached outside the State of Mississippi twice. He’s coached at Southern, Ole Miss, and knows how the Junior Colleges work.

There may not be a better role model for the players than Coach Hughes either. He definitely has some talented young men to work with at the safety position: Charles Mitchell, Cameron Lawrence, &  Zach Smith to name a few. Many think we’ve lost something at the safety position with Pegues gone. But, I’m optimistic that we’ll see even harder hits from our DBs this year and less big plays given up on 3rd and long.

What’s weird about this is, Hughes replaced Wilson who was originally taken from USM to be a recruiting specialist, then hauled tail to Tennessee less than a month later. I definitely like Hughes better than Wilson. It should pay off in our recruiting the State of Mississippi.

Mark Hudspeth: Wide Receivers/Passing Game Coordinator

 

Mark Hudspeth discusses catching a pass with women at the 2009 Ladies Football Clinic.

 

I’ll periodically be doing a post on each of the MSU Assistant Coaches in the next few weeks before the first game. I’ve chosen Mark Hudspeth first because he recently had a great interview on 94.5 FM the OD Birmingham radio show with Jay Barker. Make sure to listen to this: Hudspeth Interview. 

Hudspeth is a great asset to our coaching staff. He definitely knows football and is a Mississippi boy from Louisville. From being around him this summer, he’s a motivator and a great role model for the players…and for me. He made sure the Little Dawgs (my son Connor attended “Little Dawgs” football camp in June where I got to talk w/ all the coaches and about 20 players) acknowledged God above all things in life. He understands the right attitude to be a winner. It’s obvious…everywhere he’s coached he’s turned his team into winners.

Although we’ve never heard of a Passing Game Coordinator, in my opinion you couldn’t have come up with a better role for Coach Hudspeth. If we’re successful under Mullen and Mullen were to leave, I could see Coach Hudspeth ready to be a Head Coach at the SEC level. Do you have any thoughts on Hudspeth and the Passing Game Coordinator?

Coach Huspeth’s Bio