REACTION: Mississippi State 56, Eastern Kentucky 7

hey folks Robbie Faulk here from Davis Wade Stadium Mississippi States uh first game of the Jeff lebby era is complete Showtime football is here this offense looked a whole lot different than what we saw uh last year with Mississippi State Kevin barbet and Zack Arnett this looked like an offense and um I said it in the middle of the ball game I'm going to say it on thunder and lightning whenever we have uh telum faul coming up here in a few minutes whenever I go see uh Brian but I don't care who they're playing in this ball game I wanted to see coming in this ball game I wanted to see an offense that was super exciting an offense that was able to get up and down the field uh quickly run with Tempo an offense that was having explosive plays pretty regularly and one that scored a lot of points and I think we saw that um I thought that in the middle of the first half when it started raining that really disrupted what Mississippi State wanted to do I'd like to see what this offense looked like in this ball game on a completely dry um field when it's not pouring down rain because I feel like this would have looked a lot different and Jeff leby wasn't truly pleased with what he saw offensively which I think is a if you're Mississippi State fan that should excite you that Jeff leby was kind of perturbed a little bit on Mississippi State not playing so clean and these are the games where you kind of work those Kinks out and for Mississippi State you have a uh three or four game stretch here of winnable ball games but games that could trip you up you need need to win these games these first four it'd be great to start this season 4 and0 what you got come down the stretch this is the time frame where Mississippi State really needs to clean all that up you can't be going into uh Georgia and Texas and Tennessee and playing sloppy football and that's what we saw they they turned they could have turned the ball over three times they had fumbles uh three times in the ball game they recovered and um you know at end of the day all that matters is whether or not they turned it over they didn't but they they were a little sloppy with the ball at times especially running it uh but they didn't lose any any turnovers they had some penalties that were um you know kind of silly pre- snap stuff four penalties for 15 yards so didn't really hurt them too bad so some things there maybe some things with the with the tempo they would like to to pick things up but for the most part I think you look at the ball game for what it is it's the first game of Jeff Le's uh career as a head coach it's the first game with basically an entire new offensive Personnel uh there there's a couple of pieces there Keon Lee played last year Albert Reese played last year but for the most part this is a brand new offense and it's it's kind of amazing that Mississippi state had that kind of turnover but they're going to be a significantly better offense this year by default that offense was so bad with Kevin Barb and we're seeing just how bad an offensive coordinator that he is when you look at what uh Houston did tonight against UNLV or I guess what they didn't do but I thought what I what I kind of took away from this game is a um a tremendous amount of control for Blake shaping in this offense there might have been one or two plays where I said that wasn't a good decision I thought and one the worst decision he said he made tonight was the touchdown run he had he uh said he missed a read especially just hand the ball off he ended up scrambling for the touchdown but you know the only thing that I would say about Blake shapen is maybe be a little more aware um of the hits that he's taken CU he took some some tough hits in this ball game you got to stay healthy he's got to be a guy that's healthy throughout the season so they need him to uh be a little more um tentative out there I I guess as far as taking those hits you like the aggression that he showed seven carries for 44 yards you led the team in rushing yards had a touchdown and most of that was kind of scrambling and I thought he did a really good job just simply having a guy that can move around in the pocket like that and that's something that we talked about when he wor sign with Mississippi state is you have a guy that has the ability to scramble and that's kind of what made Jeff leevy's offense so successful is there's a guy that can move the pocket a little bit if there's grass there for him to run take off and run and that's what we saw with with shapen 15 of 20 passing very good 75% that was kind of my Benchmark 70 75% wanted to see that complete your percentage 247 yards three touchdowns no interceptions and the receivers were just outstanding in this game we saw Jo Jordan Mosley that's my breakout candidate for two years and I'm glad this could be the year where he finally breaks out last year I thought would be a breakout season for him and the offense was just so bad I think that had a lot to do with it he essentially has more yards and um you know as many catches and touchdowns as he did his first two years on campus five catches 104 yards he had 88 yards on five catches his first two years and he had one touchdown so this game alone was better than anything that he did the first two years combined and I think that is a a sign of things to come no Kelly aari in this game he kind of took the role of Kelly Cory and had a big ball game Kevin Coleman looks a part of a tremendous playmaker for Mississippi State five catches 88 yards and a touchdown five uh Returns on punt return 117 yards he will break a touchdown this year I think before it's all said and done um he was outstanding it got started very early with these big plays and that's what I wanted to see I wanted first possession want to Mississippi State to hit a big play for a touchdown and really start this thing off right we saw Dan Mullen in 2009 he goes with the wide receiver pass with Chad Bumpus it was an incomplete pass but everybody in the stadium cheered after that play I remember it vividly Mississippi state had not shown that kind of ability and then they go out and they scored 40 something points against Jackson State which at the time that was more points than Mississippi state had scored you know in a in a game for several years so this is kind of I I hope validating my point earlier on and when Jeff leby took this job that you want this season to be Dam mull in 2009 there might be some lumps and there will be some lumps this year with the schedule they got coming up Georgia Texas Tennessee Old Miss on the road all those games on the road Missouri at home is going to be really difficult Texas A&M at home this is going to be one of the toughest schedules in the country country so to expect this team to win eight n games is just not realistic but you have an exciting product here with Jeff Le's offense you have a a young energetic coach that um I think is going to work this offense around his personnel and they're going to to uh be successful uh most ball games with this offense I think um the way that they run it what he's done in the past it the the track record speaks for itself so I hope what we've seen is the beginning of another potential you know D Mullen like run here for Jeff leby where he has a ton of success he's really competitive and hopefully even better than what Dan Mullen did at Mississippi State uh for the most part so I think we saw a lot of really good things uh touching on the defense a little bit I think it it kind of showed us what a lot of us have expected of this defense they were not super impressed against an FCS opponent um you they weren't just overpowering they gave up 294 295 yards it's a lot of yards of offense against an FCS opponent and U 169 through the air from Matt Mory but he threw it 38 times I thought pass defense wasn't bad you know you give up 70 plus yards rushing the two running backs I think defending the run is going to be an issue for this team um and I think this defense is really going to struggle this year I really do I don't mean to be negative on that I just think that it is what it is right now with this defense they don't have the the Personnel um and we'll see you know how good of a coach Coleman hutler and that defensive staff is this year what they can get out of this defense but what I will say about that group is that they did what I have been saying they need to do they need to bend but don't break Force turnovers they got a turnover in this one they got uh they got off the field on fourth down forced a lot of punts um only gave up one touchdown and that was a drive that they would like to have back right before the half but you didn't get him in the end zone or allow him to kick a field goal the rest of the the ball game so um I I thought that the defense that's what the defense needs to do in regular games is just limit teams the best they possibly can and allow this offense to score a lot of points I think that if you're Mississippi State fan I saw a lot of them during the game that were complaining about the defense you've just got to understand this is going to be a struggle for this team this year defensively you got to take your mind off of that you want this team to score a lot of points being exciting offense nobody cares anymore um nationally about defense really it's just it's taking a back seat at this point everybody wants to score points everybody wants to be exciting you're trying to sell a product here and for Mississippi State the bottom line is winning ball games being in ball games the only way to do that for them is scoring a lot of points and the defense is going to have its struggles get off the field when you can force field goals when you can get turnovers and let the offense work and if this offense is scoring you know 32 to 35 points a game Mississippi state's going to have a chance to go to a bowl and the night they got 56 but you know a lot of that they scored a special teams touchdown they had a pick six from a true freshman there's a lot of good that happened in this ball game even if the defense didn't look you know 100% uh what you wanted it to look like so I I think there's some nothing but good takeaways for me in this game I even with the defensive defense struggling at times um I I thought it was still a game that you can you can leave it and say that was a positive ball game for us so one and0 on the season um I like Jeff leby a lot I think he is going to be successful at Mississippi State love this offense one of my favorite offenses in the entire country and I I told Brian that after uh the first couple of possessions I love what they do I think Mississippi state is just getting started with this and when they get their personnel in here I think that a lot of special things can happen for Jeff leby so uh just a start of what could be a very fun run here there's there and there's going to be some times this year where there's going to be some fans that say I don't know if Jeff leby is the guy and and stuff like that be patient you really got to be patient here Jeff leby has a plan he has an exciting offense let's see what he can do I think that this team is capable of going to a bowl game this year and that would be a tremendous start I think that this team is um you know going to be really exciting offensively I think Blake shapen has a tremendous uh future in front of him in this offense and it's going to bring out the best of him a lot of people are going to be talking about Blake shapen middle of the season and there's going to be a lot of people I think talking about Mississippi State if it continues on this trend of being a dangerous team even though this might not be the year for them this could be a team that rattles some cages so let's hope that's the case let's hope that uh this I'll tell you this this felt a lot different than Mississippi State Southeastern Louisiana game last year I'm leaving this game think feeling a lot more optimistic about Mississippi State than I did last year uh during that game and i' I'd like to go back and watch that that video to see what my thoughts were but um all in all a really good ball game by Mississippi State in most phases and now you got to go to Arizona State you really got to get that game if you want to go to a bowl game you have got to win next week 9:30 Central and ESPN Mississippi State in the desert against Arizona State I'm interested to see how they respond to what they did this week going on the road across the country in the desert a late night ball game for them you know their bodies is you're going to be U 9:30 p.m. at night um and it's going to be 7:30 there but it's going to be a little later you're going to be getting in on uh Sunday you know sometime around lunch it it's going to be tough on their bodies so this little stretch here these first three games going to be really challenging for Miss state it might not feel that way from opponent standpoint you know Arizona State really struggled last year we got a lot of change over this year um you know Toledo coming up I know they they're usually a pesky team they have a really good offense but this this is going to be a challenging first three games if Mississippi State can get through these first three games with wins and get into that Florida game I think this place is going to be rocking I think everybody's going to be excited and then you start to to try to navigate how are they going to get to to a bowl um and you're looking for you know if you somehow start 4 and0 two more wins um and there are some winnable games as tough as that schedule is if you're 4-0 there are some winnable games in that schedule to get you there so this is um this is going to be interesting Journey this season is going to be a lot of ups and downs for Mississippi State fans it's not going to be fun at sometimes cuz you're going to have have Old Miss who's going to be doing good things this year but it it's one of those things where you got to stay along for the ride you got to be patient this year I think that there's I really like Jeff leby a lot I think there's a big future ahead here so uh we'll see what happens we'll be along for the ride I won't be in Arizona next week but we'll be following and uh I'm looking forward to to seeing where that takes us all right guys appreciate y'all don't forget to subscribe to this channel we will have a talking dogs live on Monday night to kind of get your thoughts on it I'll talk to you guys as we always do and get your questions comments things of that nature we'll do that probably around 6 I'll let you guys know on Twitter but subscribe to this channel if you don't already we've had a really good uh turnout of you guys over the last few months since we started this Channel and I appreciate your support uh a great week for us at Maro and white daily we were one of the 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