TheDob06

Looks like J.D. Rhym is in the portal...

Makes sense. We need to upgrade at guard and Aden was getting more time as the starter. I hate to see him go, but wish Tre well. Not sure I understand the sentiment that we should show Aden the door as some have suggested. Is he not allowed time to improve? He was a 4 (and maybe 5 in some rankings) recruit. When you land a guy like that and he doesn't dominate as a freshman, we must move on? Is that where we are? Seems crazy to me 🤷‍♂️

Agreed. We have to find or develop a guard that can hit big shots when open and when it counts. It's been a few years since we've had that. Need that Bryce Brown and/or Jared Harper type and we don't have it.

He got into a couple situations mid season and then started embracing the bad guy role too much. Hopefully, he is humbled now.

It's crazy. A ton of teams in the tourney seem to have them and we can't seem to get any.

Exactly. I don't see how you can have freedom of movement in the portal AND pay players. It's literally the same as if the NFL had no salary cap and every player is a free agent every year - doesn't work.

This kind of makes sense. In this new era of CFB, schools may be doing all they can to retain more of their money. If Auburn can do it and charge per stream, they could likely keep all that money.

Nice. Not sure if this guy is a day 1 starter or not, but the fact that he can play 3 years and redshirt if necessary is great. Almost like getting a HS kid, but with some JUCO experience. I'll take it.

Is it too early to mention Deion Sanders? 😅

Dan Lanning seems like the natural choice. Oregon seems like a better situation at the moment though.

Probably what you're feeling has to do with every "stud" QB from Arkansas we've had in recent memory has been a bust. You could even make the case that there have been other high profile QB busts from Arkansas on other teams as well. I'm hoping White is different, but I'm with you in not feeling great about it.

Absolutely saw Thorne be completely ineffective - it was hard to watch 😬 I don't blame Hugh for wanting a spark either, I just think he should have firmly installed Thorne as the starter (he was also named a captain) and said the team is behind him and he has our support (basically what Saleh is doing with Zach Wilson right now). From day 1, Freeze has been saying things like other guys are nipping at his heels, Robby needs touches, etc. This has caused Thorne to play scared for his job and is likely a large contributing factor to his poor play. Had Freeze done this, only for Thorne to fall apart as he did this past week, ok, bring another guy in and look for that spark. Robby is a hell of an athlete, but is a career 50% (or worse) passer and has missed hitting the hole when he does run. To me, our best shot is to try and help Thorne return to his MSU form. If he can't do this after a few games with full support, the season is likely lost anyway and we can give Geriner a shot.

Thorne doesn't look like the guy we thought we were getting when he transferred here. Freeze brought him here so that's on him. Not sure why we are doing the 2 QB thing either. Freeze named Thorne the starter so he should focus his efforts on getting his starter to play better. We know what Ashford is at this point. Freeze should take a play from Saban and get the team to rally around Thorne and commit to him as the starter for a few games. I don't see how you recruit a guy from the portal, name him the starter and then be completely uncommitted to him. It's poor leadership on Freeze's part.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure the answer to our issues is on the roster right now (haven't seen Holden, but I think we can all agree 😁 that it's neither Thorne nor Ashford). At this point, the coaches just have to pick the guy they think gives us the best chance to be competitive and completely alter the offense to fit their strengths and abilities. It's not where anyone thought we would be, but it's where we are.

My personal take on Thorne: Hugh is still trying to figure out how to coach him. I get the feeling Hugh is tearing into him for his miscues, but that is only making Thorne play scared and think too much. He's out there playing not to make a mistake rather than doing what he knows. As was mentioned in other posts, we are good enough on D to overcome an INT or two by Thorne each game, as long as he can move the ball down field and score sometimes. I think you turn him loose on UGA and see if he can find a rhythm. If he's completely ineffective again, probably time to move on from him.

I was on the Sanders train as well, but he hasn't done much yet. They nearly lost to Colorado State. You only feel as good as your last game and obviously we are feeling pretty bad right now. I want to see how Colorado shows up against Oregon today before we can crown hiring Freeze over Sanders a mistake.

I said when Freeze was hired I would back him, but it felt like a booster hire. Can't imagine the boosters are happy with what they are seeing.

It seemed we were just trying to work on passing concepts last night. Also, I feel like teams are going to try to stop the run and force Thorne to beat them. Glad to see we tried to get him ready for this challenge and he showed he's capable of it. Albeit against lesser competition.

Good game. Time to watch Little Mermaid now

Rivaldo landed right on that dude's ribs 😬

I don't know. Miami showed if you can get pressure on the QB, their offense falls apart. I was feeling good about it, but seeing a lack of pressure tonight isn't encouraging.

I'm not a fan of the "we don't have the personnel to run the offense" excuse. It's the coach's job to get the right people and with the portal and NIL, I don't feel this excuse can fly in the current landscape. The game plan against Cal didn't look good, but we also had no execution from the players. I want to see our level of preparation and execution against A&M before making any judgement.

The D played lights out. Not sure they can play at that level in every game, but if they can get even close to it, all the offense has to do is be competent and we can win some games. What I saw last night from the offensive game plan was complete incompetence and it's becoming too familiar around here.

I actually think this might be by design. I believe I was watching a Liberty game with Malik Willis at one point and the play by play analyst was saying that part of Freeze's strategy with QBs was to design plays where they only had to think about one side of the field at a time. I remember hearing it and thinking that would never work long term in a bigger conference. One of my hesitancies with hiring Freeze was based solely on this comment and that maybe his concepts may be too basic (i.e. Gus 2.0). Not sure if the comment is accurate, but it stuck with me and then I thought about it once you brought it up. Hope this isn't the case.

Asante. Good lord! 💪