Spring Ball 2025

[TomCat88]

As great and athletic as Mellott was, he wasn’t singlehandedly winning games for MSU. In fact, MSU probably goes 15-1 without him last year. Does it win by the same scores? No. All the games are probably closer but wins nonetheless and the loss to NDSU is probably much worse.

Mellott is considerably more talented than any of his contemporaries on teams comparable to MSU and his contemporaries have done very well. MSU has a number of QBs as athletic as the guys quarterbacking the top FCS teams.

Single-handedly? Obvious no there, but I’m not sold at 15-1. I don’t believe they even win a Conference title without Mellott. I think Idaho State, UC Davis, Eastern, and even the UM game are quite different without Mellott. I think MSU still beats um though.

I don’t think anyone matched MSU physically besides USD and NDSU. Maybe UCD. Jmho. I think in ISU’s and EW’s case it was a matter of things going their way and not going MSU’s way that made those games remotely close. MSU was simply better than everyone it played except the two Dakota teams.

MSU is unquestionably better with Mellott but is still incredibly good without him. He was huge in the unm win. His play in that game is the only reason I thought MSU had a shot coming back vs NDSU. If the Bobcats had won that game, the term singlehandedly would’ve been pretty appropriate with the RBs and defense struggling.

Anyway, my point is just that I think MSU is going to be fine 90% of the time this year without him. Theres a good chance he will be missed in tight games.

Also, I think there are numerous players that MSU would’ve been just fine without. There are many examples of this: Danny U, Polidore, C. Dowler, Perkins, Schmidt. MSU is a very good, deep team.

The other advantage we had with Mellott was the psychological edge. Him just being in the game made it difficult for defenses to make the proper calls. I am sure he was difficult to prepare for all week. If a back-up had played the defense could go back to more of a "base" defense. With Mellott if you didn't blitz he would burn you and if you did he would burn you even worse. With Mellott it wasn't always what he did but what he could do.

Huuuuge advantage. A big reason why MSU won by an average of greater than three touchdowns per game. He made a big impact on the game and the final score. Instead of winning by 10-14 ppg, it was well over 20 ppg.

[BLACKnBLUEnGOLD]

With McKay or Rovig, last year's team probably loses to New Mexico, and then doesn't lose again until the playoffs. T. Martin is still a blowout win. Idaho is still a win by at least 2 TDs. USD has some chance instead of no chance. NDSU would have thumped us.

[ClowderUp]

With McKay or Rovig, last year's team probably loses to New Mexico, and then doesn't lose again until the playoffs. T. Martin is still a blowout win. Idaho is still a win by at least 2 TDs. USD has some chance instead of no chance. NDSU would have thumped us.

I'm in this camp too. The team was deep and talented everywhere so it's pretty easy to believe they could have ended 11-1 in the regular season with a loss in Albuquerque. A loss in Davis may have happened too. Either way the semis were going to be on the road and that was likely the end of the line for 2024.

[AFCAT]

[VimSince03]

Wilson has one miss to Valcin that would've been a touchdown but overall looks very confident and operating his unit well. He's #1 with Pat #2 prior to Lamson getting here in my book.

[GoldstoneCat]

Wilson has one miss to Valcin that would've been a touchdown but overall looks very confident and operating his unit well. He's #1 with Pat #2 prior to Lamson getting here in my book.

You think Lamson slots in ahead of Wilson? Hard to say without having seen him, obviously, but looking for your educated opinion.

[4KornerKat]

Wilson has one miss to Valcin that would've been a touchdown but overall looks very confident and operating his unit well. He's #1 with Pat #2 prior to Lamson getting here in my book.

I thought it was even in the first half, but it seemed like Chance settled down in the second half and really stood out.

[technoCat]

Wilson has one miss to Valcin that would've been a touchdown but overall looks very confident and operating his unit well. He's #1 with Pat #2 prior to Lamson getting here in my book.

I thought it was even in the first half, but it seemed like Chance settled down in the second half and really stood out.

I found myself thinking that Pat "looked" better almost the entire game. Just seemed to be picking out guys and had better deliveries but Chance definitely won in the production battle.

[damnyoutuesday]

Strange that we still had the National Championship patches on our jerseys for today

Do we think that means we're getting new uniforms this year?

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[VimSince03]

Wilson has one miss to Valcin that would've been a touchdown but overall looks very confident and operating his unit well. He's #1 with Pat #2 prior to Lamson getting here in my book.

You think Lamson slots in ahead of Wilson? Hard to say without having seen him, obviously, but looking for your educated opinion.

They are bringing in a transfer to compete for the starting job. I would not be surprised at all if Lamson is our QB against Oregon but Chance and Pat don't make it easy for him in the fall. To me that's best case scenario (meaning Chance and Pat need to make it hard).

[94VegasCat]

When Wilson set his feet he looked really good. When he was throwing off his back foot he looked really bad.

I thought Duchien looked more comfortable and threw darts. Needs some more touch on deep balls but I thought he looked more relaxed and zipped the ball around nicely.

I thought Jabez Woods looked quick as a cat out there. Exciting player.

[AFCAT]

Humorous moment from yesterday.

I was riding the stadium elevator up to the 4th floor for the QB club shindig. I got in the elevator with a few other people. One guy said he had to go to the 5th floor. The elevator operator, an elderly lady, said that he "needed a pass to go to the 5th floor," since that was the media box floor. The guy said that today is just a scrimmage, but then said "How's this...Fiiiiiirrrst Doooown..BOBCATS!" in a voice we all know and she agreed to take him to the 5th floor without a pass.

[AFCAT]

[TomCat88]

This is it? This is the scrimmage thread?

Allllllrighty then!

Never thought I’d say I miss the Official Unofficial… thread.

[AFCAT]

[Colter_Nuanez]

[lutecat]

It's interesting. I went to Carroll's spring game as I have a coworker who's son plays and there were no refs like we had yesterday. You honestly had no idea what was going on. Granted I don't follow that team. But all 4 qb's got to play. Not quite equally. But I would've expected two to play for the most part and then throw 3 and 4 in at the end. So I have no idea if the #1 guy is Huot or the kid from Lake Chalan.

[TomCat88]

I thought the most interesting thing of the scrimmage was the quarterbacks working on throwing from "multiple platforms." I didn't notice this last year with Mellott but after thinking about it I do recall him trying to do this. He wasn't terribly successful with it as I recall but I wasn't really watching for it at the time so I'm not sure at all.

I noticed it during warmups and didn't really think much of it, but then the game started, and I noticed all three QBs doing it, especially Wilson and Duchien. I thought it looked good for those two. Warren didn't get into much of a flow, but he's only been here a couple months. Wilson and Duchien both made a couple mistakes, but overall, they looked good for this point in their development. If Wilson hits Valcins and hits Trimble in stride, he's got a full step on Duchien for the scrimmage. Duchien's last ball was a bad one and was easily intercepted by Williams. I think Wilson's ability to run is going to be a difference maker between the two, but Duchien is way ahead of where I thought he'd be, so I have to think he's going to continue to develop over the summer and maybe close the gap in the fall. Great competition there. We'll see if Lamson is better, same or worse. Very promising element for MSU though.

Coon and White proved that MSU's run game isn't going away any time soon. 39 carries for 231 yards. Just under 6.0 per carry. Add on Woods and it's 42 for 266 and over 6.0. That was against one of the best defensive lines they'll face all year.

The downside was the failure to catch passes by the WRs. There were at least six bad drops and two were intercepted. At least one cost a first down.

Great learning moment for Wilson early on. One play after he made a nice pass for a TD to Woods, he had Trimble open on a post and he looked incredibly confident setting up for the throw. Got everything together and let go of a ... wounded duck ... that appeared destined to be intercepted by Carr only to see Trimble make a spectacular and very heady play to wrestle the ball away from Carr for a 47-yard gain. I think Wilson just got excited there and lost a little focus on that throw.

Seth Brock is a budding beast on defense. He's going to see the field this year despite how deep the DL is.