Dak Prescott Wins Mississippi State’s Media Day
Jul 15, 2014; Hoover, AL, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott talks to the media during the SEC Football Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
Dan Mullen brought three players with him to Media Days, and all three players had interesting storylines to be told. Jay Hughes is coming off a season ending injury that he suffered in the first game of the season. Many were probably anxious to see how he has recovered and if he will be ready when the Bulldogs play Southern Miss Labor Day Weekend. Bernardrick McKinney is likely to be a first round pick in next year’s NFL Draft. Many consider him to not only be one of the top linebackers in the SEC, but one of the best in the country. All those are great stories and provide plenty for reporters to write about, but the focus of the day was all on the quarterback, Dak Prescott.
Many of those in attendance at SEC Media Days expected to find Prescott nervous and anxious about having the spotlight shone so brightly upon the redshirt junior. Prescott even acknowledged at one point that he probably should be nervous in front of the throng of reporters for the first time in his career, but he wasn’t. Some might take that as sign of being cocky, but for those of us who have followed the dual threat quarterback simply know that standing in front of a group of reporters is nothing compared to the things he has had to face since becoming the face of the Bulldogs.
After all, how hard can it be to answer questions from a group of reporters when you get thrown into the first game of the season unexpectedly after Tyler Russell went down with a concussion? Is getting peppered by reporters that hard of a task when you have to take the role of team leader in the first SEC game of the year when you have spent the past year and half preparing as the team backup and change of pace quarterback? Is having a reporter stick a microphone in your face a challenge at all when you have been inserted into the 4th quarter of the Egg Bowl and haven’t touched a football in over three weeks? And does any of this hold even a sliver of the weight of trying to play college football at an elite level while attending class all at the same time your mother is suffering and eventually succumbs to the horrible disease that is cancer?
Media Day was a piece of cake for Dak.
Members of the media who had not really paid too much attention to Mississippi State or Dak Precott prior to Tuesday saw what the Bulldog faithful have been seeing since he took over after Tyler Russell was injured against Oklahoma State last August. Dak is a natural leader that his team rallies around. The team believes that as long as he is in the game, then they believe they have a chance to win. All that you have probably read about Dak Prescott’s Media Day appearance is correct. And while it is important to remember that Dak did nothing on the field and that how he did at Media Day will largely be forgotten after the ball is snapped for the first time this season, he showed that he is capable of handling one part of the pressure that comes with being a starting quarterback in the SEC. He was poised confident, and looked the part of an elite SEC quarterback. It surprised a lot of people who were in attendance.
We know that it was just Dak being Dak.