Oct 5, 2013; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; a general view of the Alabama Crimson Tide game against the Georgia State Panthers during the third quarter at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Beat Alabama
I don’t think Prescott can have any chance unless he does this. Mississippi State is going to have some losses before they go to Tuscaloosa in November. They probably have two, and if that is the case, the chances for Dak to stand out will be in jeopardy. This is the only time that Dak Prescott needs to take some pointers from Johnny Manziel.
In 2012, Manziel entered Tuscaloosa with two losses and his worst performance was against the best defense he had faced at the time when he played LSU. The talk of Manziel being a Heisman candidate had slowed down because the competition he had beaten and performed well against hadn’t been that great. He had great numbers, but there was a sense they were somewhat inflated. Once the game started, we saw that they weren’t. Manziel befuddled the Crimson Tide defense, and if that game doesn’t happen, Manziel probably doesn’t win the Heisman.
Dak Prescott and the Bulldogs will probably enter the game against Alabama in a very similar situation. He will have probably put up some pretty big numbers because the offense will be built around him for the first time in his career. The question will be how he does in the big games, and the Alabama game will be as big as they get if Alabama does what most think they will.
And Alabama might be beatable. I don’t anticipate Mississippi State winning, but that doesn’t meant they can’t. If you want to know where this bit of optimism comes from then you should look at what I talked about earlier. Pete Roussel of Coaching Search was on Head to Head Radio a while back and said something that I agreed with that so many people haven’t considered. When Alabama hired Lane Kiffin, people poked fun at it, but most thought it was a great hire and a good role for Kiffin. But Roussel pointed this out:
Roussel: “Lane Kiffin is an inconsistent play caller, and that’s going to come back to haunt Alabama.” “think Alabama takes a step back."
— SportsTalk Mississippi (@SportsTalkMiss) July 11, 2014
I don’t know why that seems to have slipped people’s minds. The defense for Mississippi State could give a lot of people problems, and if Kiffin doesn’t do a better job of calling plays, it could come back to bite him against the Bulldogs, and give Dak Prescott a chance to get a Heisman moment.