MWN Mailbag: Tiger by the Tail Edition

Sep 19, 2015; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide fans holds up a sign about the Auburn Tigers football team prior to the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

It’s the fourth week of the college football season. This week, Mississippi State plays their second SEC game of the season on the Plains of Auburn at Jordan Hare Stadium.

More from Maroon and White Nation

• College football schedule week 4: 3 must-watch under-the-radar games
• Meeting the Opponent: Week 4 – South Carolina Gamecocks
• Mississippi State football vs LSU: The good, bad, and ugly
• M&WN Staff – Week 3 SEC Picks and Best Bets
• Mississippi State football film study: Why did MSU’s defense fail vs. LSU?

This was supposed to be a cake walk for an Auburn team picked to win the SEC Conference Championship by the writers at SEC Media Days. Leading the way for the Tigers was supposed to be Jeremy Johnson, aka Cam the Second. But six interceptions in three games, and the Tigers have turned to redshirt freshman Sean White to correct their struggling offense.

So all that was on the mind of our readers as they sent in their questions this week. And you guys sent in some good questions. I make no promises about the quality of the answers given for those good questions, but they are answers. I’ve got plenty of those.

The lack of game film for the new Auburn quarterback will not be ideal. Diaz would like to see what he is facing with White leading the way, and he has virtually nothing to work with. But this still has to favor the Bulldogs.

White has yet to play a single snap in college, and as great as he appears to have been in high school, it simply isn’t the same speed at the college level. White is going to have to learn on the fly to figure this thing out.

Now, it’s always possible this kid could come in and just light up the Bulldogs. Dawg Smack reminded us this morning about the time freshman quarterback Steve Tanneyhill was inserted to play quarterback for South Carolina against the Bulldogs and delivered a monumental upset. This could happen again, but these things aren’t the norm.

It’s not wise to simply count this game as a win. The Tigers were picked by a lot of people to win the SEC, and there is a reason for that. There is plenty of talent on this team, and White is an unknown. But getting to go against a player having never played before at quarterback should be an advantage for the Bulldogs.

Bravo to you Mr. Harvey for giving me one of the most difficult questions to have to answer on the mailbag. But I have yet to find a mailbag question that I wouldn’t or couldn’t answer, and I won’t let this one be the first.

Trying to take something from the NWSU game and finding a way it will be relevant against Auburn this week is no easy task. The Bulldogs obviously did what they wanted to do against the Demons, and though we might all think Auburn will be just roll over and play dead, they won’t.

I think we look to the running game and its success against the Demons. In particular, the success Prescott had running the ball. I still believe Mississippi State has more playmakers in the passing game, and the offensive line is more comfortable pass blocking than they are run blocking. But Auburn has struggled to stop any team in any way, but their efforts to stop the running game has been almost futile.

Against Louisville, the Tigers surrendered 238 yards rushing and 411 yards rushing to LSU. Now, part of the massive amount of yards accumulated by LSU can be attributed to the greatness that is Leonard Fournette. But more troubling for Auburn is their inability to stop a mobile quarterback.

When Louisville inserted their mobile quarterback Lamar Jackson, Auburn couldn’t figure out what to do to slow him down. He ran the ball 16 times for 106 yards. LSU’s Brandon Harris had similar success running 8 times for 66 yards. So if you’re one of the people wondering if Dak Prescott is ever going to run the ball more, we saw some of it against NWSU when he ran 6 times for 54 yards. If I am aware of all this, I know Dan Mullen is as well.

To your first question, you would think it would make sense for DBs to work on catching the ball if they think they are going to have the opportunity to intercept a lot of passes. But they still need to work on catching balls thrown their way while covering people. So for this particular task, they had to bring in an expert who was used to throwing the ball to the other team’s players.

They needed someone who wasn’t to terribly busy right now. So why not turn to Bo Wallace. Since Wallace threw 6 interceptions in his three games against Mississippi State, he’d be the perfect candidate to try to throw to receivers but end up throwing to Mississippi State DBs instead.

Now to seriously answer your second question, White is an unknown. I don’t know what to expect, and it can be concerning. I believe it is an advantage for Mississippi State to have a completely inexperienced player step in and take over at quarterback, but this could also be the spark the Tigers need to get their season turned around. There just isn’t any way of knowing until he steps on the field on Saturday night.

If you have questions for next week’s MWN Mailbag, send them in to me on Twitter @JustinStrawnMWN.