Evaluating Mississippi State at the Halfway Point

Sep 19, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; (Editor

Offensive Most Disappointing Player: The Entire Running Game

The easy way to go here would have been to put Ashton Shumpert here and let him soak up most of the blame for the running game. But it wouldn’t be a fair critique of him as a player.

Has Ashton Shumpert been disappointing? Sure. Has his lack of vision and indecisiveness on choosing which hole to attack caused him to not be as productive as he should be? Absolutely.

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But the fact the offensive line has done little to nothing to help the run game out is a big part of this problem. And the rest of the running backs deserve some of the blame for not stepping up and bailing their struggling teammate out.

At this point, I don’t know that it is going to matter who we put in the backfield. At one point, we all thought Dontavian Lee would be the rushing savior. Then we all thought it would be Malik Dear. Some thought it would be Aeris Williams. I think all of our younger backs will be great players eventually, but it is going to take some time to get them ready, and the offensive line must get better at blocking regardless of who is back there.

We are six games into the season and the Bulldogs don’t look like they have anything going in the running department. I expected there to be some hiccups along the way, but i never saw this coming from a Dan Mullen led team. Dan Mullen knows how to build a rushing behemoth. Right now, the behemoth is sleeping.

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