Mississippi State does a 180 and beats up on South Carolina
Mississippi Sate looked like a completely different team vs. South Carolina, and got a much better result.
The Bulldogs beat the Gamecocks, 27-14 on Saturday night in Starkville. They controlled the game from the outset, and cruised to victory after a 24-0 halftime lead.
In the aftermath of the South Alabama debacle, there were a lot of people – including myself – questioning Dan Mullen’s motivation and whether or not he was engaged anymore. He proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that is still has the fire needed to motivate a football team.
Late in the week it became apparent that it had been a tough week of practice. Coach Mullen challenged the team to to give every play everything they had. And they did just that.
The first half of the game was perhaps the best half of football we’ve seen since the 2014 season. It was mostly because of the energy the team played with, especially on defense. State’s D-line completely dominated this game, and everyone was flying to the ball.
The game was delayed for nearly an hour after halftime due to lightning.
Mullen also caught everyone off guard by announcing just prior to the game that Nick Fitzgerald would play the entire game. This proved to be an excellent decision as Fitz set a MSU school record in rushing yards by a QB with 195. He was electric from the outset, leading State on a touchdown drive on the first possession and the Dawgs never looked back.
Fitzgerald threw for 178 yards. His main targets were Fred Ross and Donald Gray who combined for 110 yards on 10 catches with two touchdowns. Ross also threw a 17 yard touchdown pass to Gray.
The running game outside Fitz was still pretty non-existent. Brandon Holloway had 16 carries – most of which came between the tackles, so he only mustered 48 yards. This was the only real bad part of the game: Mullen’s continued insistence of running Holloway up the middle.
Jamal Peters was able to get on the field and he notched the team’s first interception of the year. Jeffrey Simmons played as well, and made his presence known on several plays including a forced fumble. Solid game for the defense who didn’t give up 100 yards until well into the 3rd quarter. They had a considerable number of tackles for loss.
Next: Dan Mullen suffers two lacerations in one week
Great win for State (1-1, 1-0) – this really changes the narrative that was written after last week. You could almost see the potential of the USA loss being a good thing in the long run because it really motivated this team. We’ll see how it translates in the weeks to come, but for this game the Bulldogs were surely ready to play.