Mississippi State Football Arm Chair QB: A New Hope Edition

Mississippi State has a new hope for the season after beating South Carolina.

Peeps, that was a huge win Saturday night. In a game that many, myself included, labeled a “must win” for State, the Dawgs came out and essentially dominated South Carolina. Now 1-1 with an SEC win under their belts, the Dawgs have new hope that a bowl game can be achieved. So how did State actually do? Here’s what I saw:

Defense:

1. State’s defense made a big improvement from last week, verified by a quick look at the numbers. The D allowed South Carolina just 243 yards of total offense, 209 passing and a meager 34 rushing. Most of the rushing yards came in the second half when SCar went to the more mobile Brandon McIlwain at QB. The rush D looks even more impressive when you realise SCar rushed it 31 times and averaged just 1.1 YPC. The D also held SCar QBs to 5.4 Yards Per Attempt passing.

But the biggest stat for the D was 2. That’s the number of turnovers created. State grabbed an interception and recovered a fumble. Perhaps the most telling event of the night were the multiple bad snaps by SCar. It told me their Center was getting whipped by our DTs and was more focused on getting out of his stance to block than making a good snap.

2. The defensive line was dominant. They were credited with a combined 7 tackles for loss (TFLs) and 3.5 sacks. They generated consistent pressure, even when rushing just 3. They looked like the unit I expected to see last week and it made a HUGE difference.

More from Mississippi State Football

• Meeting the Opponent: Week 4 – South Carolina Gamecocks
• Mississippi State football vs LSU: The good, bad, and ugly
• The Wednesday Wrap: Maybe Mississippi State Football Coach Zach Arnett shouldn’t do it his way
• Mississippi State football history vs. South Carolina: Records, streaks, and more
• Mississippi State football bowl projections after Bulldogs crushed by LSU

3. The linebackers made a big improvement. They played their responsibilities and stoned the run all night. But they also generated some pressure, being credited with 4 TFLs and 1.5 sacks.

4. The secondary looked better. They aren’t where they need to be yet, but there was definite improvement. They got an INT which was a big play in the game. Overall, I thought they stayed with their guys better and certainly limited the big plays. It helps that the front 7 generated pressure so they didn’t have to cover as long as last week.

5. Tackling was much improved. The Dawgs did a much better job of wrapping up and getting players on the ground. What really stood out was how many guys we had running to the ball and the gang tackling. Haven’t seen that from a Dawg D in a few years and it was a welcomed sight.

6. AJ Jefferson and Jonathan Calvin went Beast Mode on Saturday night. They were almost unblockable and lived in the Gamecock backfield. They finished with a combined 9 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 sacks, and a fumble recovery. Calvin was the man who jumped on the fumble.

7. Welcome back, Nick James. He’ll never light up the stat sheet, but he makes a noticeable impact when he’s on the field. He eats blockers, forces double teams, and clogs the middle. Love watching him play.

8. Jeffery Simmons is as good as advertised. He was a major factor in the DL improvement. His stats were impressive for a debut game against an SEC opponent: 4 total tackles, 2 TFLs, 1 Forced Fumble. And he’s only going to get better.

9. Richie Brown returned to form. He finished with 10 total tackles, 2 TFLs, and 1 sack. Those 10 tackles made him the team leader in that category.

10. I love the way Leo Lewis plays. He didn’t have the biggest night statistically, with just 4 total tackles. But he was almost always around the ball. And he arrives to the ball carrier with bad intentions. I love the nastiness and physicality he brings.

11. We saw more of Mark McLaurin against the ‘Cocks and it paid dividends. He needs to be playing a majority of the snaps. He finished with just 4 total tackles, but he’s got good instincts.

12. Jamal Peters had a good game at CB. He’s still learning, but he brings elite athleticism and size to the position. He had State’s INT and it was a thing of beauty. It was a magnificent leaping grab where he just out-fought the SCar WR on a ball slightly underthrown.

Special Teams:

1. In one word: Excellent. STs stepped up and were a major strength Saturday night. Huge improvement for these units.

2. Logan Cooke continues to prove his worth. He’s got a huge leg and showed why he’ll be a major weapon for State this year. He punted 4 times, averaging 49.5 YPP. Three of the four were downed inside the 20. The fourth was boomed 68 yards for a touchback.

Cooke also had another big game in the kickoff department. He kicked off 5 times, had 2 touchbacks, and averaged 64 yards per kick. The 3 non-TBs were all to the goal line or shallow endzone and the returner was tackled well shy of the 25.

3. Westin Graves made a nice recovery. He nailed all 3 PATs and was 2/2 on field goal duty.

4. Fred Ross was great on punt return. He had 4 returns for 37 yards with a long of 16.

5. Donald Gray had one KO return for 14 yards.

6. Ashton Shumpert (I think) had a horrific block in the back penalty that nullified a big PR by Ross. I saw it as soon as it happened, because it was right in front of me where I was sitting, and the worst part is it was completely unnecessary. Ross was already by the guy Shump blocked. Gotta be smarter.

Offense:

1. Offense was much, much improved – at least in the first half. But I’ll get to that. The Dawgs wound up amassing 485 yards of Total Offense, 290 Rushing and 195 Passing. State’s offense had 5 scoring drives and probably could’ve punched one in for a TD on the final possession.

2. Mississippi State found their QB in Nick Fitzgerald. Fitz started and went the distance. He completed 19 of 29 pass attempts for 178 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT. He finished with a completion percentage of 65.5%. You’ll take that every day. The Yards Per Attempt aren’t great at just 6.14 YPA. The Yards Per Completion is a bit better at 9.37 YPC. I’d like to see more completions down the field, but that will come. The good news is he took the deep shots when they were available. And to be fair, he had several drops, a couple on deep balls. That helped stretch the D, an element sorely missed a week ago.

Where Fitz really excelled was rushing the ball. He broke John Bond’s single game QB Rush Yards record with 195 yards on 17 carries. He had a long rush of 74 and finished with 11.5 YPC. Fitz displayed a tremendous blend of power and speed, gaining the tough yards on the Power and Draw between the tackles and breaking long runs outside. He was actually outrunning the DBs on his 74-yard run. The only reason he didn’t score is one DB had the angle on him and it was still really close.

The bad was his INT. It came in the redzone on what should have been a TD. It started badly when he “bird dogged,” i.e. stared down, his target. SCar was only rushing 3 and the LB read his eyes the whole way, dropping into coverage. Then it went really bad when Fitz didn’t see the LB and threw it on a line instead of lofting it up for his TE to run under. The LB just reached up and grabbed it. He’ll learn from it and it probably won’t happen again. Young QB gonna Young QB.

The good was his TD to Ross. Ross was his 2nd or 3rd read on the play and he took the time to come off his primary and find Ross open crossing the middle. That’s a really good sign for Fitz moving forward. It says he’s trying to be a complete QB, not just a one read and run QB.

3. OL showed some improvement. Putting Elgton Jenkins at guard and Martinas Rankin at tackle made a difference. They were more physical and opened some holes. What really stood out to me was the pass protection. Fitz had all day to throw and was almost never put under any pressure.

4. RBs are what we’ve come to expect. Brandon Holloway had 15 carries, mostly up the gut. Shump & Aeris Williams each had 5 carries. If Dontavian Lee, Nick Gibson, and Alec Murphy quit tomorrow, no one would know or care because Mullen never plays them. But I’ll get to this later.

Bottom line, almost all our rushing production came from the QB position. That’s not good long term. Holloway only gained 55 yards on 15 carries and averaged just 3.2 YPC. He gained nearly half his yardage on his long run of 22.

5. Apparently our WRs trained with Joe “Stonehands” Morrow over the summer. They had a serious case of the dropsies on Saturday night. Gabe Myles dropped 2 or 3 all by himself, including one that would’ve been a long TD. Gotta help your QB out when he hits you in the hands. Need to get that fixed ASAP if we want to compete offensively against elite defenses.

WRs also need some SERIOUS work on their blocking. It just isn’t good right now. Gabe Myles nearly got Justin Johnson killed on a bubble screen when he whiffed his block. And the bad part is Myles is big enough to be a good blocker on the outside at 6′ and 195. It was just lack of effort, which is inexcusable in my book. This needs to be a big focus in practice moving forward.

6. Fred Ross continues to be our best playmaker. He had 6 catches for 56 yards and a TD. His 6 catches moved him into 4th place all-time at MSU for receptions, ahead of Justin Jenkins. He’s passing some big names and really good players for us, peeps.

Ross also had a TD throw on a jet sweep pass. It was a really nice throw for a WR, especially wearing gloves. What I noticed was how calm he was in getting the pass off despite some pressure. He had a LB closing on him, but he managed not to panic and threw a beautifully lofted ball that Donald Gray ran under for 6.

7. Speaking of Gray, glad to see him involved in the game plan. He was arguably our most explosive playmaker, going for 54 yards and a TD on 4 catches. We really need to find creative ways to get him involved in the offense.

8. Aeris Williams had 21 yards on 5 carries and averaged just over 4 YPC. While not good, it’s better than 3.2 YPC. Games like this are why I remain unconvinced he isn’t a more athletic version of Shump.

9. We got the TE involved, but it wasn’t one we expected. Welcome to State, Jordan Thomas. I love what this kid showed us on Saturday. He’s huge and looks like an extra lineman at 6’5″ and 295. But he moves much better than an OL and is deceptively fast for his size. Two things stood out to me. One is his physicality at the point of attack. He really adds some beef and helps seal the edge in the run game. That can’t be overlooked.

The other thing Thomas showed was good hands and a willingness to fight for the ball. He had just 2 catches for 7 yards, but one of those was for a TD. And he got the TD by out-fighting his guy for the ball. It was basically a jump ball from Fitz and Thomas won the jump. Gotta have a guy that can do that in the redzone and Thomas may emerge as that guy.

more dawgs: Report Card vs. South Carolina

Coaching/Intangibles:

1. We saw some leaders emerge on the field and not necessarily older guys. That’s going to be big the rest of the season.

2. Finding our QB was the best thing to happen Saturday. I love D-Will. He’ll forever be the answer to a MSU football trivia question and bailed us out as a freshman when we needed him. He has a place on this team, but it definitely isn’t as the starter. That’s Fitz and it should no longer even be in doubt. Fitz has the tools we need to run every facet of our offense. He’s going to make mistakes. That’s true of every first year starter. But you let him play through it and learn because you’ll reap the benefits down the road.

3. Defensive gameplan was excellent. We were aggressive from the start and made it clear we weren’t going to let SCar run. Once we made them one dimensional, life was much easier. I didn’t like the long drives in the second half, particularly the first one. But give credit to the Gamecocks for going to McIlwain and letting him do his thing. The second TD drive didn’t really bother me as much, outside of making the game look closer than it was. We were only rushing 3 and sitting in a deep Cover 2, letting them have what they wanted underneath to deny any chance of a big play. We forced them to dink and dunk their way down the field and basically run the clock themselves.

4. I thought Dan Mullen looked the most engaged and intense I’ve seen him in years. It was clearly a different Mullen on the sideline and it translated to the team. Nice to have fire-in-the-belly Mullen back in charge. Hope it lasts.

5. I believe the lightning delay caused the sloppy second half. All the energy was drained out of the stadium and the players after having to wait for an hour. To me, that was the biggest contributor to SCar’s offensive success the second half and our struggles moving the ball. That intensity and focus was just a little bit off after having to sit. If we had the usual 20 minute halftime and come right back out, I think we probably run the ‘Cocks out of the stadium by dropping 40+.

6. Mullen’s offensive personnel decisions were still awful. Say what you will about the zone blocking and how it operates, but trying to make Brandon Holloway a feature back is incompetence. And I say that as a big fan of Holloway. He has a very important role to play in the offense. But there’s a reason he loses his effectiveness after about 10 touches. It’s because he’s 165 pounds and a guy that small can only take so many hits in a game before wearing down. He needs to be the 3rd down, change of pace back. Asking him to carry it 15 times, mostly between the tackles, is a wasted play. Period.

Same thing for Ashton Shumpert. He has a role to play, but that isn’t as a major focal point. He needs to be lead blocking, getting short yardage/goal line carries, and the occasional pass reception out of the backfield. 5 touches a game, max. That said, he only had 5 carries against SCar.

We have Aeris Williams, Dontavian Lee, Nick Gibson, and Alec Murphy on the team. Aeris & Gibson were 4-star recruits. Murphy was highly sought after and considered the best RB in Missouri his Senior year of high school. Lee was the best looking RB on the team last season. Yet 3 of those 4 guys haven’t even stepped on the field so far in 2016. Aeris has a grand total of 7 carries. Why did we recruit these guys if we have no intention of playing them before they are Juniors or giving them a fair shot at toting the rock? Holloway is averaging 3.7 YPC this season and I’m supposed to believe none of the 4 backs above is capable of doing better.

Give one of those guys a fair shot and see what happens. Let them hammer at a defensive 15+ times. I’m betting that they will get stronger as the game goes, not weaker. Defenses are gonna get tired of trying to tackle guys who average 220 pounds.

And where was Malik Dear? I only saw him on the field late in the 4th quarter and he was used as a decoy then. The guy was our most explosive player a year ago and now he can’t even play? What about Keith Mixon? He had all of one touch after we’ve heard so much about how his speed is a difference maker. Why aren’t we finding ways to get him some touches if we aren’t going to use Dear?

This is the one area where Mullen is consistently stubborn. He overvalues “program guys.” Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever change in this area.

7. Don’t even get me started on Mullen leaving Holloway in the game with two and a half minutes left to run between the tackles when we were trying to run out the clock. That is one of the few times I’m perfectly fine watching Shump trip himself after a 2 yard carry. At least he’s gaining 2 yards and running clock. That beats no yards or a TFL because someone looked at him meanly.

8. Fans, you were awesome in the first half. It was loud and rocking. Everyone understood the importance of this game and showed up ready to give everything we had to support this team. You could see the players feeding off the atmosphere.

We gotta do better in the second half. I know the delay sucked. I’ll admit to not being able to get back up the same way either. But we gotta learn to dig deep and make that effort. And if you left during the delay and didn’t come back, shame on you. Mullen got on the air and begged everyone to come back because of the role the atmosphere played in the first half.

Don’t even get me started on the students who left early. I’ll have an aneurysm.

9. Props to Mullen for basically admitting to Jim in the postgame he panicked when he pulled Fitz last week. Going back to him and sticking with him as “the guy” was big and the right call.

10. We won!

Next: Five players who earned a Dawg bone

Final Thoughts:

I’m proud of the way this team and coaching staff responded after losing to USA. Ongoing bullheaded personnel decisions aside, this was exactly the response we had hoped to get. It’s why I made a point to say let’s not overreact after just one game. Now we’re back on track and have a 10 games to win 5. It’s going to be a little tougher than we anticipated, but certainly not impossible. Hats off to Mullen and Co. for looking themselves in the mirror and getting this team ready to play after a devastating loss. That’s how big time programs are supposed to respond to adversity.

I was glad to see our D reassert some physicality and aggression. They played like a Mississippi State D for the first time in a while. If we can continue to generate QB pressure, it’s going to help the secondary. As for the secondary, I still think they’ll get better as the season goes. There’s talent there, but they desperately need game reps and practice reps. Game reps especially. You just can’t simulate game situations in practice.

We’ve GOT to find a way to run the ball with our RBs. If we don’t, I don’t see a bowl game this year. Fitz is good, but he needs some help. He won’t hold up carrying it 17 times against LSU, Bama, Auburn, Arkansas, etc. Play calling itself was better on Saturday night, though. Best it’s been in a while, in fact. I particularly liked that out of 75 offensive snaps, 45 were runs. That’s a 60/40 run/pass split. Exactly what so many of us were clamoring to see and right where it needs to be.

When it really mattered, we found a way to get the job done and win. That’s all that matters. Next up, the Tiiiiiiigahhhhs of LSU in Death Valley.

Fire in the Hole!