Mississippi State’s Running Back Problem

My solution: give Aeris Williams the bulk of the carries, get all the running backs more involved and pound the football all game long.

MSU has a running back problem for all the reasons I’ve listed, but they don’t have a talent problem.

State was 7% on third down conversions against LSU and are currently 123rd in the country in that category at 24% for the year. I see a direct correlation between converting on third down and running the football.

One – if it’s 3rd and 1 or 2 and you can’t run the ball it’s much harder to pick up. But with a back like Shumpert that shouldn’t really be a problem even if the O-line doesn’t get much of a push.

Two – effective running on first or second down can set up third and manageable. We aren’t going to get very far if either of our QBs are trying to convert a 3rd and 10.

Mullen has been focused on a 50/50 run/pass balance for several years now. So far this year he’s at 54/46. He needs to get back to his 2010 ways when State ran on at least 67% of its plays in 7 of 8 SEC games. The Dawgs were able to convert on 46% of third downs that year and churned up a lot of clock.

I hope we can soon see Lee again as well as the debuts of Gibson and Murphy.

Running the football has always been MSU’s bread and butter – it’s where this offense needs to find its identity and that will lead to more success down the road.