Mississippi State football: 3 questions after MSU’s ugly loss to LSU

Can Kevin Barbay and MSU produce a rushing attack against SEC defensive lines?

Where on earth was MSU’s rushing attack on Saturday? Mississippi State managed a meager 94 rushing yards against the LSU Tigers and a noteworthy 52 of those yards came on just one play from Woody Marks.

Other than that, the ground game was nonexistent. And for a Mississippi State football team that is (rather rapidly) drifting away from the Air Raid and into a pro-spread scheme that relies heavily upon running the ball, that’s going to be a problem.

Zach Arnett seemingly decided that he didn’t want to be limited because the Bulldogs chose not to run the ball, but will we see new offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay and the Bulldogs find ways to run the ball against stout defensive fronts like LSU’s?

Or are we going to see teams like South Carolina, Alabama, and others continue to cause problems for the Bulldogs?

LSU was able to sniff out everything that the MSU Bulldogs wanted to do when it came to running the ball. And the seeming refusal to allow Mike Wright to have an entire drive to himself further limits MSU’s approach to running the ball, despite the desire to have him on the field at really odd times.

This loss was sobering and exposed significant flaws on both sides of the ball for the Bulldogs. It’s time to start getting some of those issues addressed if MSU is going to move forward and make this season successful.