Mississippi State Football Film Study: the Arnett Era Comes to an End

Bulldog defense can’t slow down Aggies

Texas A&M’s own offensive struggles have been well-documented. Jimbo Fisher’s antiquated and complex scheme faced major scrutiny over the past few years. This year, he finally relinquished play-calling to an assistant, bringing in the infamous Bobby Petrino to serve as his OC. The hope was that having an OC take the reigns of the offense, as opposed to Jimbo needing to construct a gameplan amidst the hectic operation of a major program, and implement some new ideas would allow the Aggies to finally maximize their talent.

The results have been mixed. They’re clearly improved, and given the injuries they’ve faced, you could argue a solid job has been done on that front. But things still were not up to standard on that side of the ball, and it’s a big part of the reason why Jimbo Fisher is no longer the HC in College Station.

The Aggies were on their third-string QB on Saturday. Jaylen Henderson is a transfer out of Fresno State who, prior to Saturday, had attempted just eight passes in his career. It was going to be unlikely that A&M relied heavily on his arm. Henderson is a talented runner, however, and that would certainly be something they’d choose to lean upon in this game.

Mississippi State’s defense has struggled to contain mobile QBs for the entirety of Zach Arnett’s time in Starkville. Even his good defense have that fatal flaw. Naturally, Henderson found success on the ground. Adjusting for sacks, he ran the ball 10 times for 76 yards and two TDs.

A&M’s first offensive play of the game was a 12-yard rush by Henderson. They easily drove down the field after State ran back the opening kickoff, putting a quick end to any hope that emerged from State’s early lead. The Aggies’ first TD came via Henderson’s legs – a 22-yard rush off a QB Counter.

A&M gets into 21-personnel unbalanced split backs. They run QB GH Counter with a RPO Arrow Screen from one of the RBs. State loads the box to account for the heavy formation. The RPO read is on safety Shawn Preston. When the RB to the trips side of the formation runs the arrow screen, Preston runs with him. This tells Henderson to tuck the ball and follow his blockers.

A&M blocks this up about as well as you could ask for outside of their RT. He allows Donterry Russell to run right by him, so much so that it almost appears he was intentionally left unblocked. He wasn’t, but unfortunately for State, he’s not able to make the play. On the play-side, it looks like SAM LB JP Purvis tries to get inside the kickout block by the pulling guard and force the run to the outside, but he gets absolutely blasted by the puller, leaving plenty of space for the TE to come through as the lead blocker. The LT does a great job getting to the second level to block Jett Johnson, and both DBs to that side take themselves out of the play. Easy TD.

The other thing you had to expect with an inexperienced QB in the game was easy completions set up to A&M’s play-makers in space. WR Ainias Smith is one of the most explosive players in the country. He’s the prototypical slot receiver with his shiftiness and speed in space. He gets a TD in the second quarter off a tunnel screen.

A&M has 3rd & 10. Mississippi State’s tendency is to be a man pressure team on third downs, especially with an inexperienced QB playing. They want to speed him up and force him into a bad throw. So enough, they go with a Zero Blitz against A&M’s empty set. But the Aggies have the perfect call for the situation. You couldn’t ask for a better play against an all-out blitz than this tunnel screen, especially with a runner as dangerous as Smith. There is literally no one on the defense with a chance of stopping him.

Moving On

This has been a difficult season to endure as a State fan. It sucks for Zach Arnett. He’s a promising young coach that got put in an impossible situation, and he made decisions that he thought would be best for the program. They just didn’t work. And if you’re Mississippi State, you simply couldn’t let that continue. I wish him the best, and I’m sure he’ll find a great landing spot as a DC where he can excel.

Now, State looks to close out the season on a high note with a pair of in-state rivals coming to Starkville. Greg Knox takes over as interim with the task of getting this team fired up for these final games and, potentially, win their way into a bowl berth.

And in the meantime, Zac Selmon will conduct a search for the next leader of Mississippi State football. Early on, it sounds as though there are several fantastic candidates with interest in the job. We’ll see who the Bulldogs can land.