What to watch for as Mississippi State football plays its SEC-opener vs Florida

Mississippi State football takes on the Florida Gators in a huge game for both teams this season. Here are three things I'm watching for on Saturday.

Will Blake Shapen get more involved as a runner for the Bulldogs?

Mississippi State hasn't found success on the ground, and in this specific offense, that's a problem. One potential solution to help them there would be to call more designed runs for QB Blake Shapen. Shapen is an effective scrambler, but option runs or designed carries are rare for him. That's largely been to protect him from injury, but given the state of the Bulldog offense and the struggles of the team as a whole, you've got to find some way to generate yards. Using the QB in the run game gives you an extra blocker, ideally making the run more dangerous. And if the defense has to respect the run, you get better opportunities in the downfield passing game. If State is going to open up the offense, Shapen will have to tote the rock more.

Can Jeff Lebby scheme up some more easy touches for his wideouts?

State's best players offensively are easily their WRs. Kevin Coleman is a star, and Mario Craver has looked great early in his freshman campaign. The problem is right now, most of their touches are coming off verticals and comebacks. Coleman has taken snaps as a wildcat QB, but otherwise, there haven't been many plays drawn up to get them or the other talented WRs in the room easy touches in space. With the issues State has had in pass protection, they can't rely on only throwing to those guys downfield. There needs to be designed touches where the ball gets out quickly underneath where they can go to work.

Can the Mississippi State football simply tackle better?

The Bulldog defense is bad. They aren't particularly talented, and they've got questionable coaching. But you know what you should be able to do as a defense in spite of either of those factors? Tackle. And right now, State can't. Tackling was horrific against Arizona State, and it wasn't much better against Toledo. The bare minimum you can ask for from the defense is that when they're in position, they make the tackle right away. Improved tackling would go a long way for this unit, and they need to show it Saturday.