WMD’s Armchair QB: Buc U Edition

Welcome back, peeps! College football has returned and I’m thrilled to be back talking about Mississippi State. The Dogs got 2017 off to a strong start with an emphatic 49-0 beating of Charleston Southern.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know how this works by now. If you haven’t, it’s like this: I break down each game from a fan’s perspective. This column attempts to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly. Everything is fair game and no one is exempt from criticism or praise.  With the ground rules established, here’s what I saw and learned from our game against the Buccaneers:

Defense:

1. In a word: Dominant. I don’t have enough superlatives to say how good these guys were on Saturday. The numbers tell us a lot: 33 yards of Total Offense allowed, 15 passing and 18 rushing. Only 2 first downs allowed. Twelve possessions ended in a 3 and out. 9 tackles for loss (TFLs). Two safeties. And CSU never crossed midfield. The closest they came was their own 46 on their final possession against our 3rd string.

2. I can’t get over the difference in the defense from last year to this year. For the first time in ages we looked fast and well coached. Everyone clearly knew their assignments and were where they were supposed to be. I can’t recall a single busted assignment. That’s especially impressive considering we were facing a triple option offense.

3. Our tackling was much improved. We were a bunch of matadors olé-ing opponents left and right. Saturday we were fundamentally sound. We didn’t just limit Yards After Contact (YAC), we  were forcing them backwards. I can’t recall a single missed tackle all game.

But it was our work in the one on one, open field tackles that impressed me. The one play in particular that sticks out is an option pitch that saw Gerri Green get isolated in space on a Buc RB. Green stayed with him, squared up, broke down, wrapped up, and drove through him for an open field TFL. If he whiffs the tackle, the play probably goes for 10 yards or more.

4. We are really, really deep. There’s virtually no drop off from the 1s to the 2s. We were constantly rotating players in and out to the point where 1s & 2s probably played about the same number of snaps. And some of our 3s could step in if they absolutely had to, based on what I saw. It’s really encouraging and continues to prove what many of us have suspected for a while with the D: Lack of talent wasn’t the problem. Lack of good coaching was the major culprit.

5. I’d normally try to talk about each individual position group and/or single out some standout players from the game. But if I tried to do that this week, I’d be typing for days. Everyone was making plays.

Special Teams:

1. Logan Cooke continued doing what Logan Cooke does: Boom ridiculous punts and kickoffs to keep the opponent backed up deep on their end of the field. He doesn’t get the publicity of Scott at Bama, but he’s every bit as good.

2. Tucker Day had a true freshman day. 1/3 on FGs. Missed a chip shot, hit one from midrange, missed a long one. Hit all 5 PATs. I’m not going to rip on a true freshman kicking in his first game who was recruited as a punter. It’s on Mullen that we’re in that type of situation to begin.

3. Gabe Myles looked good returning punts. He generally made good decisions on when to try to return and when to call for a fair catch.

4. Donald Gray & Keith Mixon had a little miscommunication on their kickoff return, resulting in a touchback. Hopefully it was just a first game thing. Gray had a huge return later for 52 yards. I still have no idea how he didn’t break it for a TD.

Offense:

1. Offense had a solid, if relatively unspectacular, day. State rolled up 555 yards of total offense, 274 passing and 281 rushing. The Dogs amassed 29 first downs and were 6/15 on third down. Ideally I’d like to see a higher 3rd down conversion rate, but 6/15 isn’t awful. And it improved as the game went on, as State was just 2/8 at the half, meaning we converted 4/7 in the second half.

2. I thought Nick Fitzgerald had a good but not great day. He completed 16 of 29 passes for 239 yards and 2 TDs. He added another 41 yards and 1 TD on 7 rushing attempts. Most importantly, he managed the game, controlled the huddle and generally made good decisions with the ball.

I do agree with Mullen that his passing was slightly off on the day. But you can already see some areas where he’s improved from last year. His ceiling is ridiculous, he just has to continue working to become a finished product. On the days when he’s really “on”, he’s going to be absolute hell to stop for opposing defenses.

3. Aeris Williams had a very solid, workhorse type of day. He ran for 83 yards on 16 carries with a TD. A-Train averaged 5.2 Yards Per Carry (YPC) and had a long run of 15. It wasn’t spectacular, but he kept the chains moving and wore down the Bucs’ D with physical running between the tackles. Some early 1-2 yard runs turned into 6-7 yard runs by the time we pulled him in the 3rd quarter.

4. OL left me with plenty of unanswered questions. They were mostly solid, but I saw a few too many guys come through untouched for my liking. A couple were well executed blitzes, but it’s still concerning.

My biggest concern for this group is at Center (C). I’m a big fan of Elgton Jenkins, but he isn’t a C. He doesn’t have the quickness required to snap the ball and get out of his stance to block against SEC defensive lines, based on what I saw Saturday. And don’t even get me started on how many of his snaps were too low. Fitz was constantly having to bend down to grab a low snap and it throws off the timing of your plays. We have got to get that sorted ASAP or we’re going to have problems moving forward.

It’s an indictment of OL coach John Hevesy that we’re in the position of not having a C on the roster this year and trying to convert a T into one. I’ve said for years I think he’s a good developer of what he has, but his ability to recruit is absolutely terrible.

5. WRs were productive. 10 different WRs/TEs caught a pass on Saturday. Donald Gray, Reggie Todd, and Gabe Myles tied for the team lead with 3 apiece. If Todd continues to improve and becomes a reliable weapon, I’m going to really like this group. He adds some much needed size to a group full of slot guys.

Coaching/Intangibles:

1. Dan Mullen and Co had a solid, if predictably vanilla, game plan in place on Saturday. State ran 86 offensive plays, 50 rushing and 36 passing. State was just about a 60/40 rush/pass ratio on the day. Ideally I’d like to see us a little closer to a 65/35 split, but 55/45 – 60/40 is pretty typical for a Mullen offense.

When I say the offense was vanilla, I mean it was very clear we were limiting what we were running. Fitz only ran the read option a handful of times. We were mostly going with a pure handoff or QB run. For an offense predicated on the threat of the QB option game, that makes you somewhat predictable. But I agreed with the game plan. There’s no point in putting Fitz at risk against an FCS opponent.

2. My biggest praise goes to new Defensive Coordinator (DC) Todd Grantham. That guy has done one hell of a job this offseason. He has completely transformed a very soft, porous D into a unit that is physical and hard to move the ball against. As I noted above, it was easy to see how fast we played and how well coached we looked.

What impressed me was everyone’s knowledge of the system and their assignments. You could spot the confidence and belief our players had a mile away. They were reacting instead of thinking and that makes all the difference on D. The intensity and aggression were off the charts. This unit has done a complete 180 in just one offseason. At one point in the game I sent a text to my buddies that said: “We just blitzed on 3rd and long. You can do that? Fire Grantham!*****” (sarcasterisks to indicate sarcasm, for those not in the loop). It was refreshing to see us actually turn the D loose to get after the QB in a situation that called for it. We haven’t seen that in years from a State D.

Here is something that should be scary for opposing offensive coordinators this year: I thought we were pretty vanilla on D against the Bucs. We didn’t do a ton of things in terms of exotic formation looks or running stunts, etc. We just lined up and whipped the guy across from us, as you’d expect against an FCS team. But when we blitzed, we got home or created pressure. Once we start really breaking out the different looks, disguising coverages, etc., this defense could become scary good.

3. We’ll find out for sure over the next 3-4 games, but I think we’ve got some real leaders on this team. That’s a big difference from last year. There was a killer instinct from this group, especially on D. When the Bucs had just 9 total yards before their final possession, the D was challenging one other to finish with TFLs and hold CSU to 0 yards on the day. That’s the kind of attitude we’ve been missing on D.

4. Nice to see us not only use our depth, but play a bunch of freshmen on Saturday. Kylin Hill debuted early at RB and looks really good. I’m buying the hype on him. He’s rough, in a good way. Kobe Jones looked like he was worth every penny Northern Miss paid him. I loved the decision to put Keytaon Thompson on the field early Saturday. There’s a lot of talk he has early entry potential, so no point wasting a redshirt year on him. We don’t have another credible backup QB on the roster, so why risk his first snaps being against LSU, or worse, Alabama? Getting him live action snaps was the right call. And to his credit, he didn’t look overwhelmed and got better as he settled into the game.

One of the big criticisms I’ve had of Mullen is his reluctance to let freshmen play that are ready. He’s throwing them in the fire early this year, so hat’s off to him for making an adjustment that was long overdue. It shows real growth from him.

WMD’s Final Thoughts:

I know this game comes with all the caveats of “It was an FCS team, blah blah blah…” But let’s be really honest: We’ve played some teams and offenses just as bad or worse and not dominated them the way we did Saturday. The improvement in this team is there for all to see, and I for one, am really excited about what this group can do. We seem to have finally found a DC who has turned our physical freaks on that side of the ball loose to use their freakishness to go make plays. We had over 500 yards of offense on a day when Fitz wasn’t sharp passing or running the read option, which is what he does best.

We’ll get a lot of questions answered against Louisiana Tech this Saturday, especially about the OL. They’re a nice step up in competition and a team that traditionally plays us very tough, especially down there. I’m expecting a physical battle and a hard fought game that may go down to the wire. This will be La Tech’s Super Bowl and they’ll play like it at home.

Hail State, my friends!

WMD