For the first time since the 1999 season, the Mississippi State football team will leave the month of September with a perfect 4-0 record.
This feat comes after the Bulldogs defeated the South Alabama Jaguars 30-10, marking MSU’s 14th consecutive non-conference victory, as well as a current six-game winning streak.
MSU fans will justifiably be happy with the Bulldogs’ early season success, but there is also cause for concern as the meat of State’s conference schedule begins to approach. Although State’s defense showed definite improvement a week after a near debacle at the hands of Troy, State’s offense struggled significantly against South Alabama.
Junior quarterback Tyler Russell completed only 13 of 27 passes for 171 yards. Though he added a touchdown on a short quarterback sneak in the third quarter, a mixture of solid coverage by South Alabama defenders and untimely miscues led to a less-than-average performance for MSU’s starting quarterback.
Head coach Dan Mullen said Russell did not have a great game.
“To me, Tyler (Russell) was just a little bit off tonight,” Mullen said. “We put a lot on him. When we’re not throwing the ball well, to come up with a win is still big.”
Although the offense sputtered at times, MSU’s special teams put together what was arguably its best performance in Dan Mullen’s four-year tenure at State. With 135 yards in kickoff and punt returns, seniors Johnthan Banks and Chad Bumphis and sophomore Jameon Lewis consistently gave the Dogs great field position.
Mullen, who coaches the special teams, said he was pleased with his kickers and returners.
“The special teams coach did a good job today,” Mullen joked. “Our kick returns, overall, were pretty solid.”
The Bulldog kicking game performed exceptionally well against the Jaguars. Junior punter Baker Swedenberg averaged 47.7 yards on four punts, and freshman kicker Devon Bell nailed three field goals, all of which were longer than 30 yards. Bell improved to 4-7 on the year, after starting with just one make in his first four attempts.
“He was perfect tonight (Saturday) on kicks,” Mullen said. “You can see that his kicks were solid all night long. Hopefully, I imagine, this will give him some confidence moving forward and have him perform how we expect him to perform.”
Bell, who is the first MSU kicker to make multiple field goals of more than 40 yards since Sean Brauchle in 2009, echoed his head coach and said although he got off to a sour start in his collegiate career, Mullen never lost patience or confidence in the young kicker.
“(Mullen’s) told me after every single kick that he knows I can make them,” Bell said. “He knew that as a true freshman coming in and kicking, that I was going to struggle a little bit, but he is patient with that, and now I’m good.”
Bell also said seeing one of his kicks go through the uprights against Troy a week ago did wonders for his self-confidence and played a critical role in his success against South Alabama.
“Getting that field goal at Troy really got the monkey off my back and gave me some confidence,” Bell said. “Tonight (Saturday), I was a lot more relaxed and was just ready to go.”
Now ranked No. 19, according to the latest Associated Press poll, MSU will enjoy a bye week before traveling to Lexington, Ky., to take on the Wildcats.
Mullen said along with overall improvement, the plan during the bye week will be to allow starters to regain full health while getting younger players ample opportunities in practice.
“We have a lot of improving we have to do on both sides of the ball, but we’ll get a lot of that fixed during the bye week this week,” Mullen said. “The young guys have to continue to improve and have to continue to make plays.”
Senior cornerback Johnthan Banks, who Mullen pointed out as a guy who would probably get more rest than others during the bye week, said he looks forward to working hard at practice this week in preparation for a difficult slate of games during the month of October.
“I might not be doing as much as a freshman, but I’m going to come out there and work every day,” Banks said. “I want to be great, and I can’t be great sitting on the sidelines when I can be working.”