The Mississippi State Bulldogs will try to pull out a nonconference win against a major-conference opponent for the first time since 1995 Saturday when they square off with Georgia Tech.
Georgia Tech, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, is coming off a 7-6 season. They are currently 2-1 this year with wins over Jacksonville State at home and Boston College on the road. Last week, they lost at Virginia Tech 20-17.
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson is in his first season with the Yellow Jackets. In six seasons as the head coach at Navy, he posted a record of 45-29 and led Navy to five bowl games.
Under Johnson, Georgia Tech now uses a triple option offense, whose most common play is the quarterback deciding to hand the ball off to the fullback, running back or keeping it and running himself, based on what he sees in the defense. The triple option is very rare in college football these days.
Georgia Tech often uses a formation called the flexbone, which is a variation of the wishbone offense invented by former MSU head coach Emory Bellard in 1968 when he was the offensive coordinator at Texas.
“I played in the wishbone. I know how hard it is to defend,” MSU head coach Sylvester Croom said. “Their offense is a little variation on a pure wishbone. It adds some more elements to it in the passing game that create more problems.”
This season the Yellow Jackets have run the ball 134 times, compared to only 36 passing attempts. They rank ninth in the FBS in rushing yards per game and average 5.8 yards per rushing attempt.
Sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt leads the Georgia Tech offense. He is currently second in the ACC in rushing with 261 yards and four touchdowns already. He has also thrown for 269 yards and a touchdown.
Also included in Georgia Tech’s strong running game is running back Jonathan Dwyer, whose 248 rushing yards so far this season are third in the ACC.
On the offensive lines, the Yellow Jackets return senior First Team All-ACC offensive tackle Andrew Gardner.
The Yellow Jacket defense is currently ranked 27th in the FBS and features sophomore safety Morgan Burnett, who has two interceptions so far this year, and last year’s First Team All-ACC defensive tackle Vance Walker.
The Bulldogs are currently 1-2 and coming off an ugly 3-2 loss to Auburn which saw the offense gain only 116 total yards. Despite this performance, Johnson had praise for the MSU offense.
“I think sometimes their offense gets overlooked a little bit because they do have good skill guys,” Johnson said. “They just haven’t put it together yet, and hopefully they will wait a week.”
Junior running back Anthony Dixon, the Bulldogs’ leading rusher with 176 yards and two touchdowns, has been sidelined at practice this week with a groin injury and may not play Saturday.
“We’ve got a little more depth there where we can go out and compete and have a chance to still win, whereas in the past, if we’d lost Dixon, we would’ve really had some real problems,” Croom said. “We feel like we can still run the football with the guys we have if he doesn’t play.”
Croom mentioned junior Christian Ducré and freshman Robert Elliot as running backs that could carry the load effectively if Dixon is unable to play.
In addition, freshman tight end Marcus Green and freshman kicker Eric Richards remain injured and are not expected to play Friday.
The Bulldog defense was outstanding last week, holding a top 10 Auburn team to only three points. Defending such a rare offensive scheme, however, will prove to be a challenge.
“Each position has a responsibility. When each position takes care of their responsibility, good things will happen. You’ve got to be fundamentally sound. You’ve got to make sure you pay attention to detail,” defensive coordinator Charlie Harbison said.
Despite the Yellow Jackets’ strong running game, Johnson does see a big challenge in facing the Bulldog defense, which has allowed only 2.77 yards per carry.
“That is pretty impressive,” Johnson said. “I think they have given up three touchdowns this year: one was a nine-yard drive and the other was a 12-yard drive against Louisiana Tech off of a turnover. They also gave up one to Southeast Louisiana when the game was over. They are very good on defense.”
This is only the third ever meeting between Mississippi State and Georgia Tech and the first since 1929. Georgia Tech won both of the previous meetings.