Despite a 55-17 homecoming victory against UT Martin Saturday night and holding a winning record for the first time this season, the Bulldogs seek to clean up their game before meeting Alabama on the field this weekend.
Head coach Dan Mullen said the win against the Skyhawks was key to the program and its bowl hopes for 2011 as the Bulldogs are now one win away from becoming bowl eligible.
“We’re in November now, and we have a winning record,” he said. “That’s a good direction for where we want our program to be — to have winning records in November.”
Senior running back Vick Ballard scored the first touchdown of the night, which was the first time this season State has scored during its opening drive.
State scored two more times in the first quarter: Jonathan Banks, junior cornerback, had a career first punt return touchdown and Chad Bumphis, junior wide receiver, caught a 78-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Tyler Russell.
During the second quarter, senior quarterback Chris Relf saw playing time and threw a 27-yard pass to Arceto Clark, junior wide receiver, for a touchdown.
Mullen called the team’s performance in the first half embarrassing despite the lopsided halftime score.
“We had two three and outs in the first half. You can’t have three and outs if you’re going to be a good football team,” he said. “Our kids scored, and we did make some plays, but I didn’t think we were as clean as I wanted us to be.”
Before halftime, the Skyhawks were only able to put three points on the board from a 31-yard field goal, leaving the score at 28-3.
Early in the third quarter, Ballard ran 54 yards to score a touchdown, his first in four games.
Ballard said although he just wants the team to win, it felt good to get back in the endzone.
“I haven’t had a long run like this since the Memphis game. It felt good,” he said. “I haven’t scored since La Tech. It was like a breath of fresh air.”
After Russell threw an interception, the Skyhawks began a drive that ended in their first touchdown of the night.
Russell said he did not think he played up to par during the game and although State was fortunate enough to put points on the board, the team needs to take it up a notch when playing Alabama.
“I’m kinda glad we made the mistakes in this game, so we can correct it, so we won’t make the same mistakes in the Alabama game,” he said. “We just got to keep pushing and keep getting better.”
Relf returned as quarterback for the Bulldogs’ final drive of the third quarter and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Clark, to bring the score to 42-10.
Mullen said he was pleased with Relf’s performance.
“Chris, I thought, was excellent,” he said. “You can see the veteran in him … he managed the situations very well, never got panicked.”
During the fourth quarter, redshirt freshman running back Nick Griffin, who suffered a severe knee injury last spring, scored his first career touchdown on a five-yard run.
Griffin said the game was a confidence booster to show what he could do after the injury.
“I feel pretty good. My confidence level is probably (really high) right now,” he said.
The Skyhawks managed to score another touchdown toward the end of the final quarter, bringing the score to 49-17.
Redshirt freshman Dylan Favre also saw playing time as quarterback and scored the first touchdown of his career, bringing the score to 55-17, where it would remain as the clock wound down during UT Martin’s final drive of the night.
Despite only scoring two touchdowns, the Skyhawks finished the game with a total gain of 454 yards, 269 of those rushing.
Mullen said UT Martin played well and spoke about State working to improve on allowing yard gains on the ground.
“We didn’t give up many points, but we have to get a lot better, and we got some things we can improve on before next week’s game against Alabama,” he said. “I have a good idea of what Alabama is going to want to do and what their game plan is going to be all about against us, especially with their offense.”
Chris Wilson, defensive coordinator, said he did not believe the team was as physical as it needed to be.
“We haven’t been (physical) all year long,” he said. “That is something we control as coaches, and we need to do a better job of that throughout this upcoming week — being physical. This is going to be a very physical football game coming up next week.”