As the 2011 regular season in college football winds down, the Mississippi State Bulldogs find themselves continuing to search for a win that would ascend them into the national spotlight, as well as relieve the pressure on a squad that has managed just a 2-11 record against SEC West opponents since head coach Dan Mullen took the helm in 2009.
MSU has an opportunity to improve that record this weekend, but the task will be anything but easy Saturday when the Bulldogs travel to Little Rock to take on the sixth ranked Arkansas Razorbacks, Mullen said.
“We obviously have a big challenge this week,” he said. “You go from playing a team who has the number one defense in the nation to this week playing the top offense in the conference. To win a game on the road in the Southeastern Conference is a challenge, and to do it against one of the top teams in the nation, you’re going to have to play well in all three phases.”
MSU’s two other top-10 opponents, Alabama and LSU, are known for being a physical, grind-it-out type of football team. This style, however, does not hold true for Arkansas (9-1, 5-1), who ranks first in the SEC in scoring offense, total offense and passing offense. This is largely due to junior quarterback Tyler Wilson, who has thrown for an average of 285 yards per game and leads the SEC in total offense this season. Wilson is aided offensively by a plethora of explosive wide receivers including seniors Jarius Wright, who ranks first in the conference in both receptions per game and receiving yards per game, and Joe Adams, who is in the top-10 in the SEC in both categories.
MSU junior cornerback Corey Broomfield, who admitted Saturday’s game will be one of the biggest of his career, said to contain the Razorback passing attack, the Bulldogs must limit big-play opportunities.
“They have an immense amount of talent at receiver,” Broomfield said. “We pride ourselves on running to the ball, and if you get 11 guys to the ball, not a lot of big plays are going to happen.”
While Arkansas’s offensive versatility has caused fits for several opponents this season, the MSU defense, which is highlighted by Broomfield and other veteran defensive backs, is anticipating a prospect of finally facing a pass-first offense.
“We played Alabama this last week, and they probably ran the ball about 180 times,” Broomfield joked. “(In Saturday’s game) you get a chance to go out there and do what you like to do, you get to cover guys and don’t have to tackle big, 250-pound running backs every play.”
Defensively, the Razorbacks are notorious for creating problems by blitzing from every position and angle on the field. They are led by seniors Jerry Franklin, a linebacker, and Tramain Thomas, a safety, who combined have amassed nearly 150 tackles throughout the 2011 season. Junior linebacker Alonzo Highsmith, who trails Thomas by only one tackle, leads the Razorbacks with three sacks in 10 games this season. As a unit statistically, the Arkansas defense ranks seventh in the SEC in scoring defense and ninth in both passing and rushing defense.
MSU sophomore quarterback Tyler Russell said although he has only started a couple of games so far in his college career, the experience he is gaining has made him more comfortable when facing the blitz.
“When (a defense) blitzes, it should be a compliment to our offense,” Russell said. “You have to be prepared to get the ball out, and once you start making throws on the blitz, they’ll stop blitzing and you can get the run game going.”
Saturday’s game is being played in War Memorial Stadium, which serves as the Razorback’s alternate home field throughout the course of every season. The game is set to kick-off at 2:30 p.m. and can be viewed on CBS.