Mississippi State played against FCS school Northwestern State this past Saturday in what was nothing more than a glorified scrimmage. MSU clobbered the Demons 62-13 in a game that saw everything from records broken to possibly the beginning of more broken records in the future.
Before the game, Dak Prescott was only 182 passing yards away from breaking the MSU career passing record. In the second quarter on a 45 yard pass to Donald Gray, he would get the yardage needed to become the all-time leader. The record was previously held by Wayne Madkin. Prescott finished the game with 227 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and only threw one incomplete pass.
“I don’t really think too much about what record I broke,” Prescott said.
“It’s early in the year and we still have a long year to go, so it really doesn’t mean much right now. I guess when I look back on it in life it will mean a lot more than it does in this moment.”
Many young Bulldog players saw their first live action game Saturday as the backups played pretty much the entire second half. The Bulldog rushing game was led by redshirt Freshman Dontavian Lee who had 57 yards on five rushes. Not to be outshined, fellow redshirt Freshman Aeris Williams rushed for 36 yards and got his first career touchdown.
Sophomore Donald Gray had a huge day leading the Bulldogs in receiving with 140 yards on four catches and one touchdown.
“One of the great things is that guys got on the field,” Head coach Dan Mullen said. “We are going to go evaluate that film and see who gave unbelievable effort, and if you did you are going to get a couple more reps, if you didn’t you are going to get a couple less reps.”
Redshirt Freshman Nick Fitzgerald started the second half as Prescott got to relax on the sideline. Fitzgerald went 4-4 and had 90 passing yards, 28 rushing yards and three total touchdowns, one through the air and one on the ground.
After Fitzgerald, redshirt Freshman Elijah Staley took the field. Staley went 2-3 and had 55 passing yards to go with a single touchdown. He also had seven yards on one rush.
“It was definitely a great time,” Fitzgerald said on getting in the game. “I’ve been working hard, and been here for what feels like forever and to finally get some plays in was a good time.”
The Bulldogs’ defense held Northwestern State to 257 total yards. Junior Safety Kivon Coman led the Bulldogs with seven tackles. There was a party in the NSU backfield as the MSU defense got four sacks and 13 tackles for loss.
The Bulldogs will be back in action next Saturday at Auburn. Auburn is 2-1 and coming off a blowout loss to LSU. The game starts at 6:30 and will be on ESPN2.
