Before turning their attention back to SEC opponents, the Mississippi State Bulldogs will face the South Alabama Jaguars Saturday at Davis Wade Stadium.
MSU (3-0) is fresh off a non-conference road scare a week ago at Troy. The Bulldogs were plagued by missed tackles and dropped passes throughout the game and yielded a gruesome 572 yards of offense to Troy; yet, the Bulldogs found a way to escape the game 30-24 victors.
Head coach Dan Mullen said the team had to clean things up at practice this week.
 ”There were opportunities to do things better and a lot of moments where we really could have seized the momentum on both sides but we didn’t,” Mullen said.
Still undefeated and ranked No. 23 in the latest Associated Press poll, State will look to fix its miscues against South Alabama, a non-conference opponent  currently in the process of transitioning to a FBS league. Previously an independent team, the Jaguars, whose football program began in 2009, will play a full-FBS schedule before officially becoming a member of the Sun Belt in 2013.
Through three games this season, the Jaguars have a 1-2 record that includes a win against Nicholls State and losses to Texas San Antonio and North Carolina State.
In practice this week, MSU coaches and players have put great emphasis on fundamentals in hopes of sharpening preparation in future games. Freshman wide receiver Joe Morrow said some of the offensive woes against Troy were due to a lack of focus, which is something else the Bulldogs have worked on during practice this week.
“We weren’t locked in,” Morrow said. “This week, we’ve been framing up catches and catching more balls. We’re going to fix it.”
Defensively, Mullen said MSU had 22 missed tackles and18 missed assignments against Troy. Senior defensive tackle Josh Boyd said this can be cured by correcting different techniques throughout the game.
“Sometimes we were just focused more on making plays instead of reading our keys,” Boyd said. “We just made some careless mistakes. It was a disappointment, but it’s something we have to correct.”
Although MSU’s defense gave up big plays to Troy, the unit also produced big plays, creating four turnovers. Senior cornerback Darius Slay, who accounted for three of the turnovers, said State’s big plays on defense against Troy were able to balance out several of the miscues throughout the course of the game.
“We’re not used to (miscues),” Slay said. “We’re used to making big plays, stopping the run and getting three-and-outs. The defense wasn’t very consistent, but we made a lot of big plays to turn the game around.”
Slay also said MSU’s ability to win games while struggling with execution is a sign of the magnitude of team the Bulldogs are this season.
“Playing a sloppy game like that lets us know that we have a good team when we still pull out a win,” Slay said. “This week we’ve come back in, got better and fixed our corrections.”
For South Alabama’s offense, success is dictated largely by the play at the quarterback position. Sophomore C.J Bennett and junior Ross Metheny have combined for over 600 yards passing in the Jaguar’s three games and added three touchdowns.
On the other side of the ball, USA is anchored by senior Jake Johnson. The middle linebacker has racked up 30 tackles, four tackles for loss and a sack so far this season. As a whole, the Jaguars’ defense averages one takeaway a game and will certainly be looking for more against MSU on Saturday.
Mullen said South Alabama will try to spread its opponent’s defense out in a very similar way to Troy.
“Defensively, (South Alabama) is pretty stout,” Mullen said. “They’ve given up 300 yards a game. They’re a very sound defensive team and they play hard.”
Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 6 p.m. at Davis Wade Stadium. All students and fans attending the game are encouraged to wear white.