Heading into Saturday’s game against West Virginia University, Mississippi State made a change to its special teams unit with the intent to gain an early edge on the Mountaineers. From seeing how other teams had been playing against the kickoff unit, State coaches felt if they kicked the ball off to the right, it might catch the opposing team off guard.
On Saturday, the coaching staff’s plans worked perfectly.
On the opening kickoff, Adam Carlson’s kick drifted off to the right, and just as the State staff had anticipated, West Virginia running back Steve Slaton fumbled and the Bulldogs recovered.
Everything was set up perfectly for the Bulldogs to jump out to an early lead, however, Mississippi State was offsides on the kick.
There would be no turnover and no early game-changing play, at least on the Bulldogs end, as that play among others led to a No. 9 West Virginia 38-13 win over the Bulldogs Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium.
After the Bulldogs’ re-kicked, Mountaineer quarterback Patrick White took the opening play 64 yards for a touchdown on a quarterback keeper only 21 seconds into the contest.
The Bulldogs (4-4, 1-3 SEC) were unable to recover from the deficit.
West Virginia (6-1, 1-1 Big East) went on to score three more times in the first quarter.
Mississippi State head coach Sylvester Croom said the game got away from them too early.
“This game got out of hand from the start,” Croom said in his post-game radio interview. “We were pretty much out of the ballgame in the first half. The disappointing thing to me was the penalties and turnovers. We haven’t played like that all year.”
On its next two possessions, Mississippi State went three-and-out and then fumble while West Virginia continued to add to its lead.
White found fullback/tight end Owen Schmitt for a 13-yard touchdown, and after an Anthony Dixon fumble, White then found wide out Darius Reynaud on a 10-yard score.
The Mountaineers scored once more in the first quarter on a 26-yard run by Slaton.
Only six seconds into the second quarter, West Virginia went on to add a field goal, but after the score the Mountaineers turned flat, allowing the Bulldog offense to emerge.
The Bulldogs got on the board after a 1-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal by Anthony Dixon, who finished the game with 61 yards.
A 22-yard pass from true freshman quarterback Wesley Carroll to Jamayel Smith helped set up the score midway through the second quarter.
The Bulldogs’ other score came on its first possession in the second half, capped off by a 3-yard run by running back Christian Ducré.
The Bulldogs defense also found its groove after the first quarter.
After giving up 28 points in the first quarter, the unit only surrendered 10 points throughout the rest of the game.
Croom said that was the way he envisioned the game going.
“I expected us to be in the ballgame in the fourth quarter. I knew they would make some plays,” he said. “But the way we played in the second half was how I anticipated we’d play the entire game. But this thing got out of hand and changed the way we had to play the game.”
The Mountaineers finished the game with 346 yards of total offense, only 130 yards coming after the first quarter.
West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez said he felt the first quarter shock may have taken something out of his team as well.
“After the first quarter we went flat, the team went flat and the crowd went flat,” Rodriguez said. “We talked about finishing the job, and we didn’t want to give them hope. Certainly when they scored the touchdowns we gave them hope.”
However, hope came too late for the Bulldogs.
“I’m proud of the way we finished the ballgame,” Croom said. “Now we just have to put this behind us and get back up.