With the 2011 football season halfway complete, the Mississippi State Bulldogs find themselves in desperate need of a conference victory. They will have that opportunity this Saturday when the South Carolina Gamecocks (5-1, 3-1) come into town.
The Gamecocks, ranked 15th nationally by the Associated Press, come into the game on a high after trouncing conference opponent Kentucky 54-3 in their game last Saturday.
MSU (3-3, 0-3) is coming off a non-conference win against UAB, a game in which the Bulldogs scored all of their points in the second half, rallying from a 3-0 halftime deficit to down the Blazers 21-3.
The come-from-behind victory capped a two-game road trip for State, and junior defensive tackle Fletcher Cox said although he does not feel as though his team is road weary, Davis Wade Stadium will be a welcome sight for the Bulldogs.
“It’s good to be back at home, in front of the home crowd,” he said.
On the surface, there are few similarities between the Bulldogs and Gamecocks. After a further examination, however, multiple facets of each team are nearly identical.
The offense of each team can justifiably be labeled as run-heavy. South Carolina boasts sophomore running back Marcus Lattimore, a bruiser-style running back who many consider a possible Heisman candidate this season. Lattimore has an astounding average of 24 rushing attempts per game so far in 2011 and has compiled 779 rushing yards and nine touchdowns through the first six games.
MSU is no slouch in the run game either. The Bulldogs are led in the rushing attack by senior tail back Vick Ballard, who is coming off his third 100-yard performance of the season against UAB. Through State’s first six games, Ballard has carried the ball 85 times for 531 yards and five scores.
Although it is Lattimore who is making headlines and in the national spotlight, Ballard averages almost an entire yard more per touch than Lattimore, with 6.2 yards a carry compared to Lattimore’s 5.3 average.
Another parallel that can be drawn between the two teams is the lack of consistency from the quarterback position.
South Carolina began the season with fifth-year senior Stephen Garcia at the helm, but after five games of erratic and inconsistent production, the Gamecocks turned to sophomore quarterback Connor Shaw. In his only game as the starting quarterback, Shaw put up huge numbers, compiling over 350 total yards and four touchdowns in South Carolina’s blowout win against Kentucky. On Tuesday of this week, USC released a statement saying Garcia had been dismissed from the football program, making Shaw the unquestioned signal caller for the Gamecocks.
Although South Carolina’s quarterback controversy appears solved, State’s is anything but. After starting the first six games of the season, senior quarterback Chris Relf was pulled at halftime of State’s game Saturday against UAB in favor of sophomore Tyler Russell. Russell made the most of the opportunity, going 11-13 passing for 166 yards and three touchdowns. This was not the first time this season Relf has been pulled from a game, and it remains to be seen who will start for the Bulldogs in Saturday’s game. 
There is an old adage that states if a coach plays two quarterbacks, he really does not have one. MSU head coach Dan Mullen said he does not necessarily believe in that and added South Carolina is in the same situation as the Bulldogs.
“They just benched one of the top recruits in the country four years ago,” he said a day before Garcia was dismissed from the team. “It seemed to work okay for them last week, too.”
A lack of stability at the quarterback position has perhaps been a reason why both teams have underachieved up to this point in the 2011 season. South Carolina was ranked 12th in the preseason by the Associated Press and labeled by most as a clear-cut favorite to win the SEC East. Some even thought the Gamecocks were a dark-horse candidate to play in the National Championship game. USC has struggled to remain consistent in the first half of the season, having to come from behind in three of their five wins without playing the toughest part of its SEC schedule.
Likewise, MSU was ranked 20th in the 2011 preseason AP poll, the first time since 2001 the Bulldogs had seen their name in the top 25 before the beginning of the season. Although experts did not expect for State to have the same magnitude of success as South Carolina, most expected the Bulldogs to continue to build off their 9-4 record last year and find themselves in another New Year’s Day bowl, if not better. MSU struggled out of the gate, though, losing two of its first three games and tumbling out of the rankings before staggering to a 3-3 record coming into this weekend’s game.
Saturday’s contest is pivotal for both squads, and Bulldog fans will get an opportunity to see if MSU has any chance of rekindling the flame that brought them so much success last year. Offensive line coach John Hevesy said it is imperative that the Bulldogs play hard from start to finish against the Gamecocks.
“Saturday is payday,” he said. “Go get it. Sixty minutes is all you get to play all week. We can’t wait until the second half.”
Saturday’s game is set to kick off at 11:21 a.m. and will be televised by the SEC Network.