With kickoff days away, Dan Mullen and a handful of players met with the media Monday to discuss the much-anticipated season opener against Memphis. Here are the highlights of what they had to say.
Mullen discussed quarterback Chris Relf’s improvement and how he can continue to improve in 2011 with higher expectations placed on him.
“I’m constant on improving,” Mullen said. “One of the things that Chris understands is how he got to where he is now. He took those steps to continually improve, bought into the program and bought into what we need him to do. He’s seen incredible improvement over the last two years.”
When asked how “jacked” Mullen gets before games, the third-year head coach reminded the media every season boils down to just 12 hours on the field.
“I’ve been preparing these guys for eight, nine months now, preparing this team for the 12 hours in the regular season,” Mullen said. “You get 12 60-minute games and that’s it. All year round for those 12 hours.”
Middle linebacker Brandon Wilson, who earned the starting role over transfer Brandon Maye, said the team will be more focused on itself than what Memphis is trying to do schematically.
“We tried to get some tendencies from last year, but, like you said, you really don’t worry too much about the gameplan,” Wilson said. “You just make sure what you’re doing is up to par. Once you go out and execute yourself, then you worry about the gameplan.”
Junior wide receiver Chad Bumphis, who a year ago led the team in recieving, expects to face an athletic Tiger defense.
Bumphis caught four passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns against Memphis in the season opener a year ago.
“I just expect them to be real athletic,” Bumphis said. “Last year they were really athletic and had good players at every position. You never know what to expect with this being the first game.”
“Being the first game, I think everybody is going to be excited, but you can’t look down on anybody. It’s college football you never know what could happen.”
Defensive coordinator Chris Wilson will make his debut as the head man on defense after serving as co-coordinator a year ago with Manny Diaz. Fans can expect a similar defense, but Wilson said he is excited to see what his group can do in game scenarios.
“I’m excited to really go out and watch our guys compete,” Wilson said. “I’m just ready to see our product, especially being year two of the defense. The biggest thing is you go into the game and you don’t know what exactly the opponent will be. I want to make sure Mississippi State does what we do extremely well. That’s what we’ve been focusing on.”
When asked if his offense would keep things “vanilla” in the first game, Wilson laughed and responded by saying, “There’s nothing vanilla about what we do.”
Mullen was also asked about the noticeable change in attitude around not only the football program but around the university.
For the first time in a decade, expecations are for the team to win eight or nine games, if not more, which is a byproduct of the excitement Mullen has brought to Starkville since his arrival in 2009.
“It doesn’t surprise me, I’m just happy everybody has bought in,” Mullen said. “If you change the way you think, and everybody believes in what you’re going to do, you can accomplish anything.”