Mississippi State enters what has been called “Redemption Week” by some players after coming off of their worst loss in the Dan Mullen era.
The Bulldogs lost in heartbreaking fashion to South Alabama, a school that did not have a football team until 2009, last Saturday by a score of 21-20, blowing a 17 point lead and being outscored in the second half by a score of 21 to 3.
MSU senior wide receiver Fred Ross noticed that the team was lacking intensity coming out of halftime. Ross reflected on the team’s mood in practice this week.
“I feel like we didn’t bring that intensity, and it showed,” Ross said to the media on Tuesday. “Now when we practice, the whole practice everyone is locked in, and we know we can’t let up any bit during the game and have to finish all four quarters.”
The team was expected to have some issues after losing Dak Prescott, but most everyone had chocked up this game as a win. After losing Chris Jones, Taveze Calhoun, Will Redmond and most of the starters that had remained from the 10-win team in 2014, a young roster is left behind to try and carry on a winning tradition.
Co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach John Hevesy said the team has to learn to earn the right to win.
“They figured out very quickly in a bad way,” Hevesy said. “You’re not going to walk out there and win a game. I don’t care who it is, we could play the lowest level team, we could play a high school team. You better earn every play in that game.”
Throughout the week, every player has responded with anger and frustration over the loss. Guard Deion Calhoun said he sympathized with fan’s anger on social media over the loss. Wide receiver Donald Gray spent over 30 minutes after practice catching footballs from the Jugs machine. Desperation has been the focus for the Bulldogs this week according to Gray.
“We have got to be desperate,” Gray said. “We have to be desperate to be great, desperate to get to the ball, desperate to score, we got to be desperate to be great at everything we do whether it is walking to class or tying up your shoe strings, we have to be desperate to win.”
The bounce-back game will not be easy for MSU as they play SEC East foe South Carolina, a team that has beaten MSU seven times in a row, with MSU’s last win coming in 1999. The last time they played was in 2013, and South Carolina won by a score of 34-16.
“It’s redemption week, that’s all I can say,” Gray said. “It is going to be a different team come Saturday.”
While MSU is coming off a close loss, South Carolina will be coming off a close game themselves, but instead of losing they squeaked out a 13-10 win over Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs will look to make amends for last Saturday’s loss tomorrow at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
