The Auburn Tigers will ride into Davis Wade Stadium on the wheels of a Cadillac Saturday morning.
Senior running back Carnell “Cadillac” Williams has averaged over five yards a carry in all three of his seasons as a Tiger. The 5-foot-11-inch, 210-pound tailback tore through the Mississippi State defense last year.
Williams accumulated 161 yards in 15 attempts and set an Auburn single-game record with six rushing touchdowns.
The Caddy racked up 103 yards on 23 carries last week in his 12th career 100-yard game.
“No matter who you’re playing, you want to run the football on offense and stop the run on defense,” Mississippi State head football coach Sylvester Croom said. “We want to be able to do both, and we want the other team to be one-dimensional. If they’ve got both clicking, it’s going to be a long day.”
Williams isn’t the only rushing challenge the Bulldogs will face from Auburn.
Second-string running back Ronnie Brown is a bruising 234-pound bowling ball.
The senior rushed only seven times, but for 55 yards and a touchdown in Auburn’s 31-0 victory of Louisiana-Monroe last weekend.
Senior quarterback Jason Campbell completed 11 of 18 passes for 110 yards, two touchdowns and one interception last week.
Campbell is not the type of quarterback that beats teams with deep throws, but he is a consistent passer.
The Taylorsville native ranks first in Auburn’s career completion percentage (62.3).
Campbell has only averaged 16 passes a game in his career and last year the 6-foot-5 quarterback threw 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville commented on Croom’s restructuring of the MSU football program.
“Mississippi State is a much improved team with a different attitude,” Tuberville said. “(Croom) put in his discipline, changed the attitude and has done a good job. Last week they played against Tulane with a lot of intensity and with tremendous enthusiasm, something that they haven’t done for the last couple of years.”
Keys for the MSU defense:
The Bulldogs will not be able to totally shut down Auburn’s running game, but if they can hold Williams and Brown to minimal gains on first and second downs, they will force Campbell to throw more passes than he normally does.
Auburn ran over and around the Bulldogs for 405 yards last year a day after then-head coach Jackie Sherrill announced he would retire at the end of the season.
The Tigers return five starters on a defense that ranked fifth in the nation in 2003. Auburn’s defense held opponents to 281 yards per game and only allowed opponents 92 rushing yards a game.
“They lost their entire front seven from last year,” MSU offensive lineman Will Rogers said. “Right now they are rebuilding also.”
On the defensive line Auburn returns only one starter. Senior Brett Eddins started nine out of the Tiger’s 13 games. The 6-foot-5, 267-pound end made 20 tackles last year.
“They run as well as any (defensive line) that I’ve seen,” Croom said. “They have great pursuit. They have been well coached in that front, because they run to the football all the time.”
Seniors Junior Rosegreen and Carlos Rogers make the secondary the strongest part of the Auburn defense. Rosegreen is an All-SEC preseason second team pick, who has started every game the last two seasons. In his career at Auburn he has made 142 total tackles.
Not to be outdone, Rogers has totaled 139 tackles in his career as a Tiger.
Auburn returns one starting linebacker, junior Travis Williams. But the Tigers have reloaded with two other stout linebackers, 6-foot-4, 244-pound Kevin Sears and 5-foot-11, 210-pounder Antarrious Williams.
Keys for the MSU offense:
Auburn’s defense may be younger than last year’s squad, but the Tigers have talented and physical players on the rise.
The best thing the Dawgs can do is maintain control of the ball and clock by establishing the running game early and balancing that with high-percentage passes.
“We’ve still got to work a lot this week (on Conner’s) footwork and his rhythm and his decision making,” Croom said Tuesday. “We have to be better on our five-step and three-step passing game if the offense is to go where it needs to go.”
The Bulldogs only threw the ball 20 times last Saturday compared to 47 running plays. For a West Coast offense that’s an odd ratio.
“We are going to do whatever it takes to win each week. If we have to throw it 50 times, that’s what we’ll do. If we have to run it 50 times, that’s what we’ll do,” Croom said.