STARKVILLE — Johnthan Banks feels the Mississippi State football team’s first three games have helped him prepare for his next assignment against the high octane passing game of Louisiana Tech (6 p.m., Saturday, ESPNU).
The junior cornerback has an interception in each of the past two games. His first look at Louisiana Tech’s offense tells him he will get opportunities to showcase that ability.
“I’m just always in the right spot at the right time now and have a lot of confidence,” Banks said. “I’m looking for more this week because they’re going to come out slinging with it.”
Banks last faced the scheme of Louisiana Tech offensive coordinator Tony Franklin in 2009 when MSU traveled to Middle Tennessee State and Franklin was leading the Blue Raiders’ attack. Banks, a multi-sport standout at East Webster High School, had two interceptions in that game.
After back-to-back losses to Auburn University and LSU, MSU coach Dan Mullen said the coaches have challenged the veteran secondary to be the strength of the defense while a young defensive line and linebackers figure out the speed of playing in the Southeastern Conference.
“I think we have to put some more on them,” Mullen said. “What’s the most experienced group on our team? It’s that secondary, so we have to really put more pressure on them to make bigger plays and perform at a higher level.”
Junior cornerback Corey Broomfield intercepted his ninth career pass against the University of Mississippi in the regular-season finale last season to move into the school’s all-time top 10 in the category. Banks’ interceptions this year give him nine for his career, too.
“I wanted to catch him for a while now, so I was pretty happy about that,” Banks said. “We’ll keep going back and forth on that list the way I see it.”
The 18 interceptions is the second most among active teammates in the nation. Virginia Tech’s Jayron Hosley (11 career interceptions) is the only non-senior with more interceptions than Broomfield and Banks.
Banks is tied with Broomfield (and Louisiana’s Dwight Bentley and Tennessee’s Prentiss Waggner) for the lead among active players with three interceptions returned for scores.
“He talks about it (with me), but we don’t try to compete against each other because it’s about the defense of this team,” Banks said.
Louisiana Tech preparing for Davis Wade noise
Louisiana Tech coach Sonny Dykes remembers from his time as a coach at the University of Kentucky that Davis Wade Stadium can be a tough place to play.
Dykes said this week he isn’t worried about his team’s ability to get a play in from the sidelines because his pass-happy offense runs primarily uses hand signals. Instead, he said his focus is making sure his players don’t make careless mistakes at the line of scrimmage.
Dykes said Monday that the Bulldogs may move practices to the stadium later in the week to pump music into the audio speaker system to prepare for the sellout crowd at Davis Wade Stadium.
“I think they were 6-0 on maybe a Thursday night and that place
was loud (and) I know the crowds have been better now than they were,” Dykes said. “I know they have expanded the stadium. It will be a challenge for us from an environment standpoint.”
Even though Saturday’s game isn’t a Southeastern Conference matchup, MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin said fans should pay attention to the in-game tutorial on the jumbotron to know when to ring their cowbells so they get in the habit of following the rules for future league home contests.
According to the new cowbell compromise that has been in place the
past two seasons, MSU won’t be fined for violations of the artificial noisemaker rule in non-conference play.
MSU to wear black jerseys Saturday
For only the third time in school history, MSU will wear the non-traditional black jerseys.
The switch is in accordance with the student section “black out”
promotion that encourages fans to wear black shirts for the game against Louisiana Tech.
Stricklin announced the jersey switch on his Twitter account Tuesday.
MSU has worn the black jerseys and black pants in each of the past two seasons. It lost to the University of Alabama in Starkville 31-3 in 2009 and at LSU 29-7 last year.
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