STARKVILLE — Chris Wilson has an easy answer to the average Joe who wonders why the Mississippi State football team won’t line up 10 guys at the line of scrimmage to stop the University of Alabama’s running game.
“The local Joe is wrong. It takes 11 guys to do it,” MSU’s defensive coordinator said Monday with a laugh. “The biggest thing is what you see is a very tough, ground-oriented ballclub that will be a championship fight.”
Wilson and the rest of the staff understand MSU (5-4, 1-4 Southeastern Conference) could face its most physical matchup at 6:45 p.m. Saturday (ESPN) against Alabama at Davis Wade Stadium.
Alabama (8-1, 4-1) is averaging 214.4 rushing yards a game, and junior tailback Trent Richardson is having a Heisman Trophy candidate season with an SEC-best 119.8 rushing yards per game.
Richardson, who sat out a 30-10 victory against MSU last season, runs behind an offensive line whose members average more than 310 pounds, which has allowed him to set a career-best rushing total three times this season.
“I know he’s Superman in cleats,” Wilson said. “I say that humbly and knowing he’s a good football player that finishes his runs.”
Richardson recorded his sixth-straight 100-yard rushing game Oct. 15 at
the University of Mississippi with a career-best 183 yards on 17 carries.
The string equaled Shaun Alexander’s school record set in 1999. Alabama has 27 rushing touchdowns this season, which is fifth nationally and first in the SEC.
“(Former Alabama players) give me a whole bunch of compliments, and I’m looking at them like, ‘I should be saying that to you’ ” Richardson said Monday. “It’s an honor just to have them even speak to me. They are legends. Shaun (Alexander) and I have a strong relationship. He always gives me advice, and when I talk to him, he’s talking about more than football. He just knows where I’m coming from with a lot of stuff. He doesn’t like to mention football most of the time because it can be a lot on you so we have a really good relationship out of football.”
Alabama has 37 touchdowns this season.
Mullen said Monday the 2011 Crimson Tide might be better on offense with Richardson than they were last season with Heisman Trophy winning tailback Mark Ingram.
“It sounds weird, but I don’t think they’ve lost anything at tailback,” Mullen said. “Trent is even a better player than he was last year. That’s taking a first-round (NFL draft pick and a) Heisman Trophy winner off your team and getting better.”
MSU is using freshman Josh Robinson to simulate Alabama’s No. 3 in the backfield. The 5-foot-9, 200-pounder was a three-star prospect from Louisiana and ran a 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds before coming to Starkville.
“You have to exaggerate things (in practice),” Mullen said. “We don’t have a tailback that runs a 4.3 and benches 500 pounds. You can’t simulate it. What you have to do is make sure you’re over-exaggerating every sort of tackle and (have) 11 guys running to the ball.”
MSU struggled early last week to slow down the University of Tennessee-Martin’s rushing attack. The Skyhawks had 269 rushing yards, the most by any Bulldogs opponent, by allowing their offensive line to get down the field to block the second level.
“They did a great job of getting to our linebackers and making sure they stayed engaged with us for a long period of time,” MSU junior linebacker Cam Lawrence said. “It’s a two-part problem because we can’t allow them to get to us in the first place, but if they do we have to be able to get off those blocks against a much-better Alabama team.”
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