STARKVILLE — Big plays on both sides of the line of scrimmage were destined to happen on the Mississippi State University spring football practice field.
The reason was simple: it was blitz day where the defensive players were told to take chances and the pass rushes were installed during the Bulldogs nearly three-hour workout Tuesday.
“Today was a big, big blitz day,” MSU coach Dan Mullen said. “High risk, high reward on defense. You saw some high risks with the big plays given up and high reward with a lot of turnovers.”
The blitzing packages even resulted in a friendly debate between MSU senior linebacker Cam Lawrence and junior quarterback Tyler Russell because allegedly the signal caller was changing the protections at the line of scrimmage before the snap.
“With his knowledge of what we’re doing on defense, there were times he changed things up and would’ve had no clue what we’re doing without help from Coach Mullen,” Lawrence said with a laugh.
When asked about what Lawrence was talking about, Russell threw his arms up with a boyish grin and stated he simply got lucky on occasion Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t have any idea what Cam is talking about,” Russell said.
Tuesday became an organized chess match with a purpose between the MSU offensive and defensive coaching staffs to test the MSU players when they were in a bad or good play against a certain set.
“It was all scripted because we need to test how we react and see how big plays can happen in a given game,” MSU linebackers coach Geoff Collins said. “The defense needs to know when to be aggressive and the offense needs to know when to use that aggressiveness against a defense. That happened today in a big way.”
It happened Tuesday with many turnovers, something Mullen said he expected to see, and check-down options going for touchdowns because of the defense’s gambling style.
The Bulldogs enter the 2012 season losing only two of the linebackers (Brandon Wilson and Brandon Maye) and the experience MSU has in the middle of the field may allow defensive coordinator Chris Wilson to design more advanced blitzes and disguises instead of reinstalling the same base packages over and over again.
“What we may be able to do is make guys more flexible by being able to play more positions so we can move guys around without tipping our hand,” Collins said.
Lawrence, who is coming of a 123-tackle season, has noticed the meetings are different and gameplan is progressing faster with his familiar peers beside him in the Bulldogs linebacker corpse.
“I think that’s the thing with having so much returning players,” Lawrence said. “It’s not the same system but the installations aren’t as daunting because we all know what we’re doing.”
The next practice is Thursday evening starting at 4:30 p.m. and is open to the public.
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