STARKVILLE — The one time Saturday night Mississippi State University junior quarterback Tyler Russell got a little angry with his receivers, his head coach had some instant advice.
“That was a great learning (experience) for Tyler,” Mullen said Sunday. “I thought Tyler played well all night long. He was making the throws and the plays he needed to make and guys were dropping the ball on him. I saw him one time getting mad, which I don’t mind but I said to him ‘hey, getting mad isn’t going to make them catch the ball, go be a leader’. I like that he kept to his composure. A great read by him and is critical to him. He’s not a dynamic running quarterback but he can run.”
Even after having a career night with 180 receiving yards and three touchdowns in 30-24 victory over Troy University, MSU senior wide receiver Chad Bumphis was still mad at himself for a dropped pass in the fourth quarter. The four-year starter from Tupelo said as much after the game that the seven dropped passes, which Mullen counted Sunday morning, were a sign of looking ahead of Troy on the schedule.
“He is really focused and wants to play well,” Mullen said. “He’s already called me to say ‘I wasn’t happy with the way I played in that first half and dropping that pass in the fourth quarter in a key moment. I think the biggest thing you see with him is maturity. He is expected when he is open to make plays and he did.”
Bumphis admitted this week in practice may not be pleasant for anybody that happens to drop a pass as MSU prepares for a home game against the University of South Alabama (6 p.m., MSU PPV).
“As wide receivers, we did everything in the world to lose it,” Bumphis said Saturday. “We just got to keep our heads up because obviously they’re going to have to keep coming back to us. We need to be ready to play. Of course you want the ball but I don’t know about this week after all those drops.”
Mullen described in his weekly media conference Monday that the plan and drills won’t change much on the practice field this week as they face South Alabama (1-2) for the first time in school history.
“To me it’s a focus issue. As a group it’s focus and confidence, and you get that in practice,” Mullen said. “I think in practice sometimes guys can go in and they just assume they’re going to catch a ball and they start to take their eyes off it. Just in drills they can get ‘I’m working on something else, I just catch the ball as part of it’. You can’t be that way, you have to have a complete focus every time you catch the football.”
Russell, who has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions, still had confidence to find Bumphis on a vertical route on fourth down for the game-clinching touchdown that had to be reviewed by the video replay officials.
“Yeah, I went over that play with him and mentioned to him ‘Tyler you had the short hitch route open’ and he looked at me and said ‘yeah Coach but I saw Chad lose his guy too’ and if he’s got the confidence to make that play, great,” Mullen said.
On one of the drops Saturday, MSU offensive coordinator Les Koenning admitted Monday he was looking down for a potential two-point play when the football was in the air heading to redshirt freshman Joe Morrow down the sidelines.
Morrow’s defender had fallen down and the Ocean Springs native let the ball go completely threw his arms like an infielder failing to get a grasp on a lazy pop-up.
“Obviously there’s some concern there and their should be right now,” Koenning said. “But again you don’t want to press too hard because you want your guys relaxed so they can make plays without thinking.”
Russell, who finished Saturday 11-for-26 passing, hasn’t had a worse completion percentage in a start since his first go at the task last season against the University of South Carolina when he finished 11-for-29 passing with a pair of interceptions.
The former Parade All-American out of Meridian High School has said repeatedly he plays no favorites when evaluating where to throw the ball. He claimed Monday a bunch of dropped passes that could’ve gone for touchdowns will not change his perspective toward looking away from a target in the future.
“Like I tell the guys, you never know what play is going to be the play that can win the game,” Russell said. “We had a crucial drive at the end where we capitalized with a score and I really think that was the drive — if we didn’t capitalize they were going to go back down and score and we probably would have lost that game.”
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