STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen finally got to gloat about his recruiting class after beating Ole Miss in the Battle for the Golden Egg.
After his team’s 17-10 overtime victory against the Rebels on Thursday, the Bulldogs’ fifth-year coach talked about what he felt like was a underrated freshman class compared to the class the Rebels signed in February.
“All I keep hearing about in this state is true freshman this and true freshman that, well, our true freshmen had some pretty big games tonight,” Mullen said after his fourth victory in the Egg Bowl.
On National Signing Day, Ole Miss signed four five-star prospects, including Robert Nkemdiche, the nation’s top recruit. Those players helped the Rebels land the No. 8 recruiting class, according to 247Sports.com.
Nkemdiche consistently made his presence known in a controversial way on Thanksgiving night with four rushes for 21 yards. Nkemdiche wasn’t penalized for wearing the same jersey — No. 5 — as Ole Miss tailback I’Tavius Mathers. At halftime, he changed to No. 99 after the MSU coaches informed the officials of the discrepancy. Nkemdiche then received a personal foul penalty for his actions in a pileup before MSU scored its first touchdown on a 1-yard run by Josh Robinson. As he was leaving the field, Nkemdiche was seen yelling and shoving a Ole Miss assistant coach.
On the other side, MSU (6-6, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) received quality performances from its first-year players, including quarterback Damian Williams and wide receiver De’Runnya Wilson. Williams, who earned the start, gave a verbal commitment to MSU in January after originally committing to Southern Mississippi. He was the first freshman quarterback to start for MSU since Wesley Carroll in 2007. He was 8 of 18 for 82 yards and led the offense for the first three quarters.
“I thought Damian was really solid,” Mullen said. “He was calm, cool, and collected, and he answered the question for me that was most important which was: Is the stage too big for him? He answered that with a resounding no.”
When Mullen and MSU needed a big play down three points in the fourth quarter, quarterback Dak Prescott looked to Wilson. On a fourth-and-10 from the Rebels 36-yard-line, Prescott found Wilson for an 11-yard gain on his fourth catch to extend the drive. It helped set up a 39-yard field goal Evan Sobisek pushed wide right.
“We knew we were going to go for it there, and I didn’t even have to go through my progressions,” Prescott said. “De’Runnya was open immediately and made a great play on the football to move the chains.”
Wilson, who has 23 catches for 314 yards and three touchdowns, caught the pass in front of freshman secondary members Tony Conner and Derrick Jones.
On defense, Chris Jones, who spurned Ole Miss on signing day, had five tackles and a sack. After the sack, Jones, who is from Houston, did Ole Miss’ landshark celebration. Jones’ interior push contributed to quarterback Bo Wallace committing a career-high four turnovers.
“We really thought that if got him on the ground a couple of times he’d start to do things he wasn’t coached to do,” MSU redshirt freshman linebacker Richie Brown said. “We just felt like we could get in (Wallace’s) head, and we did that all night.”
MSU’s recruiting class was rated No. 25 by 247sports.com, but Mullen will remind fans every chance he gets that the classes should be ranked over a length of time.
“We’re in such a instant gratification society and fans think, ‘Oh my goodness, a guy redshirted, so what does that mean?’ ” Mullen said. “It means he should redshirt. I wish they gave everybody five years of eligibility. As a freshman you worry about all the wrong things like how many carries did you get. You know what? As a freshman, how many correct assignments did you have? That’s much more important.”
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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