STARKVILLE — For the second time in three weeks, Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen will get to do something rare with his Saturday afternoon.
“I get to sit on my couch and play with my kids,” Mullen said, “and that’s awesome.”
On the heels of taking MSU to the first No. 1 ranking in school history courtesy of a 38-21 victory against then-No. 2 Auburn last Saturday, MSU enters its second bye week of the season at 6-0 and 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference. The open date will give the Bulldogs a chance to decompress before a game Oct. 25 at Kentucky.
Not all of the Bulldogs want that rest.
“We’d play another game right now if we could,” said MSU quarterback Dak Prescott, the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Week. “But it’s a god opportunity for us to rest our legs and get ready for the grind of a long season.”
Sitting on top of the college football world for the first time in school history — MSU is No. 1 in the Amway Coaches Poll (USA Today) and The Associated Press Top 25 — Mullen laid forth the agenda Tuesday for MSU’s week off. It’s an agenda that features plenty of work.
“It’s very similar to our first open date,” Mullen said. “We will spend this week getting back to work, getting reps for a lot of guys. You don’t always get those reps during game week because there’s so much planning, so much scheming that goes into preparation for a game. For us to be able to go out there and really work on fundamentals, really get back to the basics, that’s very valuable.”
MSU’s first bye week, which Mullen said, “was a case of perfect timing,” came on the heels of a 34-29 win at then-No. 8 LSU and gave MSU a chance to unwind before back-to-back home games against Texas A&M and Auburn. With those games in the rear-view mirror, the latest open date follows the historic announcement that MSU had reached the top of the college football world for the first time in school history.
Asked to reflect on his team’s five-week rise from being unranked to being the No. 1 team in the country, Mullen referred back to the work he expects his team to put in this week.
“I hope it’s not the fastest fall from No. 1,” said Mullen after being told his team’s rise to the top spot was the quickest in AP poll history. “Our kids, they can feel like they are No. 1 while they are out there. But when they come to this facility, when they come to our workouts, we are going to make them feel like No. 2.”
Prescott, MSU’s emotional leader on the field, also stressed the need to work over the desire to enjoy the moment as No. 1.
“Ultimately that stuff really doesn’t matter,” Prescott said. “We are trying to figure out a way to win the SEC West, and that’s really where our focus is.”
In the bye week after the win at LSU, Mullen was forced to deal with the one-game suspension of starting center Dillon Day. This time, the sixth-year coach is adjusting to two injuries, including a lower leg injury to senior wide receiver Jameon Lewis that has forced him to miss the past two games.
“It was a spot where he maybe could have played, but we decided to hold him out,” Mullen said. “We’ve talked to the trainers and we expect Jameon to be 100 percent going into Lexington.”
Mullen also announced reserve linebacker Dez Harris, a redshirt freshman, will miss the remainder of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“Now someone has to step up and fill that role,” Mullen said. “Our guys have done a fantastic job of when something happens, when somebody goes down, the next guy steps up and we don’t miss a beat.
“This bye week is a big part of that mentality. This is a chance for those guys who haven’t been out there much to get reps, to put in the work, and to be ready to get out there and make a play when their number is called. That’s the mentality we have as a football team.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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