HOOVER, Ala. – Mississippi State rolled into Tuscaloosa, Alabama, last season with a 9-0 record and a No. 1 by its name.
It was considered the biggest game in school history and a lot was riding on the outcome. The Bulldogs came up short and Alabama went on to win the Southeastern Conference Western Division and the SEC Championship in Atlanta.
Nearly eight months removed from the game at Bryant-Denny Stadium, it still sticks with Bulldog head coach Dan Mullen and his team and it will be the driving force behind this upcoming season.
“The Alabama game is the one that’s the big fueling,” Mullen said at SEC Media Days Tuesday. “It was the stage that that game was on, that we want to be back on that stage, that we want another shot at a game on that big a stage and find a way to go win it.
“So I think it’s really helped our guys in the offseason that they’ve experienced playing in those type of games, in the big games, and they certainly want to make sure we get back to those big games.”
The Bulldogs fell behind 19-0 in the early going against the Crimson Tide and ended up losing 25-20. That was the first of three losses down the stretch for the Bulldogs. Along with the loss to Alabama, MSU fell to Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl and Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl to end the season with a 10-3 overall record.
Although fall camp doesn’t start until early August, many Bulldog players have been fine tuning their games this summer and the first and foremost thought in their minds – how the season ended.
“We talk about it every day,” said senior cornerback Taveze Calhoun, who sat out the spring nursing an injury. “When things get hard working out or running, we always think about the last two games of last year. We’ve got to learn to finish.”
The rise to No. 1 lasted for five weeks and it was the first time a Bulldog team was ranked as the top team in the nation. The Bulldogs want to return to No. 1, but they want to be there when the streamers and confetti fall in Glendale, Arizona, in early January.
“My goal is to work harder than every other team in this conference,” senior quarterback Dak Prescott said. “We have to dedicate ourselves to watching more film and sacrifice doing what we want to do.”
Many national experts aren’t high on MSU’s chances this season, and some have picked the Bulldogs to finish at the bottom of the SEC West. Mullen has seen that be the case during his first six seasons in Starkville, so it’s nothing new this time around.
“This is my seventh year coming here, and I think all seven years they’ve pretty much picked us to finish last in the West. It’s kind of like a tradition I guess. We don’t really worry much about that. I’m much more concerned with how we finish,” Mullen said.
Experience galore
Although the Bulldogs only return 10 starters – four on offense and defense and two on special teams – Mullen feels like there is an abundant amount of experience on the roster.
Many national experts aren’t buying it and see other teams in the league making big jumps and taking over MSU.
“We have 52 guys on our roster that we’ve charted have significant experience, game experience at critical moments in games,” said Mullen, who had tight end Shelby Christy transfer to Louisiana-Lafayette this week. “So even though I know a lot of people think we’re going to be a young football team, I like that people think that, but the fact that we rotate, we play a lot of guys in the course of games. Guys have experience, they’ve been on the stage, they’ve been in the moments, and they’re going to be ready for this season as we move forward.”
The biggest returner – not only for MSU but in the SEC – Prescott. The Haughton, Louisiana, native passed for 3,449 yards and 27 touchdowns and rushed for another 986 yards and 14 touchdowns. Prescott also returns his top receiver in junior De’Runnya Wilson who caught 47 passes for 680 yards and nine touchdowns. The receiving corp is mostly intact, but a junior and two redshirt freshmen running backs – Ashton Shumpert, Aeris Williams, and Dontavian Lee – will try to help carry the rushing load.
“We have a returning fifth year senior quarterback,” Mullen said. “We have four different wide receivers that had 100-yard receiving games last year that are coming back, which that’s a pretty big number. We have seven wide receivers that have touchdown passes in games coming back, so I think offensively we have some skill position guys around.”
MSU has to replace three offensive linemen, but they had to do the same last year and it all worked out in the trenches.
The second coming
Defense is where some of the experience is lacking and there is a relatively new face leading the charge.
Manny Diaz is back in Starkville as the defensive coordinator for a second time.
He served under Mullen during the 2010 season before leaving for the University of Texas.
Since Diaz left for Austin, Texas, both Mullen and Diaz have grown as coaches and men. Mullen sees this as a unique opportunity to hire a defensive coordinator for a second time, but he knows there is a certain level of comfort there.
“I think it’s a great thing that we understand the expectations from each other. We’ve worked together before. Manny knows what my expectations are going to be of him and of our defense, and he knows what type of defense I want to see,” said Mullen.
Diaz takes over for Geoff Collins who left to take the same position at Florida with first-year head coach Jim McElwain. The Bulldog defense, especially the secondary, struggled at times last season. Diaz’s defense at Louisiana Tech led the nation in turnovers with 42 and tied the national lead in interceptions with 26 last season.
Although Diaz and Collins have different personalities, players have found the transition period to be fairly easy.
“One tries to be more lively, he acts like a little kid, and that would be Geoff Collins,” said senior defensive lineman Ryan Brown who had 39 tackles and 3.5 sacks a season ago. “Coach Diaz, he makes us feel like adults and he makes the game fun. I like how he has different plays and upgraded our plays we had last year.”
Ben Wait is a sports writer for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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