STARKVILLE – First-year Mississippi State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz doesn’t want all the blame placed on the secondary for the passing yards given up last week against Southern Mississippi.
The Golden Eagles passed for 311 yards as the Bulldogs claimed a 34-16 win in Hattiesburg in the season opener last Saturday. Diaz wants to see improvement from everyone of his defensive positions, including the secondary, before the No. 25 Bulldogs (1-0) host the No. 14 LSU Tigers Saturday in an 8:15 p.m. kick on ESPN.
“Mistakes aren’t all on the secondary,” Diaz said. “Every pass play’s not the secondary’s faults. There’s a lot of other times that other things are going on. Sometimes it’s the linebackers fault.”
The lone Southern Miss touchdown came through the air, as Nick Mullens found Jay’Shawn Washington for a 19-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs gave up 208 passing yards in the first half, but made halftime adjustments and gave up just 103 in the second half. Both seventh-year coach Dan Mullen and Diaz gave a lot of the credit to Southern Miss’ scheme.
“They were running pass plays, releasing linemen downfield and our backers were stepping up to stop the run, then they would pull the ball down and throw it over their head,” Diaz said. “That was a lot of the stuff we saw in the secondary. (A) majority of their big plays were those situations. We should have had a backer underneath it and we didn’t.”
The Bulldogs did have two interceptions – junior linebacker Richie Brown in the first half and senior safety Kendrick Market in the second half. The Bulldogs accounted for 16 interceptions last season, but gave up 3,547 passing yards for an average of 272.8 per game, worst in the Southeastern Conference.
Market, who missed last year’s Orange Bowl due to a ruptured Achilles heel suffered in the season finale against Ole Miss, started against the Golden Eagles.
“I thought the secondary did their job,” Market said. “We had a couple of trick plays that got us, but the secondary basically did their job. The big plays didn’t come, so we did our job.”
MSU won 34-29 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last season, but the Tigers tried to mount a comeback with backup quarterback Brandon Harris. He passed for 140 yards and two touchdowns, but was picked off by Will Redmond on the last play of the game, sealing the Bulldog victory.
Harris will get his second-career start this Saturday. His first came at Auburn in a 41-7 loss. Harris completed just 3 of 14 passes for 58 yards before Anthony Jennings got his shot in the third quarter.
“He’s a guy that’s insanely talented,” Diaz said. “He can make any throw, throws an obviously outstanding deep ball, but the element that’s really frightening about him is his ability to improvise and his ability to run.”
The Bulldogs have no new film on Harris or the LSU offense, as the Tigers’ opener last week against McNeese State was cancelled due to weather.
Along with Harris, the Bulldogs will have to account for wide receivers Travin Dural and Malachi Dupre. Dural, a junior, led the Tigers with 37 catches for 758 yards and seven touchdowns a season ago. Dupre, a sophomore, made 14 catches for 318 yards and five touchdowns, two of those coming against the Bulldogs, as a freshman.
“They’re explosive, they can make plays, they’re good deep ball guys and they’re going to go get the ball,” Market said. “They’re very talented and fast.”
The Bulldogs will more than likely have senior cornerback Taveze Calhoun against the Tigers. He missed the opener against the Golden Eagles as a precaution due to a knee injury. Doctors scoped his knee during training camp after he missed all of spring practice recovering from another injury.
“There’s his physical standpoint: his length, his speed, his ability to get hands on wide receivers,” Diaz said. “Then there’s just his experience, his demeanor. He’s just one of those guys that is feisty and everyone on our football team follows his lead. When he’s not with us, he’s a big miss.”
Calhoun led the MSU secondary with 53 tackles and accounted for one interception as a junior last season.
“He’s a coach back there,” Market said. “He’s going to tell you what to do and he’s going to tell you what they are (about) to do. It will be good to have Taveze back there.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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