STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen and the Bulldogs (1-1, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) will play their first road game of the season at 6 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) when they take on No. 20 LSU (1-1, 0-0) at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The last time the Bulldogs played in Baton Rouge, quarterback Dak Prescott led the team to a 34-29 win. It was MSU’s first win in Baton Rouge since 1991, and the first against the Tigers since 1999.
Tiger Stadium and the Tigers haven’t been kind to the Bulldogs. LSU won 21-19 last season at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville. The Tigers are a double-digit favorite.
After losing to South Alabama in the opener, MSU beat South Carolina 27-14 last weekend. LSU lost to Wisconsin in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in its opener. It returned home last weekend to beat Jacksonville State 34-13.
Here are five things to watch:
1. How much improvement will Nick Fitzgerald show?
Despite playing three series against South Alabama, MSU sophomore quarterback Nick Fitzgerald started against South Carolina and played the entire game. He was 19 of 29 for 178 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He led the Bulldogs with 195 yards rushing, the most by a MSU quarterback in school history, on 17 carries.
Mullen named him the starter in his post-game press conference. However, there are some things Fitzgerald needs to work on.
“He set a school record for rushing by a quarterback, but it wasn’t like he was making dynamic runs and making seven people miss,” Mullen said. “He made good reads and the line blocked well. If you execute well, I think you can see he will have success. Hopefully, he just looks at the things he did well and continues to do those things well.”
Mullen expects Fitzgerald to make mistakes in his first road start, but he hopes he doesn’t replicate the ones he made against South Carolina.
Fitzgerald was impressed with his play and took a lot of positives from his performance. He said he needed to work on everything, but specified his footwork in the passing game.
2. Who will quarterback LSU?
LSU coach Les Miles didn’t name his starting quarterback, but Wednesday on the SEC teleconference he said, “I can’t imagine Danny Etling would not take the first snaps.”
Etling, a junior transfer from Purdue, came off the bench last week to lead the Tigers to a victory. Junior Brandon Harris started the first two games, but he was pulled for Etling after going 1 of 4 for 8 yards against Jacksonville State.
Etling is 6 of 14 for 100 yards and one touchdown and one interception.
Mullen said it doesn’t matter who plays quarterback for LSU.
“We’ve got to get pressure on them,” Mullen said. “They have such great wide receivers out there on the edge and such big-time playmakers that if we just let the quarterback stand in the pocket and make it a seven-on-seven drill, it will be a long night for us.”
First-year MSU defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Peter Sirmon agreed. He said the Bulldogs have prepared for Etling and Harris.
Miles said he wants Harris to prepare like he will play and be mentally engaged in case he has to turn to him.
3. Can MSU contain running back Leonard Fournette?
MSU knows running back Leonard Fournette can take over a game.
Fournette had 28 carries for 163 yards and three touchdowns against MSU last season. He didn’t play last week, but Miles expects him to play.
The 6-foot-1, 235-pound Fournette can be hard to bring down and MSU is focusing on getting everyone to the ball.
“It’s really the whole team,” MSU senior safety Kivon Coman said. “We’ve got to get to the ball, all 11. It’s one ball and 11 of us, so all 11 of us have to get to that ball.”
Fournette had 1,953 yards on 300 carries and 22 touchdowns last season.
Sirmon said tackling Fournette will be the toughest challenge.
“It’s the physical challenge of when you make contact, is the play over? I think that’s the greatest challenge for him,” Sirmon said. “He has the ability to bounce off things and create, not just first downs, but he can hit home runs where you don’t think home runs are going to be available.”
4. How much will the atmosphere at Tiger Stadium affect MSU?
Tiger Stadium, also known as Death Valley, is a tough place to play at night.
The atmosphere Tiger fans create is second to none. Many players see it is the toughest play to play in college football. Coman didn’t hesitate when he was asked why it is so tough.
“It’s not,” Koman said. “It’s just like playing anywhere at night. I don’t get into all that Death Valley stuff. It’s just a night game for us, just like every other night for us.”
Koman was on MSU’s 2014 team that won at Tiger Stadium. He said that win — along with the win at Arkansas last year — was one of the best he has experienced.
Senior defensive lineman A.J. Jefferson doesn’t have the same feeling as Coman about Tiger Stadium. He believes it’s hard, but that shouldn’t affect the 11 guys MSU puts on the field.
With a young team, Jefferson wants them to understand it’s about them and LSU, not the fans.
“Getting the young guys to understand, yes Death Valley is hard place to play, 100,000 people screaming and yelling, but just trying to get them to understand until they can run 100,000 people on the field, it’s still 11 on 11,” Jefferson said.
5. Will MSU execute for four quarters?
In the first two games, MSU has struggled in the second half.
The Bulldogs have taken leads in the first half of both games, but they have lacked intensity and that same fire in the second half.
After the loss to South Alabama, Mullen made sure the intensity level in practice was there. He took it upon himself to make sure his players understand what was expected of them in practice and on Saturdays.
“I guarantee I will bring the intensity every single day at practice and make sure the intensity is there,” Mullen said. “As the leader, I have to set that standard, and I’ll set that standard really high to make sure we play with that same level, sense of urgency, and desperate intensity we need to win a game.”
MSU played with high intensity in the first half against South Carolina, but a 63-minute lightning delay affected the team’s intensity in the second half.
A lack of intensity against LSU in Baton Rouge could spell disaster for MSU, but the Bulldogs don’t expect that to happen.
“It shouldn’t have took coach Mullen to do what he had to do, but I’m glad he did it because it let the young guys know that we should do it all the time,” Jefferson said. “He challenged the leaders on the team and we stepped up to the plate. We just have to keep it going.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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