STARKVILLE — Spring practice’s arrival was a godsend of sorts for Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald.
“I’ll definitely take practicing over workouts at 5 a.m. any day,” he said.
Beyond a break from early-morning workouts, spring practice should bring a certain level of comfort for Fitzgerald: being a redshirt junior who enrolled in January before his redshirt season, this spring is Fitzgerald’s fourth at MSU.
This spring schedule offers something different for Fitzgerald: offseason practice as the established starter.
MSU coach Dan Mullen said Fitzgerald will, “always be competing for a job, because (freshman quarterback) Keytaon (Thompson) came and wants to play,” but also recognizes the difference in the spring practice for a returning starting quarterback.
“Everything is different for Fitz this spring,” Mullen said. “I think just the confidence of playing through a season, what to expect, been in game reps, you have a different demeanor in your preparation because you know what you’re preparing for now. Last year, he was trying to compete and win the job but he didn’t really know what he was preparing himself for. Now he knows what he’s preparing for.”
Fitzgerald’s predecessor, Dak Prescott, is one example of the value of spring practice in between a first and second year of starting. Prescott increased his yards per attempt by a yard and a half, while attempting 128 more passes, from his sophomore to his junior year, throwing for 3,440 yards and 27 touchdowns while increasing his rushing production by over 200 yards. Such increases for Fitzgerald would likely put him among the SEC’s most productive quarterbacks as it did for Prescott: in his junior year, he was second in the league in yards per attempt and third in completion percentage.
While Fitzgerald’s second-year production is months away from manifesting itself, Fitzgerald can already sense some differences in going through spring practice as an established starter.
“You have to push yourself to be the best you can be, no one is really pushing you like they were last year,” he said. “You have to push yourself to work on your own thing and push to be better on your own.”
Fitzgerald has two more notable differences: a new quarterback coach and a coach role of his own.
MSU hired Brett Elliott, a former graduate assistant and offensive quality control coach at MSU, as its offensive coordinator in the offseason. Fitzgerald had a good relationship with Elliott from his redshirt year and was excited to see Elliott come back to Starkville.
Fitzgerald’s coaching role comes in tutoring his new potential backup, freshman Keytaon Thompson. Thompson is an early-enrollee freshman going through his first spring practice at MSU and will do so with Fitzgerald helping him where he can.
“Help with the protections, help with the plays,” Fitzgerald said. “I think he ran this kind of thing in high school, so I think it clicked for him way quicker than it did for me, which is awesome for him, I’m glad. He’s doing a phenomenal job. To be honest with you, I was really surprised.”
With that in mind, Fitzgerald publicly set his goals for spring practice as working on his footwork in the pocket, increasing his completion percentage (54 percent last year, which ranked 98 out of 100 qualified quarterbacks) and, “not being so jittery in the pocket.”
Mullen has his own goals for Fitzgerald.
“A guy that’s very confident in what’s going on on the field,” Mullen said of what he wanted to see out of Fitzgerald. “Improve his leadership, improve his decision making, getting through reads quicker, just taking check downs, not trying to force things and an overall better understanding on the field. I always say in a quarterback, when I’m looking this way, I don’t need to look over there because I already know what’s going on over there.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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