STARKVILLE — Caleb Ducking couldn’t help but be nervous when he saw his first game action at Mississippi State.
Ducking played just two snaps in the Bulldogs’ 2021 season opener against Louisiana Tech, but it was enough to rattle him as he took in the crowd at Davis Wade Stadium.
“Walking on the field, you see 60,000 people,” Ducking said. “I had to get used to it, just apply the things I learned.”
Many of those things came from Makai Polk. Now with the Baltimore Ravens, Polk spent just one season in Starkville, but it was enough.
Polk left his mark on Ducking and the Bulldogs’ other young receivers before declaring for the NFL draft, where he went unselected before signing with the Ravens.
“A lot of things I do out here, I learned from him,” Ducking said. “Makai taught me a lot of things I know.”
Now, it’s Ducking’s time to replace the man who was Mississippi State’s top receiving target last season. Polk caught 105 passes for 1,046 yards and nine touchdowns, providing quarterback Will Rogers with a reliable outside threat.
“I miss Makai,” MSU outside receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. said Monday. “Makai was a pretty good player. Not many people got to touch him very much. I miss his absolute skill set.”
Ducking hasn’t had a season like Polk’s 2021 campaign since high school.
The hulking 6-foot-5, 200-pound receiver impressed as a senior at South Delta, totaling 16 touchdowns on just 44 catches in 2017. He racked up 1,708 receiving yards between his junior and senior years.
At Holmes Community College, though, Ducking was rarely utilized as a pass-catcher.
He made just one 18-yard catch as a freshman in 2018 and totaled only nine catches for 207 yards in 2019.
Ducking redshirted in 2020, his first year at Mississippi State. He played in seven games last season but made just nine catches for 83 yards.
Spurrier, though, said Ducking was dealt a tough hand by becoming entrenched behind Polk on the Bulldogs’ depth chart. The redshirt senior is ready, according to his position coach, to make an impact in 2022.
“He’s played well,” Spurrier said. “He’s performed well. He’s practiced well. He’s earned that right to play well. Last year he was just stuck behind a player who was a really good player, and he knows that, too. He knows his time’s coming and he’s going to get an opportunity to play, and he’s really, really worked hard.”
Ducking said he’s added new things to his routes: improving his speed in and out of breaks and keeping his hip as low as possible, a needed attribute in a taller receiver.
Older players like Polk taught him that, but Ducking’s unique size is something that can’t be coached.
“Normally, I’m bigger than the DBs, so I just have to go up and get the ball,” Ducking said.
That won’t always work in the Southeastern Conference, of course. Spurrier acknowledged the size of Ducking and Georgia transfer Justin Robinson — who stands 6-foot-4 — but said there’s more to it than pure height.
“Frames are good if you know how to use them, but if you don’t, I’ll take six little quick guys if they can catch everything and make everybody miss,” Spurrier said. “Size is nice, but if you’re big, you’ve got to play big. I’ve had receivers of all different skill sets who are really, really good players. You’ve got to find a strength and really play to it.”
Ducking thinks he’s done that. With barely two weeks until the Bulldogs’ season opener, he feels prepared to step into Polk’s shoes and put the lessons the former MSU receiver taught him into practice.
“I’m ready,” Ducking said. “Everybody depends on me. Everybody knows what I can do now. I’m just ready to showcase what I can do.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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