TAMPA — Keytaon Thompson touched the ball four times in the Outback Bowl but never attempted a pass.
If Mississippi State’s backup quarterback is Nick Fitzgerald’s eventual successor in the 2019 season, he will be touching the ball much more often and doing most of that as a passer. On Tuesday, he was primarily used as part of a specialty package in the No. 18 Bulldogs’ 27-22 loss to Iowa (9-4).
He ran the ball three times for 10 yards and was targeted by one Fitzgerald pass, ultimately an incompletion near the end zone. With packages like this one, it’s less about the result as it is forcing the defense to attempt something it’s not equipped to do, trusting openings will follow.
“The two-quarterback stuff is predicated on what the defense does and how the static nature of some stuff gives you an opportunity to put a package together that you know can exploit some things,” MSU coach Joe Moorhead said. “I thought it was something that gave us an advantage on what they do schematically.”
Unfortunately for MSU (8-5), that advantage showed itself most in a play that did not work.
Once in this package, MSU put Thompson in the slot to Fitzgerald’s right. It was first-and-15, 30 yards away from the end zone; Thompson ran up the seam and he was open, but the pass fell incomplete.
Fitzgerald won’t let Thompson forget that any time soon.
“I was happy to have my boy out there with me. I wish he could catch a touchdown pass, got a little scared and dropped the ball,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s going to hear about it forever.”
This is not Moorhead’s first time experimenting with using a backup quarterback this way.
In 2016, Moorhead’s first year as Penn State’s offensive coordinator, Trace McSorley won a quarterback battle with Tommy Stephens. But Stephens was a versatile athlete at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, capable of doing several things, so Moorhead put him to use.
They created a position for him — Lion — and deployed him all over the field in special situations. Sometimes he would line up as a wide receiver, both with the intent of pass catching and running; time aligned as a running back was far from uncommon, as well. In 2017, Stephens’ last year of playing Lion for Moorhead, he ran 27 times for 208 yards and four touchdowns, caught 12 passes for 60 yards and two scores and still attempted 27 passes.
The way Thompson was used was very similar to the Lion role Stephens occupied.
The disconnect near the goal line aside, wide receiver Osirus Mitchell thought Thompson looked natural as a wide receiver. The package has been in place throughout the season and used for a handful of snaps, but Mitchell said it was effectively never practiced in the regular season.
Mitchell said MSU practiced it every day in bowl practice.
“I feel like it messed up their defense a little bit,” Mitchell said. “He’s very athletic, I feel like he could play that position if he really wanted to.”
Now, all of Thompson’s energy goes to his natural position.
Thompson spent two years learning under Fitzgerald and, in instances such as Tuesday’s, helping him. But Fitzgerald’s MSU career ended at Raymond James Stadium, and MSU needs a new quarterback. Jalen Mayden redshirted with the team this year and early enrollee freshman Garrett Shrader is already on campus, but Thompson has a step on both of them by simple matter of time served.
Fitzgerald anticipates that being crucial.
“He’s a guy that go to go through the entire spring and summer, I didn’t exactly get to do that,” Fitzgerald said, referencing the ankle injury suffered in the 2017 Egg Bowl that kept him out of some offseason work. “He’s going in with a lot more experience than I would’ve had. I think he’s going to have a very firm grasp on all the ins and outs of this offense and I think he’ll run it extremely well.
“I love him to death. He’s one of my best friends, one of the closest guys I’m with. I can’t wait to see what he does next.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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