STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen looks for physical and mental toughness when he recruits a quarterback.
Dak Prescott demonstrated that as a willing runner and a player who stayed late at the football office to watch film and to hone his craft.
Prescott went on to break 38 MSU records and is now leading the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys. After a battle that included the spring and all of training camp, Mullen selected sophomore Nick Fitzgerald to replace Prescott.
Fitzgerald has had his ups and downs in his first eight games as a starter. Last week, Fitzgerald had a performance Prescott would be proud of, as he had 536 yards of offense — second most in school history — and seven touchdowns — tied most in school history — in a 56-41 victory against Samford.
Fitzgerald and MSU (3-5, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) will try to build on that effort at 11 a.m. Saturday (SEC Network) when they play host to No. 7 Texas A&M (7-1, 4-1) at Davis Wade Stadium.
“He’s a big guy,” Mullen said. “We saw it in high school because you try to see it to make sure you’ve got that before you recruit anybody in the first place because the amount of physical toughness is critical at the quarterback position.”
Fitzgerald is 124 of 221 for 1,496 yards and 14 touchdowns (seven interceptions). He leads the team and is eighth in the SEC with 657 yards rushing and six touchdowns.
MSU quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson arrived in the spring of 2014, months after Fitzgerald signed with MSU. He went back and watched film of Fitzgerald in high school and saw the same things Mullen saw in him.
“You could tell he was a very, very athletic kid that was tough,” Johnson said. “He ran hard and he had some very good traits about him we thought would translate to him being a big-time quarterback.”
Fitzgerald graduated from Richmond Hill (Ga.) High School in December 2013. He arrived in Starkville the first day of bowl prep as MSU was getting ready to face Rice in the Liberty Bowl.
On a gray, cold day, Fitzgerald learned in that first practice the toughness he was going to need to play at MSU.
“You have guys like Benardrick McKinney, Chris Jones, and Nick James just screaming at the top of their lungs at you, it kind of puts the fear of God into you real quick,” Fitzgerald said. “You have to toughen up real fast.”
Even though Fitzgerald had a record-setting day against Samford, he threw two interceptions and had two touchdowns called back, one because of offensive pass interference and the other because his helmet popped off before he crossed the goal line.
Fitzgerald put that aside and helped MSU hold off a Samford team that gained 627 yards.
“I think he has excellent toughness,” Johnson said. “You have to be mentally tough enough to be very self critical of yourself when things go well and self critical when things don’t go well. He possesses those qualities, and I think that’s what gives him the strength to be a really good player.”
Fitzgerald said he has tried to be as mentally tough through MSU’s struggles. He said being physically tough is needed, but he said it is more important to be mentally tough. He said the mental and physical toughness he shows comes from the love he has for his team.
“There are times your team needs you and you can’t be weak and back down. You have to give it your all and give all the strength you have into that play,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald, who played basketball for three years in high school, was the backup quarterback his junior year at Richmond Hill. He started as a wide receiver and had 18 catches for 321 yards and four touchdowns. He became the starting quarterback as a senior and had 778 yards and 12 touchdowns and 1,429 yards rushing and 25 touchdowns.
“He did whatever the team needed him to do, and all of those are different things you look for in aspects of mentally and physically tough people,” Mullen said.
n In related news, MSU and Minnesota announced Wednesday they have scheduled a home-and-home series for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.
MSU will play at Minnesota on Sept. 12, 2026, at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It will be the first meeting between the teams, and MSU’s first visit to the state of Minnesota.
The Bulldogs will play host to the Golden Gophers on Sept. 11, 2027, at Davis Wade Stadium.
MSU’s last regular-season game against an opponent from the Big Ten Conference was a 28-21 win at Illinois Nov. 4, 1980.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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