STARKVILLE — Brian Johnson has experience calling plays.
The Mississippi State quarterbacks coach served as the offensive coordinator at Utah, his alma mater, in 2012 and as a co-offensive coordinator in 2013.
MSU football coach Dan Mullen planned to give Johnson the play-calling duties last week in a 56-41 victory against Samford, but Johnson’s second child was born the day before the game.
On Saturday, Mullen let Johnson call 50 percent of the offensive plays in a 35-28 victory against No. 7 Texas A&M at Davis Wade Stadium.
“He’s with the quarterbacks all the time and he calls a lot of plays anyways,” said Mullen, who relinquished some of the play-calling duties to be more of a game manager with his young team. “A lot of times we’re on the same page. You could see he was making some good calls.”
The Bulldogs (4-5, 2-3 Southeastern Conference) had 574 yards of offense, including a season-high 365 yards rushing and 209 yards passing.
Mullen said Johnson called a pass play that resulted in a 60-yard touchdown from Nick Fitzgerald to Fred Ross.
Fitzgerald, who became the starting quarterback this season under the leadership of Johnson, was 18 of 31 for 209 yards and two touchdowns (two interceptions). He rushed for a game-high 182 yards and two touchdowns.
“Coach Johnson’s a phenomenal play-caller,” Fitzgerald said. “He has a keen knowledge for this sport, he knows patterns, he knows when to call different plays, and what’s going to work and what’s not going to work. I think moving forward we’ll see more of that.”
Johnson was in the booth and not on the field. That didn’t seem to bother Mullen, who liked how everything worked.
“He did an awesome job of calling the plays from upstairs,” Mullen said. “He did a good job of keeping the rhythm and keeping me in check of what was working and stay on this path.”
Kicking struggles
After making six field goals in a row, Westin Graves has missed four of his last five.
In the third quarter, he missed a 32-yarder wide left.
Mullen said he was thinking about letting freshman Jace Christmann attempt the field goal, but he stuck with Graves. Mullen said he has had a hard time figuring out Graves’ problem.
“He doesn’t miss much in practice,” Mullen said. “He hits it right through in practice. His misses aren’t bad misses. It’s not like it’s a sidewinder or a curve ball or a knuckle ball coming out to the side.
“If it was something where he was not hitting the ball well, then you have to make a change. He’s hitting the ball well. We’ve just got to keep battling through it and have him get confident.”
Graves made all of his extra points. Mullen joked he was going to kick Graves in an “interesting place” if he missed the last one.
Junior Logan Cooke was injured during Christian Kirk’s 93-yard punt return for a touchdown return late in the first half. Mullen said he tweaked his knee and his status is uncertain.
Freshman Kody Schexnayder had four punts for an average of 41 yards, including a long of 52.
Ross’ records
Fred Ross continues to put his name in the MSU record book.
Ross had six catches to break Chad Bumphis’ school record of consecutive games with a catch with 31 games.
Ross also moved into sole possession of third place in school history with two touchdowns. He now has 19, five shy of Bumphis’ record. He passed Justin Jenkins (2000-03) and Eric Moulds (1993-95), who have 17.
With 98 yards he is in second place with 2,252. Bumphis holds the record with 2,270.
Fitzgerald, who rooms with Ross on road trips and in hotels before home games, said Ross hasn’t mentioned the records to him.
“He’s just a very mellow, kind of go-with-the-flow guy,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s not going to talk himself up. He’s going to talk somebody else up more than anything.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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