STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen wasn’t happy Thursday.

In the Bulldogs’ first preseason scrimmage at Davis Wade Stadium, the Bulldogs’ fifth-year coach wasn’t pleased with the number of dropped passes, missed assignments, and mental mistakes his players made in the two-hour session Thursday morning.

Mullen was especially disappointed by the play of the receivers. His reaction stemmed from the fact the receivers had improved from the summer thanks to their work with fifth-year senior quarterback Tyler Russell. Russell worked with the receivers during the summer — without coaching supervision per NCAA rules — to get them ready for the speed of practice and to help them avoid the mistakes players make early in practice developing an understanding of the offense.

“It’s the job of the older guys here to set that bar for the younger guys, and if they mess up once, to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” Mullen said. “There’s a lot of learning to make sure those (receivers) are ready to play. We’ve thrown a lot at them.”

Mullen said MSU showed its rust in the passing game in the closed scrimmage and gave the coaches plenty of stuff to emphasize this afternoon when the position groups review the action.

“We had a bunch of things that normally happen in a first scrimmage which are false starts, dropped passes, and a bunch of silly penalties,” Mullen said. “We have a lot of time to get that kind of stuff fixed, but even as a young team, I was hoping to see us perform at a little higher level.”

There were positives, though. Mullen said defensive coordinator Geoff Collins’ crew continued to adapt to Collins’ mayhem mentality up front and to improve one of least productive pass rushes in the Southeastern Conference in 2012.

“We had some really good pass rush,” Mullen said. “The offensive line came off the ball and we ran the ball very well. We’ll have another big (scrimmage) next week, and after that you’re getting into pretty much game mode.”

Mullen in favor of larger stipend for his college football players

At the 2013 SEC Media Days last month, University of South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said every men’s basketball and football coach in the league agreed their athletes should receive a stipend.

Mullen confirmed he voted yes to Spurrier’s proposal at the league’s coaches meetings in the spring.

“For the amount of time they put in year round, it’s hard,” Mullen said. “They don’t have time with the amount of their commitment that they’re making to go get a part-time job that a lot college students are going to have time to go do. I think that ability for a lot of guys, just to go have a little bit of money in your pocket, a little bit of spending money that they have the ability to go out and get a pizza on a Friday night, (is important). They get to go to maybe take a girl out on a date and have $20 to go do it.”

At SEC Media Days, Spurrier proposed an amount ranging from $3,600 to $3,900 per football player. He suggested the money come from the coaches.

Mullen, who is in his fifth year at MSU, agreed with Spurrier’s plea, but acknowledged there are plenty of hurdles associated with the issue.

“When you look at the stipends, I think the numbers everyone’s talking to is kind of, ‘Hey what a college kid might have in his pocket to go out and be a regular guy?’ I’m a big, big proponent of it,” Mullen said. “I understand all of the massive issues that it makes sense for football. Does it makes sense for every sport? I don’t know, but you can’t do one thing for one sport and not the others.”

Ole Miss

n Rebels make changes on offensive line: At Oxford, the Rebels made some changes to their offensive line Thursday morning as they continued to prepare for their season opener at Vanderbilt University.

Coach Hugh Freeze and his coaching staff looked on as Justin Bell and Jared Duke took first-team snaps.

“Justin (Bell) has his strengths and he has things he needs to continue to work on,” Freeze said. “He is a physical presence on the line; he is probably better in the running game right now than pass pro, but it is something he continues to work on. Jared (Duke) is giving great effort, and we reward great effort. This is about competition and what you did today, not about last year or two days ago. It’s about what you did today.”

Junior C.J. Johnson has returned to the practice fields after off-season surgery, and Freeze was pleased with the progress of the defensive end but noted he will have to play with some pain for the time being.

“He seemed to handle it pretty well,” Freeze said. “He is going to have to just play through some pain. The doctors were here and everything looks good with the repair, he is just going to have to push through some of it and get himself back into shape.”

Also along the defensive front, D.T. Shackelford took snaps solely at the end position. Freeze said the senior was productive off the edge and showed improved burst along with great leadership.

“We are moving him around to several positions and he was solely at end today,” Freeze said. “He plays with a wide open motor and that is something you have to have on the defensive side of the ball. He is a great leader and any time he is out there people rally around him. His quickness is a lot better than it was this spring. He feels good and is getting more and more comfortable.”

Freeze also noted the play of freshman defensive back Tony Conner, who is campaigning for early playing time.

“He is learning quickly and plays very physical,” Freeze said. “He is still like any freshman and his eyes are in the wrong place some times, but he is everything we thought he would be and will be a really good player for us.”

Ole Miss is scheduled to practice this morning. It will have one workout per day that will be open to the public through Saturday. Daily updates of practice times and locations will be available on Twitter at @OleMissFB.

Cell phone and camera usage is prohibited at practice, and fans should stay behind the red line and not walk or stand between the fields. Visitors to campus on weekdays are reminded to make parking arrangements by going to www.olemiss.edu/parking.

The annual Meet The Rebels Day will be Aug. 17 at the Indoor Practice Facility. Doors open at 11:30 a.m.

Alabama

n Football team practices outdoors in the afternoon: At Tuscaloosa, Ala., the Crimson Tide practiced for two hours in full pads under the sun in at the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields on Thursday afternoon. The practice was the team’s eighth of the training camp.

More preseason awards came out as Sports Illustrated named its preseason All-America teams. Alabama led the country with five selections, including three on the first team. Sophomore T.J. Yeldon, senior C.J. Mosley, and junior Ha Ha Clinton-Dix received first-team honors, while junior Cyrus Kouandjio and sophomore Amari Cooper were named to the second team.

Today is the second two-a-day of fall camp. On Saturday, Alabama will play its first scrimmage of the 2013 season at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Staff Reports were included in this report.