STARKVILLE — One of the biggest storylines this spring for Mississippi State football has been the reimagined run game.
Saturday afternoon, new offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay wasted no time running the ball, and did so in a big way during the annual Maroon & White Spring Game at Davis Wade Stadium, a 17-7 win for Team Maroon.
On an end-around handoff to wide receiver Tulu Griffin, he caught the Bulldogs off-guard defensively and easily ran it in for a 43-yard touchdown.
“Coach Barbay and Coach Chad Bumphis, they have been trying to find a way to get me the ball,” Griffin said. “It’s been going well so far.”
Barbay’s new offensive schemes have gotten wide receivers involved in rushing plays, but fans didn’t just see a slew of plays on the ground; receivers were getting open on deep post routes as much.
Mississippi State starting quarterback Will Rogers took some deep shots down the field, connecting on a flashy 55-yard touchdown pass to Zavion Thomas.
Rogers threw it at least 40-45 yards in the air before Thomas caught it one-handed as his momentum carried into the end zone.
“One is always better though,” Thomas said. “[Will] just having the confidence in me to let the ball go means a lot, and I had to make a play.”
Thomas and Griffin are two of the most explosive players for Mississippi State, with Thomas catching four passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, and Griffin totaling 75 total yards, including his rushing touchdown.
“You can’t coach speed,” Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett said. “It’s pretty simple. If you’ve got a speedy receiver it means you better have speed in the secondary to cover guys like that. It forces you to pay a lot of soft zone. So it’s good to have speed.”
Quarterbacks also showed off some explosive plays, both in the air and on the ground. Rogers showcased mobility in the pocket and Vanderbilt dual threat transfer Mike Wright doing the same, including running it in from two yards out.
Rogers heated up in the pocket after a slow start, completing 16 of 27 passes for 214 passing yards and one touchdown for the Maroon team.
“He’s a real accurate passer when he pushes the ball down the field and we’re encouraging him to be aggressive and not reckless,” Arnett said. “We tried to tell him the other day … I told him it should be his mindset as a quarterback too in throwing the ball. Be aggressive, just not reckless.”
In the backfield, with expected starting running back Jo’quavious “Woody” Marks not playing in the spring game, it gave Seth Davis and Jeffery Pittman chances to run rampant on the field.
Davis took touches for both teams, totaling 60 rushing yards on 16 carries, while Pitman had 41 rushing yards on 13 carries.
For what it’s worth, of the 431 total yards on the day, 145 of them came on the ground, and those helped set up play-action passes and deep shots that the Bulldogs capitalized off of.
Barbay’s offense is still a work-in-progress, something that the team will look to perfect come summer camp, but there were some glimpses into the future on Saturday.
“It’s just football,” Rogers said. “It’s not that hard to learn.”
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