STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State football team will have its toughest test of the season as it kicks off the month of November.
In the first of four-straight games against Southeastern Conference Western Division teams., MSU (3-5, 1-3 SEC) will play host to No. 7 Texas A&M (7-1, 4-1) at 11 a.m. Saturday (SEC Network) at Davis Wade Stadium.
MSU will play at No. 1 Alabama on Nov. 12, play host to Arkansas on Nov. 19, and play Ole Miss in the Battle for the Golden Egg on Nov. 26.
Under coach Dan Mullen, the Bulldogs are 1-3 against the Aggies. The win was a 48-31 victory at home in 2014. The Aggies won 30-17 last season at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.
MSU snapped a three-game losing streak with a 56-41 victory against Samford last Saturday. Texas A&M is coming of a 52-20 victory against New Mexico State. Texas A&M lost 33-14 at Alabama the week before.
Here are five things to watch:
1. What will be MSU’s mind-set?
MSU will have to win three of its final four games to reach a bowl game for a seventh-straight season.
The Bulldogs likely will be an underdog in all four games. After back-to-back nine-win seasons and an appearance in the 2014 Orange Bowl, senior linebacker Richie Brown has come to terms with the Bulldogs’ predicament. He said the team hasn’t given up and is finding the strength to step on the field every Saturday because of the guy next to them.
“We’ve just go to keep leaning on each other, I think that’s one thing this team is doing well,” Brown said. “The adversity’s kind of brought us really close together as a team. We’re trying to stick together, stay together, and just keep playing for each other, keep playing for the people beside us, and play for something bigger than ourselves.”
Senior running back Brandon Holloway has missed the last three games with an ankle injury. He was back at practice this week and expects to play.
Holloway, who has 208 yards and one touchdown, said it’s hard to put in words as he approaches possibly his last four football games.
“It doesn’t really hit you until you get to the end. We’re still working our way there and going day by day,” Holloway said.
2. Can Nick Fitzgerald build on his performance?
MSU’s sophomore quarterback threw for 417 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns last week against Samford. He had two touchdowns called back.
His performance was a far cry from his 188-yard effort in a 40-38 loss to Kentucky on Oct. 22 in Lexington, Kentucky.
“What you don’t want is a roller coaster,” MSU quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson said. “You want to see him continually peak and end up playing his best football in November. We’ve challenged him to do that.”
Johnson said Fitzgerald is coachable and understands there are a lot of things he needs to improve on.
Fitzgerald is 124 of 221 for 1,496 yards and 14 touchdowns (seven interceptions). He leads the team with 657 yards rushing and six touchdowns.
Fitzgerald credited his teammates for his performance last week. He is excited to get back on the field.
“I need to use that as a confidence boost,” Fitzgerald said. “We can obviously score points. We can outscore people if we need to. We’re going against a better opponent, a better scheme, and better coaching, but I’m going to use that as momentum.”
3. Can MSU’s offensive line slow down the Texas A&M defensive line?
Texas A&M leads the nation in tackles for loss (77) and is 13th in sacks (28). The Bulldogs have given up 49 tackles for loss and 14 sacks.
“When you look at that combination, (they have) guys (who) can just cause havoc up front (and they have) a bunch of a potential NFL players and possibly first-rounders or first picks in the draft,” Mullen said. “You can see why they’re one of the top teams in America, and it should be a great challenge.”
Junior Myles Garrett and senior Daeshon Hall lead the Aggies with nine-and-a-half tackles for loss. Junior linebacker Claude George has eight-and-a-half. Garrett has a team-high four sacks, while Hall, George and junior Jarrett Johnson have three-and-a-half sacks.
Garrett, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound Arlington, Texas, native, missed the game against South Carolina on Oct. 1 and last week’s game due to injury.
“He’s so explosive off the ball, has great length, and can get into the back field in such a hurry that it gets you right out of rhythm in your pass game,” Mullen said. “Anytime you create tackles for loss, you’re out of rhythm on offense.”
4. Will MSU tackle better?
Mullen said MSU had 20-plus missed tackles last week.
As a result, Samford gained 627 yards, including 468 passing. After reviewing the film, Mullen said Samford had 300 yards after the catch.
First-year MSU defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon said tackling has been a top priority this week.
“The three things we’ve done every day individually by the safeties, the corners, the defensive line, and the linebackers is we change direction, we get off blocks and we tackle,” Sirmon said. “That’s the first three things we talked about being non-negotiable when we got together as a staff.”
Brown said guys have lost confidence and playing kind of scared when it comes to tackling. He said guys are scared of failure, not the opponent.
The Aggies are second in the SEC in scoring offense (38.4 points per game) and in total offense (498.8 yards). Oklahoma transfer quarterback Trevor Knight is 144 of 270 for 1,868 yards and 13 touchdowns. He has 529 yards rushing and six touchdowns. Josh Reynolds has 30 catches for 586 yards and six touchdowns.
The Bulldogs have allowed 30 points per game (10th in the SEC) and 418.6 yards per game (ninth in the SEC).
“We’re still a work in progress,” Sirmon said. “It’s a lot of football, a lot of those things we’ve got to continue to develop the identity of what we are on defense. The coaches need to provide leadership, the leaders need to provide leadership, the guys on the field, when opportunities are there, need to make plays of finishing.”
5. How will Texas A&M handle No. 4 CFP ranking?
Even though the Aggies are ranked No. 7 in The Associated Press and Amway Coaches poll, they were ranked No. 4 in the first College Football Playoff poll released Tuesday.
Alabama, Clemson, and Michigan took the top three spots. Texas A&M made the initial playoff field ahead of Washington (8-0).
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said his team was on the practice field when the announcement and didn’t celebrate the news when it found out.
“Like I told our team, whatever happened really didn’t matter. There’s a lot of football to be played,” Sumlin said. “Whatever the rankings were going to be, the most important thing was to win next week, and this team has done that. I think they’ve done a really good job of blocking out noise all year, the same noise that said we weren’t going to be any good. They’ve blocked that out. I don’t see any reason why they’re not going to continue down the same road.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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