STARKVILLE — Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen thought making the quarterbacks unavailable to the media this week would limit the talk surrounding the position.
Think again.
Of the 35 questions Mullen was asked Monday in his weekly media conference, 14 of them were about around which player would start at 11:21 a.m. Saturday (WCBI) when MSU (3-3, 0-3 Southeastern Conference) plays host to No. 15 South Carolina (5-1, 3-1).
None of the answers to those questions revealed if senior Chris Relf or sophomore Tyler Russell would start.
Russell, a former Parade All-America selection out of Meridian High
School, helped MSU rally for a 21-3 victory against the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Saturday. He entered the game with MSU trailing 3-0 and went 11 of 13 for 166 yards and three touchdowns.
Russell’s stint was the second time he has replaced Relf this season Relf was 6 of 10 for 46 yards and wasn’t able to move the ball consistently before the change.
Mullen even suggested third-string quarterback Dylan Favre is in the mix for playing time against Gamecocks. Favre is the nephew of former NFL quarterback Brett Favre.
“There’s a possibility all three of them could be in the game,” Mullen said. “There wasn’t a set plan going into the (UAB) game, and we played two of them, so it could be the same scenario and I play three this week. I don’t know. It depends on how the game shakes out.”
Russell is 20 of 30 for 183 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception this season. Favre threw two incomplete passes at the University of Georgia in his first action at MSU.
Mullen insists the coaches run the same offensive philosophy and calls the same plays whether Russell, a classic drop-back passer, or Relf, a run-first quarterback with a strong arm, is in the game.
“People can give you different definitions of the spread offense,” MSU offensive coordinator Les Koenning said. “That gives you the flexibility as the spread offense. You can throw it and you can run it. Well, again, when you have the ability to do both, it allows you to play whichever quarterback you need to play.”
Mullen said the practice snaps will be split evenly among Relf and Russell leading up to Saturday, but that isn’t different from what the team does throughout the season.
“I preach to all of them they need to be the starting quarterback every week,” Mullen said. “We practice like that from spring ball to preseason all the way through. We expect all of the quarterbacks who are taking the reps to act like they are the (starter).”
After being pulled for the second time this season, Relf talked about his frustration with the play calling, saying the coaches weren’t trusting him to throw the football vertically down the field.
“He knows we have some trust in him to make decisions and get the ball to the people he needs to get the ball to,” Mullen said. “I think with Chris and everybody on offense was frustrated especially in that first half of how played. We just weren’t playing with a lot of confidence.”
South Carolina is in a similar situation. Coach Steve Spurrier, who has a history of changing quarterbacks on snaps in a game as coach at the University of Florida, switched from Stephen Garcia to Connor Shaw last week. Substituting quarterback on every play is something Mullen tried while the offensive coordinator at Bowling Green.
“That’s pretty easy,” Mullen said. “You get to tell them the play. What you can do is tell a kid on the sideline we’re running this play (and) we’re expecting to get this defense. A lot of kids, that helps. You get in, and the next guy would have a third-and-4 situation and we’re expecting this blitz then you could review the meeting. It’s kind of like practice.”
MSU also had a QB debate in the second game of the season last year. At the time, Mullen said he’d go with the player who had the hotter hand. Six games into this season, the Bulldogs are back to an in-game evaluation to see who will direct the offense.
“Any time you feel comfortable with a kid, you give him a shot, and his shot paid off for him,” Koenning said of Russell. “It’s just like Chris a couple of years ago when he came in. He had an opportunity, he had prepared, and he was prepared to play and did a nice job.”
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