STARKVILLE – Two days after helping No. 1 Mississippi State remain undefeated with a 45-31 road win at Kentucky, a pair of Bulldogs earned honors from the Southeastern Conference Monday night for their performances in Lexington.
Junior tailback Josh Robinson, who rushed for a career-high 198 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, was named the SEC’s Offensive Player of the Week while fifth-year senior Kaleb Eulls, who led MSU’s defensive attack with two sacks of Kentucky quarterback Patrick Towles, was named the league’s Defensive Lineman of the Week.
With the wins by Robinson and Eulls, MSU has now earned 10 individual weekly awards this season, the most in the conference. The recognition of Eulls gives the Bulldogs their fourth SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week nod, with the first three going to senior defensive end Preston Smith.
It was the first career award for Robinson, a junior who leads the conference in rushing yards (887) and is tied for the league lead in rushing touchdowns (10) with teammate Dak Prescott.
Eulls, meanwhile, has 22 tackles and 2.5 sacks on the season.
McKinney chosen Butkus Award semifinalist: Already named a Midseason All-American by ESPN.com, Mississippi State linebacker Benardrick McKinney added another accolade on Monday morning, as the MSU junior was named a semifinalist for the Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s top linebacker.
McKinney is one of five of the award’s 15 semifinalists from the Southeastern Conference, joining Jordan Jenkins and Ramik Wilson of Georgia; A.J. Johnson of Tennessee and Reggie Ragland of Alabama.
On the season, McKinney, a native of Tunica, leads No. 1 MSU with 45 total tackles. He also has six tackles for loss and three sacks.
Finalists for the award will be named on Nov. 24 and the winner will be announced on Dec. 9.
Mullen discusses return from injury for Lewis: After missing Mississippi State’s wins over Auburn and Texas A&M with a leg injury, MSU senior WR Jameon Lewis returned to action in Saturday’s 45-31 win over Kentucky, but the Tylertown native appeared to be limited due to the lingering injury.
Against the Wildcats, Lewis played frequently, but never touched the ball for an offense that rolled up 542 total yards.
On Monday, MSU coach Dan Mullen was asked about his senior wide receiver.
“Hopefully this week he’s closer to 100 percent,” said Mullen. “He played in the game, but as soon as he got sore, we wanted to pull him. The trainers have said he’s moving Ok, but as a senior, he is desperate to get back on the field, and that’s the type of attitude we want him to have. You like when a guy is desperate to play football, but at the same time, we don’t want to put him in harm’s way. We loved having him in the game, hopefully this week we will see him more.”
On the season, Lewis has 15 catches for 223 yards and a touchdown.
Homecoming game time announced: A day after the Southeastern Conference announced Mississippi State’s Nov. 1 game against Arkansas would kick off at 6:15 p.m., the league announced MSU’s game time for its Nov. 8 home game against the University of Tennessee-Martin.
That game, MSU’s final non-conference matchup of the season, will kick off at 3 p.m., and will be broadcast nationally by the SEC Network, the league announced on Monday. It will be MSU’s second SEC Network game of the season, as the Bulldogs first appeared on the network in their season-opening 49-0 win over Southern Mississippi.
Follow Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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