STARKVILLE — Mississippi State co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach John Hevesy used to tell Rufus Warren he would be an offensive lineman before his career was over.
The senior began his Bulldog career as a tight end, but his weight was always a concern and continued to go up. Even though Hevesy was joking with Warren about the move to the offensive line, the move became more and more likely for the Indianola native as he grew from a 250-pound freshman to a 265-pound sophomore.
In the spring of 2014, MSU football coach Dan Mullen and Hevesy decided to transition Warren from tight end to offensive line.
“Instead of trying to make him lose this weight and getting him to stay as small as he can to be a tight end, tell him, ‘Hey, go have another burger at lunch and eat a biscuit at breakfast and go play left tackle,’ ” Mullen said. “That really became an easy adjustment as we were looking at him trying to make that move. We were just trying to fill him out in his natural body size.”
This season, Warren is listed at 299 pounds, which is a big jump from 2011, when he redshirted as a freshman. Last season, Warren was listed at 295 pounds.
A three-start prospect coming out of high school, Warren was one of the best tight end prospects in the state of Mississippi, but his body was slowly moving toward that of an offensive lineman.
“He’s a big kid that finished growing when he got here,” Hevesy said. “He was underdeveloped when he got here as a recruit, but when he got here, he grew into his body, which for him is naturally a 300-pound guy.”
Warren made only one catch as a tight end — a 23-yard pass in the 2013 season. He never thought he was going to play offensive line and was given the final say after he went through 15 spring practices in 2014.
“Coach Mullen was the first one to bring it up and he basically left it up to me,” Warren said. “He was like, ‘We’re going to try you out in the spring if you really want to. If you don’t like it or if you think you’re not good at it, you can always go back to tight end.’ ”
Warren liked it and decided to stick with the new position. As a junior, he played in all 13 games as a reserve offensive lineman, including action at right tackle.
Warren was accustomed to blocking as a tight end. He said switching positions has taken a lot off his mind and is a much easier job than playing tight end.
“Tight end, I have to know what the receivers are doing, I have to know what the running back is doing and what everybody else is doing,” Warren said. “The o-line it’s strictly just learning how to protect (quarterback) Dak (Prescott). It’s much easier than playing tight end.”
Warren likely will be MSU’s first option at left tackle this season as it tries to fill the gap left by the graduation of Blaine Clausell, who started 42 games at left tackle in his four-year career.
Warren began to grasp the concept of being a starter this spring as he took a lot of repetitions with the first string.
“Now he’s taking the role of being a 70-play-a-game guy,” Hevesy said. “Through the spring he’s learned now that it’s every play, not sometimes here or sometimes there I might play here and there. It’s every play. It’s every detail. It’s every little thing he has to become great at.”
Even though Warren considers offensive line to be easy, he will have a lot of responsibility on his shoulders playing left tackle. Prescott is a right-handed quarterback, so the left side is the senior’s blind side.
However, Warren likes the challenge of protecting Prescott.
“Every snap, you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I just have to make sure that my man doesn’t get even close to him,’ ” Warren said. “That’s what makes it good. It’s fun, but it’s also a lot of pressure. That’s the pressure I want, to be able to protect a guy like Dak.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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