STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State football team held its first practice of the spring in helmets and shorts Wednesday at the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex.
The Bulldogs worked out for a little more than two hours, and will review the practice today in the film room as a team and by position.
“It was really good to just wake everybody up, get us back on the field a little bit, and get everybody moving around,” said MSU coach Dan Mullen, who begins his eighth season. “There is a transition for me from that offseason mind-set where ‘I’m studying football, I’m doing drills on my own,’ and the players are running a practice out there, we’re watching some film, and lifting weights to coming out here and applying it going forward full speed.”
Several new additions made their debuts, including defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon and defensive line coach Brian Baker. Baker, a 19-year NFL coaching veteran who mentored eight Pro Bowlers, returns to the college game for the first time since he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech in 1995. Baker was a member of the Yellow Jackets’ 1990 national championship staff.
“I’m thrilled to have him on staff,” Mullen said. “He’s got a tremendous amount of experience. People talk about him, the technician he is, and helping guys develop and all the guys he’s coached in the NFL. We hadn’t (crossed paths before), and I think talking to him it was just an opportunity, and a stage, and what he’d done, he was looking to make a transition to come back to the college game.”
Mullen also talked about what the Bulldogs will do defensively this spring.
“We’re going to be multiple on defense,” he said. “We were very much like we were last year. I think we’re just installing it. I think we ended up being a little more 4-3 than 3-4.”
Offensively, MSU must replace quarterback Dak Prescott, who heads to the NFL. Mullen said he will give equal repetitions to junior Damian Williams, sophomore Nick Fitzgerald, redshirt freshman Nick Tiano, and sophomore Elijah Staley in spring practice.
“It’s wide open today,” Mullen said. “Everyone is going to get reps with ones, twos and threes. Day one, it’s a lot of new faces and it’s hard to see what they’re going to do, but I thought all of them felt pretty comfortable out there on the field.
Mullen said senior wide receiver Fred Ross, who led the Southeastern Conference in receptions per game a year ago and broke the school single-season record for catches, will miss the spring after having surgery Wednesday to address a “groin issue.”
“Fred had a surgery today on a groin issue that’s just kind of been nagging him throughout his career,” Mullen said. “We had a bunch of meetings on it and just thought it was better, where he’s at, to go get that done, so he’s back ready to rock-and-roll going full time. He knows what he’s doing. I don’t need him out here. We need him come the fall.”
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