STARKVILLE — It has been a long wait for the 2016 college football season since Southeastern Conference Media Days in July.
A humid August filled with training camps only made the wait seem that much longer, but that wait and all of the speculation and prognostications will end at 11 a.m. Saturday when the Mississippi State football team plays host to South Alabama at Davis Wade Stadium. The SEC Network will broadcast the game live.
MSU coach Dan Mullen enters his eighth season with lingering questions about who will be his team’s starting quarterback, how the Bulldogs’ defense will look with a new coaching staff, and how the team will respond to key graduation and personnel losses.
Fans hope to answer some of those questions Saturday, but Mullen has said in the preseason that all of the questions about his team might not be answered until later in the season.
Mullen, who is 55-35 as a head coach and has led the Bulldogs to a school-record six-straight bowl games, has a young team, but he has playmakers on both sides of the ball. South Alabama is looking to return to a bowl game after finishing 5-7 last season and missing the postseason.
Here are five things to watch for a game that MSU enters a 28-point favorite, according to BetOnline.com:
1. How will the MSU quarterbacks perform?
Many might say the biggest question is who will be the starting quarterback?
Mullen hasn’t tipped his hand, although he said earlier this week that junior Damian Williams and sophomore Nick Fitzgerald are battling for the starting job.
The biggest concern is how each player will perform when he gets his opportunity. Mullen said he will play multiple quarterbacks and that redshirt freshman Nick Tiano also could get some snaps.
Whoever starts the game won’t necessarily be the starter moving forward. The first two weeks could be viewed as auditions for MSU’s third game of the season at LSU.
Williams hasn’t played since 2014, while Fitzgerald played sparingly as Dak Prescott’s backup last season. Mullen has faith they will handle what is thrown at them.
“Damian had to start in a tough situation as a freshman,” Mullen said. “Fitz last year played a bunch. Both those guys have been thrown into tough situations and both have performed well in the situations they got thrown into.”
2. Will MSU find a complement to running back Brandon Holloway?
Holloway, a senior, will be the starter.
The 5-foot-8, 165-pound Tampa, Florida, native isn’t your typical running back, but he has proven he can handle the rigors of the Southeastern Conference. But unlike quarterback, rotating running backs is common.
Senior Ashton Shumpert and sophomore Aeris Williams are projected to be the backups. Like Holloway, Shumpert has experience. Williams is still learning, but Mullen said he likes what the former West Point High School standout brings to the position.
“Aeris Williams is kind of a mix in between the two,” Mullen said. “Holloway is going to be a real speed guy on the edge, and Shumpert can pound it up inside. Aeries Williams is kind of between them. He’s got a little bit of the dynamic speed on the edge, maybe not as fast as Holloway. He’s going to be physical between the tackles, maybe not as thick as Shumpert, but he’s kind of in that mix between those two.”
Mullen said Williams has had a good training camp and he could take the next step.
Prescott led MSU with 588 yards rushing last season. Holloway led all running backs with 413 yards. Williams led the tailbacks with three touchdowns.
Holloway feels like the run game is solely on the shoulders of the running backs.
“When Dak was here, we knew he wasn’t going to be here the next year, so it was already planned out we would have to step up our game and account for the rushing yards that we lose with him,” Holloway said.
3. Will the MSU cornerbacks be ready?
First-year defensive coordinator Peter Sirmon is ready to showcase his 3-4 base defense.
But the biggest concern is at cornerbacks, where an already thin MSU lost senior Tolando Cleveland for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and senior Cedric Jiles for half the season with a broken right arm.
Junior Jamoral Graham, who began is career as a wide receiver, and junior college transfer Lashard Durr are expected to be the starters.
“They compete every day and they’re ready to work every day,” senior safety Kivon Coman said. “They have a humble mind-set about them, and they don’t take nothing for granted. We just have to communicate and be on the same page.”
Sirmon said it will be hard to replace the experience of Cleveland and Jiles, but he has stressed developing the entire room to cornerbacks coach Terrell Buckley.
“With a lack of experience, we need to make sure that everybody is getting pushed in that direction in continuing to help us,” Sirmon said. “Sometimes when you have more established players, there’s not that urgency. We need them to continue to develop and when the ball goes up in the air, they need to make their plays.”
Sophomore safety Jamal Peters has practiced at cornerback, as has redshirt freshman Maurice Smitherman. Smitherman went through spring drills as a cornerback, but moved to safety in training camp.
4. Will South Alabama put up a fight?
Although a huge underdog, junior running back Xavier Johnson said the Jaguars were preparing to walk away with a victory, so confidence is high.
Coach Joey Jones, the only head coach in Jaguar program history, took over before the first season in 2009. After three seasons at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level, South Alabama moved to the Football Bowl Subdivision level in 2012. A member of the Sun Belt Conference, South Alabama lost to Bowling Green 33-28 in the 2014 Camellia Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama.
Jones is ready to get back to a bowl game.
“We have to go out there and prove it,” Jones said. “We have one of the tougher schedules in the country. There is no doubt we are much improved. I don’t want to compare year to year, but I know we have improved overall as a team.”
The Bulldogs beat the Jaguars 30-10 in Starkville in 2012 and 35-3 in Mobile, Alabama, in 2014.
Mullen praised what Jones has done.
“He’s been going and recruiting and developing talent,” Mullen said. “That’s the key to a program. It’s hard to get a quick fix for a program. If you look at how he’s been able to develop some homegrown players, develop high school kids and get them through the program and continue to improve, I think he’s built a pretty solid program.”
5. How hot will it be?
It is still summer in the state of Mississippi, so temperatures are expected to be blistering.
With temperatures in the 90s and the heat index expected to be close to 100, MSU has issued a heat advisory and announced a number of steps to help fans.
Fans are encouraged to wear white or light color clothing. Each spectator will be permitted to carry two clear water bottles or one clear re-usable water bottle of 32 ounces or less into the stadium. Water bottle refilling stations will be located on the northeast and northwest corners of the ground level concourse, east side ground level, and west side 300 level concourse. Hydration station kiosks will offer reduced price water bottle only sales throughout the stadium. A 12-ounce bottle is $1, while a one-liter bottle is $5, cash only.
Air conditioned rest areas and cooling fan stations will be at Gate C and Gate L and at the concourse midpoint on each level of the stadium.
For the players, the heat could lead to cramps, which could affect rotations.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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