STARKVILLE — Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen isn’t hitting the panic button after a season-opening loss to South Alabama.
MSU entered its game against South Alabama as a four-touchdown favorite. The Bulldogs built a 17-0 lead only to see the Jaguars rally and then escape Davis Wade Stadium with a 21-20 victory after Westin Graves missed a 28-yard field goal in the final seconds.
MSU will try to regroup at 6 p.m. Saturday when it plays host to South Carolina (ESPN2) in its Southeastern Conference opener.
“We have to see how we respond to this as a young football team,” Mullen said. “We have two choices: you come out on Monday for practice and you can have your head hung down or you come out and take pride in your work and be much better at practice this week than we were last week.”
South Carolina beat Vanderbilt 13-10 in Nashville, Tennessee, on Thursday. Like MSU, South Carolina was looking for a quarterback in the offseason. South Carolina first-year head coach Will Muschamp said senior Perry Orth will get the start. He was 11 of 19 for 152 yards against the Commodores.
For the Bulldogs, sophomore Nick Fitzgerald started, but played three series. He was 0 of 3 and had 11 yards rushing. Junior Damian Williams was 20 of 28 for 143 yards and one touchdown. He led the Bulldogs with 93 yards rushing on 12 carries. Williams led MSU to touchdowns on his first two series, but he struggled in the second half.
Mullen said both quarterbacks will prepare to go play against the Gamecocks.
Senior wide receiver Fred Ross, who had six catches for 34 yards, rallied the team together in the locker room after the loss and told them to stay focused.
“With this loss, it doesn’t really mean anything,” Ross said. “We lost, but all of our goals are still obtainable, everything we want to accomplish is still at hand. We just need to come together next week in practice, fix everything we did wrong, and keep moving forward as a team.”
Ross was surprised with how poorly the offense played in the second half. He said the best way to put the loss behind them is at practice.
“You practice hard, you do all the little things right, you work on the stuff you didn’t do right for this game, and you just keep going,” Ross said.
The Bulldog defense had 11.0 tackles for loss and 3.0 sacks. MSU made it tough for South Alabama in the first half, but the Jaguars scored three touchdowns in the second half.
Senior defensive lineman A.J. Jefferson, who had seven tackles (career-high four for loss) and two sacks, agreed with Ross that the season isn’t over. Jefferson said he and Ross have to take it upon themselves to push the younger guys in the right direction.
“We preach to them, don’t take anybody lightly. I feel like they know now that you can’t do that,” Jefferson said. “We can’t just harp on (this game) because that will mess up your whole season if you just focus on that one loss. The biggest thing will be getting those young guys’ mind focused on beating South Carolina.”
Mullen didn’t call the loss a wakeup call, but he said it was a learning experience for a young team.
“There are still a lot of young guys learning and you see some of those mistakes that were made during practice, happen during a game,” Mullen said. “That’s a lot of mental focus on guys. Not just mental mistakes, effort mistakes. If you don’t practice that way, you’re not going to play that way. We’ve got to practice a lot better this week and find a way to win next week.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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