STARKVILLE — The issue has shown itself in different ways, but yet it comes whenever No. 25 Mississippi State plays on the road: the snap count mechanism.
Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald said MSU (6-4, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) has struggled with the clap cadence — the action of using a clap to call for the snap — all season, with the most recent loss to Alabama being no exception. MSU won’t have to worry about it this week, with an 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN) home game against Arkansas (), but Moorhead accurately pointed out the issues have been infrequent.
“We struggled with it at Kentucky, I don’t think you saw much of an issue with it outside of the first two plays at LSU, that was probably the loudest environment we’ve played in. We only utilize it on the road when crowd noise is a factor.”
The issues at Kentucky were prominent, given MSU committed 11 offensive penalties and almost all of them were either delay of games or false starts. MSU also took two timing-related penalties on its opening drive at LSU before two premature snaps hurt MSU’s offense at Alabama.
MSU in grad transfer market
Rivals.com reported Monday that former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant will make his decision on where he is transferring on Dec. 4, and MSU is involved.
The former Clemson Tiger started every game last year on Clemson’s way to the College Football Playoff and started the first four games this year, before Clemson elected to switch to Trevor Lawrence. That’s when Lawrence decided to leave the football team and looking for places to transfer.
Rivals.com reported Bryant is visiting MSU this weekend and will visit Auburn and Miami before the season ends. He has already visited Arkansas, Missouri and North Carolina, according to the report.
MSU’s starter Nick Fitzgerald is a senior and his backup, Keytaon Thompson, is a sophomore. MSU also has freshman Jalen Mayden on his way to a redshirt and has a commitment from Garrett Shrader in its 2019 class, a four-star prospect from Charlotte. Bryant would be a graduate transfer, thus eligible for the 2019 season, with one year of eligibility left.
Moorhead mum on officiating saga
MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen told The Dispatch Sunday that he was in contact with SEC director of football officials Steve Shaw and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey about the officiating in the 24-0 loss to Alabama, but also stressed such communication channels are normal.
Moorhead said he went through his usual procedures, as well. Each week he sends plays to the SEC for evaluation and gets a response in the middle of the following week.
“That was standard operating procedure. A response is forthcoming and the Southeastern Conference will handle the rest of it,” Moorhead said.
Injury update
Most of Moorhead’s injury news was good news.
Running back Kylin Hill continues to be listed and on day-to-day status despite playing the last two games. Moorhead is, ‘cautiously optimistic,” that defensive back Jaquarius Landrews can return and is expecting linebackers Leo Lewis and Sh’mar Kilby-Lane to return.
Landrews and Kilby-Lane both missed the Alabama game with injuries and Lewis did not travel with the team due to illness.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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