STARKVILLE — Lack of depth is the result of trying to replace a pair of senior safeties that played nearly every defensive snap during a season.
So it wasn’t surprising to hear Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen admit that his team will be “a little young” in the back two members of the Bulldogs secondary.
“I think after (2012 season) we should be pretty solid in the back two for years to come,” Mullen said Thursday. “It’s when you start losing guys in consecutive years when you can get young real quick.”
Charles Mitchell and Wade Bonner will graduate after the 2011 Music City Bowl matchup on Dec. 30 (5:40 p.m., ESPN) so this week in practice the MSU coaching staff has been giving freshmen Jay Hughes, Dee Arrington and Kendrick Market in the secondary.
“Besides the kids that we recruit and sign but unfortunately can’t talk about right now — these guys will have the opportunity to go after starting positions next year,” MSU secondary coach Tony Hughes said.
Mitchell will have played in every single game of his MSU career and currently has 159 solo tackles in his four-year tenure that also includes seven pass breakups, five quarterback hurries and four interceptions.
“He was a role model for this team on the field but also in the community and in the classroom as well,” Mullen said. “He’s really the poster child of what we want our program to be like.”
Jay Hughes, a redshirt freshman whose dad is the MSU secondary coach, and true freshman Arrington have been used on special teams this season while Market is a first-year player from South Panola getting his first reps with the first-team defense.
“Just like when your seniors started out, they had to learn how to practice and play our way,” Tony Hughes said. “We are a developmental program. Whether a kid plays a different position at a small high school and our job is to teach them how to play a certain new position at a higher level.”
Another factor is the rehabilitation to the season-ending injury to Nickoe Whitley. Two weeks before the end of the 2011 campaign, Whitley, who was splitting playing time with Bonner at free safety, suffered a ruptured Achilles’ tendon in his left foot.
“We need to get Nickoe back as soon as possible and then suddenly we don’t look and play as young back there,” Mullen said.
Mullen and Tony Hughes said Thursday there’s no thoughts or plans to move any cornerbacks over to safety as a stop-gap measure for next season but did leave the idea open saying “we’ll put the best players on the football field”.
In Mullen’s first season, junior defensive backs Johnthan Banks was a starter at free safety before moving to cornerback for his next two seasons at MSU.
“Right now we haven’t addressed specific positions with guys like (Darius Slay) and we’re just focused on a bowl game right now saying we’ve got five guys that have played all year since Whitley went down,” Tony Hughes said. “After our recruiting and when we get in the spring is when we’ll see about those things.”
n Russell will likely not be 100 percent for bowl game; continues to throw with brace: Mullen said Thursday sophomore quarterback Tyler Russell’s knee injury will keep the signal caller out of the 5 p.m. open scrimmage Friday at Davis Wade Stadium.
The former Parade All-American selection out of high school, who has started four games behind center this season, suffered an undisclosed injury to his left knee after Tuesday’s practice. Russell was still wearing what the same long black brace on his left leg that Mullen referred to as “the immobilizer” Thursday.
“I don’t think (Tyler) will ever be 100 percent for the game obviously — he can’t even move it right now,” Mullen said. “We’ll probably get him a couple of days of practice during bowl week. Maybe a day on and day off type situation so he’s ready to play in the game.”
Russell was participating in some 7-on-7 drills by throwing passes despite not being able to take a standard drop and still can’t put much pressure on his leg side.
Mullen said Tuesday evening that surgery will not be required and that Russell is expected to be available for the Music City Bowl against Wake Forest.
Russell’s injury leaves MSU with two quarterbacks for the scrimmage with Relf to get little action and freshman Dak Prescott likely to see time with both teams.
“Relf will get a couple reps and Dak will be exhausted,” Mullen joked after Thursday’s practice.
n Freshman DE James Maiden leaving MSU program with intent to transfer: MSU freshman defensive end James Maiden has left the Bulldogs program with the intent of transferring to another school.
Maiden did not receive any playing time in a game this season and was being redshirted like many other first-year MSU players after signing with the Bulldogs as the 35-best tackle prospect, as well as the 11th-best college prospect at all positions in Mississippi this year according to Scout.com.
“He was home sick and wanted to go home,” Mullen said. “He already wanted to do it midseason and we told him he had to finish out the semester.”
Maiden, a Woodville native, selected MSU in July 2010 over Ole Miss, LSU and Southern Mississippi after having 35 total tackles and one quarterback sack as a senior in high school.
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