STARKVILLE — This is the time of the year when the talk turns to how the Mississippi State University football team is going to put the air in its offense.
MSU coach Dan Mullen seems more serious and confident about carrying that out this season as he and his Bulldogs prepare for the start of spring practice. MSU was scheduled to open spring practice today, but rain forced the first day to be canceled.
There is optimism MSU can make a philosophical change on offense because junior quarterback Tyler Russell has different skills than the quarterbacks Mullen has had in his three previous seasons in Starkville.
Russell, who shared time with senior Chris Relf and Dylan Favre, who transferred after last season, was 69 of 129 for 1,034 yards and eight touchdowns last season. Russell sprained the left medial collateral knee ligament in his knee as MSU prepared to play Wake Forest in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn. MSU won that game 23-17. The Bulldogs
were 3-1 in games the former Parade All-American started.
“You have a quarterback who throws the ball well and an experienced group of wide receivers,” Mullen said, “so you’re looking more to throw the football than you have.”
Spring practice will conclude April 21 with the annual Maroon-White spring game at Davis Wade Stadium.
For the first time since arriving on campus, Russell will open spring practice at the top of a depth chart that has only two quarterbacks.
“I just think it is the next step of him in this development,” Mullen said. “He’s done a great job since he’s been here of improving, of understanding what it is to be a quarterback, of blocking out all of the outside distractions that come along with being a quarterback — of not letting any of that really get to him. … This is going to be kind of that next step. He came in the first year and redshirted, and played a little bit the next year. Last year, he played a little bit more, started some games. Now it is his turn to kind of be the guy. That is the evolution you kind of like to see.”
Redshirt freshman Dak Prescott also hopes to make an impression. In an intra-squad scrimmage at Davis Wade Stadium prior to the Music City Bowl, Prescott was 32 of 46 for 375 yards and two touchdowns with one interception in the first 20 offensive possessions.
The Haughton, La., native will get a majority of the snaps in the spring due to the continued rehabilitation of Russell’s knee injury.
“For him to see you’re one play away from whether you win the job or not you’re the man is important,” Mullen said. “The work the quarterbacks have put this offseason, I’m pleased with. Now we see how it translates on the field coming up. This is going to be his chance to really get out there and take reps as, not a guy trying to make a play, but as a guy being a quarterback.”
Instead of going through the MSU student body for a walk-on who played quarterback at any level, Mullen said players on the roster will be able to fill in at quarterback in drills if needed. Mullen said the emergency quarterback in the spring will be 5-foot-10, 180-pound receiver and holder Chris Cameron.
The lack of healthy quarterbacks should give MSU an opportunity to tinker with single-wing sets and to develop a Wildcat formation in the spring.
“It’s really going to force us to develop some stuff we haven’t done, maybe like the single-wing stuff or where we’re snapping the ball to somebody else,” Mullen said. “It’s one of the things that always spooks you (because) you never get the reps at. How are you going to balance reps for that when I have four quarterbacks that need reps? Now you go throw that in, we have less quarterbacks, it kind of forces our hand to work on that package this spring. I think that could be really beneficial to us in fall.”
Mullen said Tuesday his staff must balance its approach in the spring. He said the team needs to respect the experience that returns on both sides of the ball and to continue to implement the same style that helped it win back-to-back bowl games the past two seasons.
“You can very easily say, ‘Oh, we’re experienced, let’s go heavy and put in a lot more stuff,’ ” Mullen said. “You come off the practice field and you realize we’ve become a master of nothing. If you don’t get to it in (spring) practice the chances are you’re probably not going to get to it in fall, so you’re just wasting a colossal amount of time, and that’s one thing we’ve really tried to focus on.”
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