Mississippi State Football: Report Card vs. South Alabama

Here’s the report card to grade Mississippi State on it’s performance on offense, defense, special teams and coaching vs. South Alabama.

OFFENSE

Nick Fitzgerald should have come back into the game after Williams scored a couple of touchdowns in the 1st half. I tweeted as much so this isn’t second guessing after the fact. It’s case in point of why you don’t want to be a prisoner of the moment: the difference between a good QB and a mediocre on is consistency. Williams didn’t have it in this game, and for the most part he is who we thought he was.

DEFENSE

The Jaguars actually would’ve had even more points if not for two missed field goals. Dallas Davis threw for 285 yards including making some critical throws against our porous defense. Arf.

SPECIAL TEAMS

F I was feeling pretty good about the special teams when Westin Graves made a 48 yard field goal and Logan Cooke was able to pin them on the one yard line. The only mistake was Jamal Peters getting too close to Fred Ross on a punt return and the ball hit him on the helmet. Then came the 28 yard field goal miss that would have won the game. Choke.

COACHING

At this point, where is MSU going to find six wins on this schedule? There’s only been one game played so there’s a long way to go and I’m not counting this team out, but that was not a good team that took the field or any semblance of a team that could become good. If Mullen doesn’t get to six wins and losses a third straight Egg Bowl it won’t be too cushy in Starkville.