Mississippi State Bulldogs: The offense is set, now it’s time for the defense
By Matt Green
There are 52 days till college football season, and today we focus on one of the best scoring offenses in the SEC.
Say what you want about Dan Mullen and the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but one thing he knows how to do is coach offense, unfortunately that might be the one thing he knows. Year-in and year-out, the Bulldogs have one of the most high-powered offenses in the SEC, but it’s time for their defense has to step up.
The Bulldogs lost the best quarterback in school history in Dak Prescott after the 2015 season, but they bounced back in 2016, and most importantly found a quarterback to take the reigns. And that leads us to no. 52 on the Southbound and Down College Football Countdown.
Mississippi State Bulldogs scored 52 touchdowns in 2016.
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Six teams in the SEC scored more points per game than Mississippi State’s 30.4, but only Alabama, Tennessee, and Texas A&M scored more touchdowns than the Bulldogs’ 52 last season.
Most people probably expected Mullen and the Bulldogs to struggle to replace Prescott, but it didn’t take Nick Fitzgerald long to seize the starting job. Fitzgerald didn’t start the season opener against South Alabama, but by week two he proved he was the guy, throwing for 178 yards, and running for 195.
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Fitzgerald was second in the SEC with 1,375 rushing yards, and led the conference with 16 rushing touchdowns. But as Mullen said on Tuesday at SEC Media Days, he wants Fitzgerald to improve as a passer in 2017.
Mississippi State went 6-5 in 2016 in games where they scored 20+ points, and that is something they’ll have to improve on. The Bulldogs lost a 40-38 game at Kentucky and a 58-42 game to Arkansas late in the season.
The Bulldogs allowed 31.8 points per game defensively, which was 13th in the SEC and 93rd in the nation. But they do have a new defensive coordinator in Todd Grantham, who was previously the defensive coordinator at Louisville and Georgia before that.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs have proven that they know how to score points, but if they can figure out how to stop somebody, they could be dangerous in 2017.