Mississippi State Preview
October 04, 2006 02:32 PM | General
October 4, 2006
GAME NOTES | PAY-PER-VIEW INFO
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Instead of running through a brick wall, teams playing Mississippi State this year have chosen to go around it by throwing the football. No. 2-ranked Auburn has traditionally fielded strong running teams and the Tigers were only able to get 111 yards against the Bulldogs’ stout front seven in Starkville earlier this year.
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| Sophomore Steve Slaton, coming off an 80-yard effort in his last game at East Carolina, has yet to have back-to-back sub-100-yard games as a Mountaineer.
AP photo |
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez spent a portion of his Tuesday afternoon press conference reciting what opponents have done on the ground against Mississippi State this year: South Carolina 81 yards, Tulane 129 yards, Alabama-Birmingham 94 yards and LSU 108 yards.
“You look at a team like Auburn who likes to run the football and they only had 111 yards rushing on 36 carries,” Rodriguez said. “The strength of their defense is their front seven and stopping the run. The natural thought is they are stopping the run because they’ve got everybody involved but that’s not the case. Their front seven has been that good and they’ve forced teams to throw the football.”
Mississippi State (1-4) will be down a man up front when they face West Virginia this Saturday. Deljuan Robinson, a 6-foot-3-inch, 287-pound senior, is perhaps the team’s best run stopper and he will be out at least three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee following last weekend’s loss to LSU. Robinson was second in the SEC with 8 ½ tackles for losses to go with 22 tackles.
“It definitely makes the job a lot tougher not having Deljuan,” Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom said. “After that, we play two young guys.”
Despite the loss of Robinson, Rodriguez still considers Mississippi State’s front seven the best his team will have faced so far this year.
“They are the most athletic and probably the most active,” he said. “They’ve got three or four seniors and (middle linebacker) Quinton Culbertson, who we remember recruiting out of high school. He was a great athlete and was a safety-DB and he’s bigger now – very, very active at linebacker.”
West Virginia’s preferred method of moving the football is the run and the Mountaineers will try to run the ball against the Bulldog defense. But Rodriguez says his team will have to take what Mississippi State gives them.
“For us to have success we’ve got to try and run the football but we’ve also got to get some big plays in the passing game,” Rodriguez said. “We have not gotten as many big plays as we think we’re going to need to throughout the year in the passing game.”
The Mountaineers (4-0) will be one receiver short on Saturday with the disciplinary suspension of sophomore Jeremy Bruce. Rodriguez said Dorrell Jalloh will step into that spot as well as backup quarterback Nate Sowers, a terrific athlete who is one of the fastest players on the team. Sowers was slated to get some work at receiver during West Virginia’s last game at East Carolina but was held out due to a hamstring injury.
“He’s healthy now so he will get some reps at slot receiver,” Rodriguez said.
Darius Reynaud could once again be a big factor. The Bulldog pass defense has given up 244.4 yards per game and 10 touchdowns, including a 330-yard, four-TD performance last week from LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell.
Reynaud is coming off the best pass-catching performance of his career against East Carolina, catching five balls for 110 yards that included a game-breaking 60-yard touchdown. Reynaud has caught touchdown passes in each of his last two games and is forcing defenses to pay more attention to him.
“It may force people to not leave him uncovered as much or move a nickel back on him instead of a linebacker,” said Rodriguez.
The pass will also be a focal point of the Mississippi offense with senior Omarr Conner back under center. Conner has played wide receiver and punt returner during his four year career and is back at quarterback after starter Michael Henig broke his collarbone against South Carolina and Tray Rutland was ineffective against Tulane.
The senior has thrown for more than 200 yards six times during his career including a 241-yard performance earlier this year against Tulane. The 6-foot-1-inch, 220-pounder also shows 31 career catches for 348 yards.
“He’s given them a little bit of a spark,” Rodriguez said. “I think they were trying to find their way a little bit offensively and moving Omarr back has helped. Now they’ve got a chance to make a play when something breaks down. Some of the defenses they played like Auburn and LSU -- when things have broken down all of the sudden Omarr scrambles around and makes some plays.”
Rodriguez said it will be important for his defense to keep Conner in the pocket.
“The key for us defensively is controlling Omarr Conner -- keeping him in the pocket and not letting him scramble and make big plays,” said the coach. “He can throw the ball like our guys do and he was a starting wide out and a starting punt returner so you know he can run.”
Briefly:
“Modern technology … it’s kind of like a Mike Tyson fight,” Rodriguez joked.
Fans outside of West Virginia can follow the MSN radio broadcast via Sirius Satellite Radio channel 128 or on the Internet through CSTV All Access.
“From what I understand it’s a two-three hour drive from the Mobile area and I think they’re taking two or three bus loads coming up to watch the Gulf Coast guys play,” Rodriguez said. “It’s going to be fun for them to watch us in person and I just hope we play well.”
“Our players have got to be prepared for it mentally and we’ve got to be prepared to play a lot of people,” Rodriguez said.
Running back Steve Slaton and offensive guard Jeremy Sheffey were administered IVs at halftime of the East Carolina game to get extra fluids in their system. Slaton sat out a portion of the third quarter of the ECU game with cramps as did receiver Darius Reynaud.
“You try and hydrate as much as you can before and during the game but some guys just lose so much fluid that you can’t replenish it enough,” Rodriguez said.
Consequently, a young player like sophomore Ed Collington may get some important carries on Saturday.
“We hope he can be a guy that can play some for us,” Rodriguez said. “We’re getting a little more confidence in him and I think he’s getting a little more confident in what he’s doing.”
A nagging ankle injury from fall camp has restricted Collington from getting any carries so far this year.
“He still looks like he’s got a little bit of a limp when he runs but it may be psychological,” Rodriguez said. “Ed is coming along and we need him because he’s a tough guy and he runs in there hard.”
In 11 career starts, Slaton has yet to have back-to-back sub-100-yard rushing games. The ECU game was also the first time in 10 consecutive games that Slaton failed to score at least one rushing touchdown.
“(CB) Antonio Lewis would have been questionable; (DE) Johnny Dingle was a little dinged up and (S) Ridwan Malik and (DT) Doug Slavonic still wouldn’t have been 100 percent,” Rodriguez said. “Those guys are all cleared now and should be good to go. We’re as healthy as I think you can be after the first four games.”
Rodriguez said they will take about 75 players on the plane this weekend to Starkville.
