Big Bulldogs
Characterized in the front seven by size, Mississippi State poses a formidable task up front for the Aggie offensive line. With six players along the defensive line weighing 295 pounds or more, the Bulldogs are flat-out big, hoping to clog up the middle of the field to contain the run game.
“They’re a big team,” senior offensive lineman Cedric Ogbuehi said in the weekly press confrenece Tuesday. “Last year they were probably one of the bigger teams we faced. Most of them are back this year, so it’s going to be a tough challenge this week.”
Fixing the Penalties
Against Arkansas, the Aggies had a season-high nine penalties for 70 yards, something the coaching staff will look to clean up as SEC play thickens.
“Certainly that’s something we’ve been working on,” head coach Kevin Sumlin said. “We had one guy who had three penalties himself in Cam Clear, who hasn’t played since the first game. I think that has something to do with it. We address them individually and as a team, but that’s something we’ve been working on and something we have to clean up.”
Defense recognizes 4th down call
Only giving up one touchdown in the second half Saturday, defensive coordinator Mark Snyder said he was impressed with his group’s performance down the stretch. He said his defenders began to read Arkansas’s plays pre-snap toward the end of the game and adapt to what they saw.
“As you got into the fourth quarter, if you watch it, guys are calling out the plays with motions and so forth,” Snyder said. “On the fourth down, it was pretty impressive, you see Qualen [Cunningham] sitting there going, ‘The ball’s coming right here to the C gap, it’s coming right here.’ I credit those older guys — Alonzo [Williams,] Ivan [Robinson,] Julien [Obioha,] — those guys played extremely, extremely well and I was very proud of those guys.”
SEC Defensive Player of the Week
Senior cornerback Deshazor Everett was given SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors after posting a career-high 16 tackles against Arkansas Saturday. It was the first weekly conference award an Aggie has won on the defensive side of the ball since joining the SEC.
“I can’t really take it in too much,” Everett said. “It was one game we played well and I just did my job, really. I stepped up. Coach said they were going to try to make the corners tackle, so I stepped up and I made tackles when I was supposed to and made plays when I was supposed to.”