Snake Repellent

     SNAKE REPELLENT

During my half century plus of watching Miss. State football, a term some of my fellow fans and I have often used to describe the Bulldogs' bad luck is "snakebit." We fans have been wary of the various forms that misfortune could take. A particularly painful type of snakebite was that of being struck when unexpectedly running across a deadly snake in an environment thought snake-free -- in football terms, an upset. Unfortunately all too often State has embarrassed themselves, us fans, and the SEC by naively strutting into a game with a lightly regarded foe expecting them to roll over -- a guaranteed win, we have thought -- only to experience a humiliating defeat. Examples during my fandom have been La. Tech (with some towheaded kid named Bradshaw), Tampa (which within a decade later had abandoned football), Troy (then Troy State ... and this loss on our homecoming, no less), NE La. (now ULM), UAB (definitely not be confused with UAT), S. Ala. (those shorts comfortable, Dan?), and most recently Holy Toledo (still a bit fresh).

For a half yesterday it looked quite possible that the Huskies of NIU would be added to that Hall of Shame.  But they weren't. And that's the real story of this game ... and of this season so far. The 'Dogs bowed their necks and manned up. What should've happened ... what the boys from the other Vegas expected to happen -- indeed did. State won convincingly, easily covering what I feared was an extremely generous spread. They followed the exhortation of the late icon Janis Joplin [click on https://youtu.be/ju9yFA1S7K8?si=pcbnrGToLIHz_X2s&t=137 ]. Granted, there were enough stubbed toes and mistakes in the first half to raise the blood pressure and lower the morale of the most optimistic of the DOS crowd ... and to give fodder to the SOS bunch. Both ends of the continuum were appeased. But in the end what MSU badly needed to do was to man up and whip a MAC team on the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. And our Bulldogs did just that. Scott Field was left a snake-free zone, as State improved its record to 4 - 0. 

Overview

The Huskies' game plan was smart and deliberate. Their best chance for an upset was to turn the game into a rock fight -- control the ball and shorten the game, mixing in a little surprise passing as we (predictably) struggled to stop their running game. And defensively to outman our OL, pressure Blake, and play deep enough to limit the deep ball. For nearly a half the plan worked. Our line on both sides had trouble, as they had off and on during 2 of our previous 3 

Huskie joy was shortlived

games. NIU tipped their hand early, but only after first unexpectedly choosing to receive, whereupon they and ate up nearly 5 1/2 minutes on a drive that ended with a FG. To State's credit they responded with a long drive themselves to take the lead. An exchange of punts gave the Huskies the ball at the 'Dogs' 27 after a shanked punt, the first of several special teams misfires. Two plays later NIU had regained the lead 10 - 7. Refusing to give in to a MAC attack as they had against Toledo last year the Bulldogs again responded with a TD drive to reclaim the lead. Yet another exchange of punts ran out the half with no further damage by either team. To State fans, most notably this one, a serpent seemed to have crawled into our sleeping bag and struck -- in the form of a letdown against an unintimidated team over which MSU had been heavily favored. NIU's offensive and defensive lines were more than holding their own. Their backs were running hard and breaking tackles, and amazingly, their QB looked poised and accurate. For State the offense was sputtering with Shapen having his worst game of the season. Things looked grim for the home team.

As against USM (positively) and Arizona State (negatively), it appeared that a whole new team took the field for the 2nd half. The 'Dogs took the opening kickoff and drove for a TD to extend the lead. When NIU drove and seemed about to get back into the game, Isaac Smith made a brilliant interception in the MSU end zone, and the Bulldogs drove down to kick a FG. Desperation time for NIU, who were twice thwarted on 4th down attempts with State driving for TD's after each. Although Shapen never connected on deep balls as in past games, Fluff and Booth relentlessly pounded the Huskie D, then watched as Gayten came in and ripped off large chunks en route to a TD. Had it been an Olympic boxing match, it would've been a RSC (referee stops contest), as they call a TKO. Subs finished the game, and MSU easily covered the 21 1/2 point spread. Those snakes we feared ended up as fancy Western boots for the Bulldogs.

Snakes gathered and disposed of

Critique

Obviously there were some positives:

• The MSU lines on both sides of the ball seem to be improving. Our bulk, depth, and talent compared to NIU's shifted the game from a struggle to a whuppin'. (I'm sure that the 90 degree heat and MS humidity helped accentuate those factors too.) Whether the improvement is enough for the 'Dogs to compete with SEC teams remains to be seen ... and will be seen very soon. 

  

  Fluff: Coming through!

  
  
• The running game, which hadn't been as effective as hoped (and needed), made a big jump in the 2nd half. Fluff had the big game we had been waiting for, and Booth and Gayten had their moments too. They produced on "possession downs" and ripped off some chunk plays too.
• Shapen fought through some adversity in the form of inaccuracy, drops, and occasionally holding the ball too long, but generally kept his poise. When the throws weren't there, he found holes in the NIU defense and ran for valuable yardage (which scares me, given his history of injuries, but we need to win by any means necessary).  

  

  Blake scampers for yardage

  
  
• The defense was particularly effective on possession downs, allowing the Huskies to go only 1 of 9 on 3rd down and 0 for 2 on 4th downs. Although we managed only 1 QB sack, we had 6 TFL's and had a turnover on Isaac Smith's sensational INT in the end zone.  

  

  'Dog D chewing up Huskies

  
  
• Perhaps most important of all, Miss. State showed some of the old toughness that has been characteristic of many Bulldog teams in the past. The D took some shots and answered with harder shots of their own. 

And there were some negatives:

• I'll start with the so-called crowd. It was anemic, although I'll give them (us?) credit for being loud and spirited. I understand that 3 consecutive home games, two against teams with little crowd appeal, has made it challenging for State fans. But this team has won twice as many games as they did the entire season last year in going 4 - 0 for the first time since 2014. They have earned our support.
• The most obvious negative is that self-destructive penalties continued to plague MSU (11 penalties for 103 yds.). Big plays were negated by mistakes. We're not playing lots of "rookies," and we don't seem to learn from our mistakes. We looked about as sloppy as Sun Belt Billy's Gators did against Miami last night!
• There was nothing special about the special teams. They were sub-ordinary. Shanked kickoffs and punts. Penalties. But I must add that Ferrie (thankfully!) remains the exception.

Implications: MSU Is 4 - 0; So What?

It's been interesting and at times amusing to see how some of our fans who had low expectations (and I'm not even talking about the SOS type) have donned Coca-Cola bottle-thick maroon glasses and begun talking about bowl games. I've even heard some mention the Playoffs! I'm encouraged, but I'm nowhere close to being there yet. Now if we win Saturday against UT-E, I'll go to Bulldog confession, admit my doubts, repent, and look for the nearest station to board the bandwagon. 

I don't think there's any doubt whatsoever that we're a significantly better team than we were last year. We have more and better talent, and I think our coaches have grown with the program. (However, our SEC ranking as the most penalized team in the conference suggests they still have abundant work to do!) So far we've beaten 3 teams we were expected to beat and one that we weren't. We're 4 - 0; last year at this point we were 1 - 3 against a schedule that might have been marginally better than this year's. The 'Dogs have shown poise and resilience in the face of adversity, even when the adversity has been of their own making. There is fight in these 'Dogs. We've whipped a Huskie; now let's go for a Blue Tick Hound!

Of course, now we enter SEC play with 6 of our 8 remaining opponents nationally ranked. The average ranking of our conference foes by AP is currently 12th, and in the Coaches Poll it's 11th. The two who aren't ranked are Florida, who was ranked but has dropped road games at LSU and Miami, and Arkansas, who has by their own devices managed to lose squeakers at the buzzer on the road to TSUN (currently unbeaten and ranked 11th in one poll and 13th in the other) and Memphis (also undefeated and a current favorite to make the playoffs from Group of 6). We play both UF and the Pigs on the road. The most optimistic thing State has in its favor, aside from its own improvement, is that both of those schools' coaches are on the hot seat and may well be fired -- or at least heavily under fire -- by the time we play them.

First up next Saturday is UT-East, currently ranked 15th in both polls. So far the Vols are the 2nd best offense in the SEC, averaging 554 yds. and 54 points per game. However, UT-E is next-to-last in the conference in defense at 372 yds./game. (In case you're wondering, DOS is in the middle of the pack in both team offense and defense.) The Vols' best win to date is a neutral site game in the season opener over Syracuse, who beat Clemson on the road this past weekend. Their loss was in OT at home to UGA in a game in which UT-E's placekicker missed a relatively short FG that would've won the game in regulation. Their primary star has been QB Joey Aguilar, a transfer from Appalachian State, who has thrown for 14 TD's and had only 3 INT's thus far this season. They also have talented receivers and a good RB appropriately named Star Thomas.

The cringeworthy Big Orange, whose garish uniforms suggest attire appropriate for sanitation truck personnel or state highway department road crews, is one of my least favorite SEC teams, and "Rocky Top" is my pick as the tackiest, most obnoxious fight song. But I must give credit to Josh Heupel and his team; they're pretty darn good. I hope we can compete with them. If someone put a gun to my head and made me bet on the winner, I'd have to go with UT-E. I'd dearly love to be wrong though! I'd love to squeeze the Big Orange and have that flow of orange juice go oozing back to their pickups. If State could somehow win, then I would think a bowl game would be within reasonable reach this year. That would be an impressive turnaround for a team that was historically bad last season.  

Let's hope that the Bulldogs will keep on keeping on and follow the lead of The Cars  and [click here Let the Good Times Roll ].  

Hail, State!