Another challenge awaits MSU football | Starkville Daily News
"When you're playing top teams in the nation, you're not going to recover from making a lot of different mistakes," said MSU head coach Dan Mullen. "We made too many of those mistakes to beat one of the top teams in the country and we are going to work hard to get those things fixed."
Mullen repeats that Dogs remain few plays away | Clarion Ledger
When the third-year coach was asked about his defense's mostly-positive performances (MSU ranks 17th nationally in scoring defense) this season, he responded with four words: "Good. Yeah, very good."
State, a nine-win team a year ago, has also been in search for answers after wading through disappointment after disappointment. Mullen said Sunday that MSU is "two plays" from snagging wins against Auburn and South Carolina.
"We need to make one more play to beat Auburn and make one more play to beat South Carolina, and all of a sudden we've exceeded expectations this season," Mullen said.
Stansbury likes MSU's energy in win against South Alabama | Columbus Dispatch
Stansbury admitted his team's effort Saturday was much more to his liking. The Bulldogs had a 41-33 edge in rebounding (18-8 advantage on the offensive glass), forced 14 turnovers, and had a 13-6 assist-to-turnover ratio that was just a part of a solid performance.
"I am just proud of our kids' effort and how hard they played. That is more like it," Stansbury said. "We had some make-shift lineups we hadn't had a chance to work with. We didn't know Sid wasn't going to go until gametime. We had to play small a bunch. Most importantly, I was proud of our effort."
Stansbury didn't have the same kind words for his players Wednesday following a 68-58 loss to Akron. He said Saturday he never wants to use excuses, but he admitted his players were fatigued against Akron and weren't as quick as they were against the Jaguars.
Stansbury said Moultrie is one player who has maintained a consistent effort. Statistically, his eight-point effort against Akron and 7-footer Zeke Marshall didn't show it, but Moultrie still had a game-high 15 rebounds in 38 minutes.
Mullen Presser: MSU facing Hogs minus Whitley; Other Notes | Northeast MS Daily Journal
On kicker Derek DePasquale's field goal struggles: "He makes them in warmups, makes them in practice. In the beginning of the season he was missing them all in practice but making them in the games a lot. There's a rhythm involved in that. Kicking field goals is a skill. It's not an effort-based thing. You look and you say, OK, you can't say, let's go harder, because we have to fix the skill of kicking the field goal. It's not something that effort fixes, it's skill fixes."
Monday Morning Quarterback ($) | 247Sports
#HailState