MSU News & Notes | Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tuesday TUESday TUESDAY. Hey everybody, it's Tuesday. Despite this being just a horrible day of the week and like only just a step better than Monday, you have a lot to look forward to this weekend, what with your fancy tunes in the Cotton District and your Johnny Football show on Saturday. It may be hard, but wipe that coffee off of your chin, go return those emails that you've been putting off for a week or so, and knock that work out. Because the more you work, the faster your day goes, and the faster your day goes, the faster Friday at 5 GET'S HERE. paid for by the committee to promote efficiency in the workplace for all workers except when they're reading fwtct dot com

• Johnthan Banks' accolades continued to roll in yesterday in the senior's final season in maroon and white, as he was named a semifinalist for both the Thorpe and Chuck Bednarik Awards. The Thorpe award is given annually to the best defensive back annually in college football, while the Bednarik award is given annually to the nation's best defensive player. Big time congrats to Banks for making the finalist list, which is a huge honor in itself. Banks is the first MSU player to be named a semifinalist for the Bednarik and the first to be named a semifinalist two seasons in a row in MSU's history.
• Coach Mullen held his weekly press conference yesterday afternoon, talking about the huge upcoming home showdown with Texas A&M:

• If you're more of a reader than a video viewer, here are the highlights from Mullen's chat, via HailState.com:

Opening Statement:

"This is a big game for us this week. You have two Top-25 teams. Two teams that are highly ranked and playing each other make it an exciting game and one of the biggest games for us. One thing that we've always stressed, when putting yourself in a position to get to championships, is to win all of your home games. In this conference, we know how hard it is to win on the road, so we need a great home-field advantage out of our fan base-as they've done all year for us. I know that it is an early kickoff, but it should be an exciting game. I think the last time that we played Texas A&M was at the Snow Bowl, so this game will kick that game back up. I think that they are honoring that team during halftime, so it should be a very fun game for us. But this is a very challenging team. They have the best offense in the SEC. They put up a lot of numbers offensively with big, big stats and a lot of different playmakers on the field with tremendous skill at every position. I think that because of their offense, their defense gets overlooked. They have a stout defense. Looking at the performance that the defense has made has been pretty impressive."

On Texas A&M's offensive changes:

"I don't think that the offense has changed much, and the philosophy of the offense certainly hasn't changed. I think that their coach has done a good job tweaking around the players. You build around the strengths of your quarterback, and they obviously do that now with his playmaking abilities."

On team preparation for the remainder of the season:

"You always define yourself in November. To me, it is a thing of how you are going to close out the season. We put ourselves in a great position for the month of November right now. Now, you have to see what separates a good season from a great season to a championship season."

• For more in-depth coverage of Mullen's Monday presser, check out Carskadon's and Marcello's blog entry's.
• If you are planning to travel to Baton Rouge in two weekends to watch State take on LSU, you will have to wait until Sunday to find out what time the Bulldogs and Tigers will play. For the third week in the last four, CBS has exercised the six day option for selecting the 2:30 game on their network. Mississippi State and LSU's game will either be the 2:30 CBS game or on ESPN, to be televised no later than 6:45. Our game with LSU is up against Texas A&M at Alabama for the CBS slot, with the other team getting the ESPN night game slot. That would be MSU's 3rd straight game on ESPN primetime if we get selected for the night game, which is almost a guarantee. CBS does not care for State, and LSU fans love night games. A match made in heaven.
• Can't believe I didn't post this yesterday, but former MSU running back Vick Ballard had the absolute best touchdown in the NFL yesterday, scoring late for the Indianapolis Colts to give them the 19-13 win over the Tennessee Titans. Ballard took off from about the 5 yard line, and did some Matrix-type spin, landing just inside the pylon for the score. Check this out:

• The good fellas over at Good Bull Hunting, SBNation's oustanding Texas A&M blog, took a first look at our own Bulldogs leading up to this weekend's game. Make sure you check out all of their excellent work over there. I can't wait to see what sort of GIFs they come up with for MSU.

That's it for today's News and Notes. Have a good Tuesday!