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Stock to Buy
Damian Williams -- What a gutsy performance by the true freshman. Granted the coaches knew prior to the game that Dak was available, but the majority of us saw a freshman go out, with virtually no one behind him if he gets hurt, and put forth a valiant effort, putting his body on the line running the ball, and making good throws for a decent portion of his passes. Williams ran the ball well at times, but more than anything he did a decent job at managing the game. The MSU defense was playing well, so the freshman mostly needed to avoid making mistakes, which he did, save for a bad INT as he ran out of bounds. That's just something that a freshman is bound to do, so he gets a pass on that one, especially since it did not end up hurting State. Great job by Williams of keeping State in the game until we were able to bring in the closer in the fourth. I look forward to seeing him play more over the next several years.
Dak Prescott -- Again, what do you say about Dak? In one of the most heroic performances in MSU football history, the sophomore -- who's faced so much this season both on and off the field -- hit the field late in the game to roaring cheers, and when it mattered most, Prescott came through for MSU, leading the Bulldogs to a win. The win was exciting, but there may be no one that I would have wanted to score the winning touchdown for State more than Dak.
MSU Defense -- More than anything going into Thursday, I was really worried that State may not be able to stop Bo Wallace and the Ole Miss offensive attack. But MSU did a magnificent job of bottling up the Rebel offense, holding them to just over 100 yards rushing, and 300+ yards total from scrimmage. In addition to the fumble to end the game that Nickoe forced, the defense forced three interceptions, frustrating Bo Wallace all night. After some bad showings early in the year, it was great to see the defense finish with two really good showings in three games. The two deep is chock-full for 2014 and beyond, and as long as State can hold on to Geoff Collins, things should only get better on the defensive side of the ball next season.
Going for it in overtime -- Sure, the call to go for it was made easier by the fact that our kicking game again struggled mightily, but still, it took guts for Dan Mullen to trust Dak and let him go for it on 4th and 2. Even for a shaky kicking game that would have been almost guaranteed points, but Mullen trusted his QB, and Prescott came through. What a call.
Stock to Sell
Ashton Shumpert's carries -- Again, I do not understand the lack of carries for Shumpert. He is seeing snaps, but he again touched the ball just once, for no gain. This will change next year as Perkins moves on and he and Robinson become the primary options, but again, frustrating to watch him be underutilized.
Offensive Playcalling -- On our touchdown drive in regulation, Damian Williams did his best Relf impersonation, running the option to perfection right down the field. After that, we waited quite awhile to go back to it, it seemed, which puzzled me. It seems like there has been several times this year where we find something that works and then immediately move away from it. Why?
The kicking game -- And for the third week in a row...
