Mississippi State Football: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Week 5

Back in 1992, coach Jackie Sherrill had a bull brought to the Mississippi State football practice field and then had it castrated in front of the team as a form of motivation for their upcoming game against the University of Texas. Even though the act itself was somewhat extreme, it worked, and the Bulldogs crushed the Longhorns 28-10 sending a message of what happens to Longhorns at Mississippi State.

The media soon got a hold of the story, and when they asked Coach Sherrill why he did it, he stated it was for educational and motivational purposes. Obviously he was referring to the football team because I am sure the DAMN BULL wasn’t very happy about the situation.

So why am I sharing this with all of you? Well, because I think the Bulldogs now know how that bull felt standing there on our practice field so many years ago—Exposed and Defenseless.

I understand that when you play in the SEC West, you are going to take some hits on the chin every now and then,but what the heck, allowing three touchdowns in the first six minutes? I mean, we did have 11 men on defense, RIGHT? I also understand that we lost three good players to the NFL and they are hard to replace. I get it, but this loss was not about who we lost to the NFL, or that we play in the toughest division in college football. NO. This loss was about the preparation, or the lack thereof, and a few more factors we need to discuss. So let’s Talk Hail State, the Good the Bad and the Ugly (Auburn).

THE GOOD!

Bully was fine after that targeting event in the first quarter, though the Auburn player should have been ejected for leading with the crown of his helmet. Total Bullsh#@!!!!

I also think Garrett Shrader has officially become our starting QB moving forward. This, in my opinion, is an excellent move because we are running out of Band-Aids for the rest of our quarterbacks.

Also, as far as I know, nobody got castrated, at least not literally.

The BAD!

Preparation. There might have been a game plan, but they must have left it back in Starkville, and if they didn’t, then I hope it was written on toilet paper because there was only one good use for it.

I mean,the majority of the fans from Mississippi State make much less than the head coaches, but if they showed up to work on Monday as unprepared as this coaching staff did Saturday they would be fired and looking for new employment by noon.

Second, Lack of Discipline from both the players and the coaches. Leaders set the example for others to follow, and it was clear Saturday that we need to check our example and check it quickly. We have had too many unsportsmanlike conduct penalties so far this season. Maybe we should do more fundamental training (tackling) in practice and less trash-talking during the game. Can I get a HAIL STATE?!

The UGLY!

The defensive performance. I mean, if the offense did not have a plan, then the defense did not have a clue. One is the number to remember because that is how many punts we forced. ONE, which was also the number of times we pressured Bo Nix.

It’s also a good thing Auburn can’t hold on to the ball very well, or else we might have given up 100 points. Throughout the game, Auburn was dropping balls all over the field, just like Jackie Sherrill did back in 1992 (for educational purposes of course). The strange thing is that even though we forced four turnovers, we could have had three more.

From start to finish, the Auburn Tigers could throw, run, fumble, recover a fumble, re-fumble and recover a fumble, score with a penalty and re-score. All without any real resistance from our defense, I mean, a screen door could hold water better than we held their offense, Seriously!!!

I also would like to mention the lack of respect shown by the players on the sidelines. More than once, I saw a player walk by Moorhead as he was trying to talk to them and they never even stopped or showed any attention to his efforts. This could be a serious problem if my observations are correct.

To end on a positive note, last week I saw that one of our writers put a quote at the end of their article and I will copy that move with this.

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from your failure.” - Colin Powell

HAIL STATE AND GO DAWGS.