Mississippi State back on a good roll
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Mississippi State football team is feeling pretty good about itself after a 35-14 victory at Texas A&M that has the Bulldogs on a three-game winning streak.
Coach Dan Mullen hopes his players handle the good vibes better than they did the first time this season.
“This is a young team that’s starting to get older,” Mullen said. “We’ll see about our maturity this week by how we handle success.”
No. 21 Mississippi State (6-2, 3-2 SEC) was in a similar position in mid-September after a 30-point win over LSU. The Bulldogs received a lot of praise and jumped into the rankings before crashing back to reality with back-to-back road losses to Georgia and Auburn.
MSU shouldn’t have a problem this Saturday when it hosts UMass (2-6) in a nonconference game. Then the Bulldogs close with SEC games against No. 1 Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss.
“There’s a lot of football to be played, but I do like the way we’re playing and the way we’re growing and developing,” Mullen said. “I really do like the attitude of our team. I think we’ve gotten back to some of the things we lost year — that edge, that chip on the shoulder attitude.”
MSU was dominant in its win over Texas A&M thanks to terrific defense, a bruising running game and just enough passing to keep the Aggies’ defense honest. Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald threw for 141 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 105 yards and a touchdown.
The Bulldogs intercepted three passes, including one returned 90 yards for a touchdown by Jamal Peters. They have given up just 281.8 yards a game this season — third in the SEC and sixth in the nation.
“I do think that the team feels we have a physical mentality to us with defense and running the football,” Mullen said. “I think our team takes pride in that.”
Mississippi State’s defense has made dramatic improvement from a year ago, when it ranked near the bottom of the SEC in nearly every major statistical category. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham replaced Peter Sirmon during the offseason. So far, it’s been a great fit.
“There’s a lot of football to be played, but I do like the way we’re playing and the way we’re growing and developing. I really do like the attitude of our team. I think we’ve gotten back to some of the things we lost year — that edge, that chip on the shoulder attitude.” – MISSISSIPPI STATE COACH DAN MULLEN
Florida’s Shannon makes changes
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Randy Shannon is shaking things up as Florida’s interim coach. The former Miami coach replaced Jim McElwain on Sunday and needed less than a day to make changes.
Shannon opened up the quarterback job, essentially giving former Notre Dame starter Malik Zaire a chance to compete with struggling incumbent Feleipe Franks. He promoted defensive line coach Chris Rumph to defensive coordinator and elevated former Idaho head coach Robb Akey from quality control assistant to defensive line coach.
He also tweaked parts of practice and said there would be an increased emphasis on special teams, an area in which the Gators have been inconsistent all season.
“I don’t look at it as an audition,” Shannon said. “I just think the opportunity to coach and have fun with a bunch of guys, the studentathletes that you have a chance to be with. … We’ve got to go out there as a whole team and unit and coaching staff and have fun with these guys, be very enthusiastic, be very positive and whatever happens in the game early, we’ve got to weather the storm.
“And at the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters, what happened at the end of the game.”
McElwain returned to campus Monday and said goodbye to players at the end of practice.
Showdown for control
CLEMSON, S.C. — Another week, another Atlantic Coast Conference showdown for No. 6 Clemson.
The Tigers (7-1, 5-1) play Saturday at No. 20 North Carolina State (6-2, 4-0), their fourth contest — and third road game — against a ranked opponent. The winner grabs control of the ACC Atlantic, while a loss by Clemson likely ends its chance of defending its national title.
Clemson has been in this spot several times the past few seasons and most always has come out on top.
“I feel like over these games we’ve figured out what kind of team we are,” sophomore linebacker Tre Lamar said. “We’re confident in the team we have and we’re confident in the pieces we have.”
The Tigers had a September to remember with wins over three top-15 teams at the time in Auburn, Louisville and Virginia Tech. They won at Louisville and Virginia Tech by a combined score of 78-48 and turned expected showdowns into runaways by the third quarter.
N.C. State is the only undefeated team in ACC play in the Atlantic Division. Clemson has one loss, Syracuse has two and the other four have three or more.
Clemson has won five straight against the Wolfpack, who may still feel the sting after nearly derailing the Tigers’ national championship run last year with a game they lost in overtime at Death Valley.
“This is playoff football right here,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “It’s November and you’re just trying to win and move forward if you want to stay in the hunt.”
Wisconsin keeps focus
MADISON, Wis. — College Football Playoff rankings or not, the Wisconsin Badgers play with week-to-week blinders.
No-nonsense coach Paul Chryst doesn’t get caught up in debates about poll positioning. The collective focus for his team is trained on getting ready for Indiana this weekend, even with the first playoff rankings being released tonight. Really.
“No, I didn’t even know there was a show, to be honest with you,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said Monday with a laugh. “I thought it was just something that just came out.”
Wisconsin (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) is in pretty good shape in the latest AP poll, up one spot to No. 4 after beating Illinois 24-10 last Saturday. But that may not be a forecast for where the Badgers land initially in the playoff chase.
A schedule without a ranked opponent could factor into the selection committee’s deliberations. The offense has had stretches of inconsistency. and Big Ten-leading rusher Jonathan Taylor is the latest addition to a growing injury report. It’s possible that oneloss teams Notre Dame and/ or Clemson could leapfrog Wisconsin.
So the final four games of the season — five assuming that the Badgers go to the Big Ten title game — provide an opportunity to shape perceptions as the postseason comes into sharper focus.