Fitzgerald excited about senior year
If Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald was down in the dumps last November when Dan Mullen decided to leave the Bulldogs after nine seasons for the vacancy at Florida, a mood adjustment was provided quickly by new head coach Joe Moorhead.
Before Moorhead had even been introduced in Starkville, he got Fitzgerald’s phone number and sent him a text. The message?
“He said, ‘For starters, I want you to clear off a spot on your mantelpiece for the Heisman Trophy,’” a smiling Fitzgerald recalled this month in Atlanta at SEC Media Days. “Then he said, ‘I want you to learn your ring size, because you’re going to need it.’”
Moorhead has few ties to the Deep South but plenty of ties to quarterbacks, having played the position at the same Pittsburgh high school as Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino and having spent the past two seasons as Penn State’s offensive coordinator. The Nittany Lions earned bids to the Rose and Fiesta bowls the past two seasons, with Moorhead’s development of Trace McSorley a big reason for their success.
McSorley threw for 7,181 yards with 57 touchdowns and 18 interceptions the past two seasons, and Moorhead is thrilled to inherit a proven commodity in Fitzgerald.
“I think there are a lot of similarities with Trace and Nick from an intangibles standpoint,” Moorhead said. “Both guys are very intelligent. They understand the game very well and are incredibly competitive. Trace, obviously from a measurable standpoint, is a little bit shorter. Nick is a 6-foot-5, 235-pound guy.
“Both guys can make all of the throws
and can help win with their legs in the run game.”
Fitzgerald has been known more for his legs than his right arm to this point. He will enter his senior year with more rushing touchdowns (33) and more 100-yard rushing games (14) than any quarterback in the Football Bowl Subdivision. He also has the highest average yards per carry at 6.5.
He is coming off a junior year in which he completed 159 of 286 passes (55.6 percent) for 1,782 yards with 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. While those numbers are decent, they pale in comparison to the passing stats of Missouri’s Drew Lock and Auburn’s Jarrett Stidham, which helps explain why Fitzgerald was tied with Georgia sophomore Jake Fromm on the third team of the media’s preseason All-Southeastern Conference lineup.
“I’ll let you guys decide that,” Fitzgerald said when asked about the SEC’s quarterback pecking order. “I’ve been working this offseason, and I’m ready to get back to it. I think you’ll see a lot more deep shots down the field this year.”
The Bulldogs rocketed into the Top 25 last season after blowout wins over Charleston Southern, 49-0, Louisiana Tech, 57-21, and LSU, 37-7, but they fell out just as quickly after lopsided losses to Georgia, 31-3, and Auburn, 49-10. Mississippi State responded with four more double-digit wins and was No. 18 when top-ranked Alabama invaded Davis Wade Stadium and rallied for a 31-24 triumph.
That impressive showing followed by a 28-21 win at Arkansas bumped the Bulldogs up to No. 16 entering the Egg Bowl against rival Ole Miss, but Fitzgerald dislocated his ankle in the first quarter and the Bulldogs were upset 31-28. Without Fitzgerald, however, the Bulldogs did regroup to defeat Louisville 31-27 in the TaxSlayer Bowl to complete a 9-4 season.
“I look back at last year as a really good season,” Fitzgerald said. “There were some big games that we didn’t play well in, and there were some small things we could have done better and some small plays that could have put us ahead of Alabama. I got injured, and those things happen.”
Unlike fellow newcomer coaches in the SEC such as Chad Morris at Arkansas and Jeremy Pruitt at Tennessee, Moorhead is expected to win immediately. The Bulldogs return 17 of 22 starters, including 1,107-yard rusher Aeris Williams and the entire defensive front, which is headed by junior tackle Jeffery Simmons and senior end Montez Sweat.
“We have a lot of starters returning and a lot of production coming back, which has probably elevated the level of expectation for us, but no one is going to have higher expectations than us,” Moorhead said. “When you look at it from a contextual standpoint, if you walk into our building, the Egg Bowl trophy is not there. We’ve never won an SEC championship, and we’ve never competed for a national championship.
“So part of our task as a staff is to elevate the program, which has a very solid foundation, from good to great.”