It’s time to rinse and repeat for Mississippi State, which came up short in overtime against a ranked SEC opponent in front of 100,000-plus fans on the road on Sept. 27.
The Bulldogs (4-1) fell for the first time last weekend against a No. 15 Tennessee squad that held on for a 41-34 victory in overtime at 101,915-seat Neyland Stadium. Now, MSU can take those lessons and face another ranked SEC power, No. 6 Texas A&M (4-0), on Saturday at 102,733-seat Kyle Field. The Bulldogs already have one notable win this season over No. 25 Arizona State (4-1), a playoff team from last season.
“It doesn’t matter what happens on Saturday on the right side or the wrong side. You got to get better,” Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby told reporters on Monday regarding the Tennessee loss. “And I think because that’s the message every single week. I’m hopeful our guys are able to clear this and have the ability to go prepare the right way.”
“So, I do, I think our guys sense that there’s great urgency and fixing the problems and being able to get ready to go one and all,” he added.
MSU went 8-19 on third downs, committed six penalties, and gave up the ball twice. The Bulldogs also failed to stop Tennessee on the first play of overtime and couldn’t match the Volunteers on the following possession with the game on the line.
“There was a ton of growth. I told the guys today, the thing that I was most proud of was, without a doubt, how things had gone from play one to play 87,” Lebby said about the Tennessee game. “Man, our guys continued to play and believed that we were winning the football game the entire time. And there was, there was great energy, I thought we fought our butt off.”
“Very disappointed and frustrated that we weren’t able to make the plays to be plus one at the end of the game. And so, obviously, proud of, again, our toughness, our effort, our physicality. But, man, making sure we’re ready to go make the plays to go be plus one and be on the right side,” Lebby added.
Texas A&M Wins Tight Games
“A really, really good football team. I think we understand their roster and talent level, things like that,” Lebby said of the Aggies. “But offensively, they’ve been really explosive in the throw game. Two great receivers. They’ve got two really, really good running backs. And they’ve got a veteran O-line that’s played a lot of ball defensively.”
“There are some similarities from the standpoint that they’ve created a bunch of sacks. And that’s going to be a huge point of emphasis, again, for us this week. We’ve got to find ways to protect, keep two upright, and give him a chance to pitch and catch,” Lebby added.
Bulldogs Not Fazed by ‘The 12th Man’
As for the environment Saturday, known as “The 12th Man,” Lebby believes his crew is ready for the challenge. Texas A&M has a 62-23 record at home in SEC play since joining the conference in 2012.
“Yeah, I just got through talking to the travel squad, and I think the coolest thing about going on the road in this conference is we got 74 guys getting on the plane to go play in front of over 100,000 people,” Lebby said. “It’s about us and having the right mindset and mentality to, man, go play one play at a time and give us the best chance to go win.”
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