Mississippi State Bulldogs

Mississippi State Report Card vs. South Carolina

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Sep 10, 2016; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Fred Ross (8) celebrates with teammates after a touchdown during the first quarter of the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Here is Mississippi State’s report card grades for offense, defense, special teams and coaching.

OFFENSE

The offensive line was serviceable and the receivers got open. Those were good signs.

Two things that were bad, and the cause for the “B” was dropped balls by MSU wide outs and continued handing the ball off to Holloway and running up the middle (touch more on that later). When are we going to see Aeries Williams get double digit carries? Are Lee, Gibson and Murphy ever going to play?

DEFENSE

This group got after the ball. They played with intensity and got results. The D-line was in the South Carolina backfield all night. That not only delivered sacks and tackles for loss, but also was a huge help for a depleted secondary that didn’t have to cover their man for very long.

Three guys who didn’t play Week 1 had nice games in Week 2: Jamal Peters, Nick James and Jeffrey Simmons. All three of these guys should be impact players all year.

The second half defense wasn’t nearly as stout, but considering the lightning delay I’ll give them a bit of a pass for that.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Great game here. 2 for 2 on field goals, solid punts. Fred Ross was spectacular on punt returns. While the kickoffs didn’t all go out of the endzone like last week, they were kicked near the goal-line and most of the returns were stopped short of the 25.

COACHING

I have to give A TON of credit to the way Coach Mullen and his staff responded to last week’s loss. It was EXACTLY what I would have hoped for if you asked me what the perfect situation for this game would be. They got the team motivated and ready to go.

My gripe is with the offensive play-calling, centered only around Brandon Holloway hand-offs. What is with this? Seriously, we have five other running backs who are capable of running the ball between the tackles yet Mullen wants to try it with a 165 pound back who goes down when the first hand touches him. That play gains more than one yard one in 10 times – and that one time is a 7-8 yard gain. It doesn’t work.