Zach Arnett earns first SEC win vs. Arkansas: 'Somebody had to go out and take it'

Zach Arnett earned his first SEC victory as Mississippi State‘s head coach on Saturday, but did so in the ugliest manner possible.

Defeating Arkansas 7-3 on the road, the Bulldogs’ defense put on a masterclass against the Razorbacks. No matter the opponent, not allowing an SEC team to score a touchdown inside their home stadium is impressive.

Arnett, the former MSU defensive coordinator, credited his guys for coming up big throughout the game, including a key stop on a final game-winning Hail Mary attempt.

“It was hard. Both teams were obviously looking for their first SEC victory. Somebody had to go out and take it,” Arnett said after the win. “The defense made enough plays there. [Arkansas] played great defense, too. … [Mississippi State] has pride. When you’re a competitor, you’re not satisfied with how we played during the first half of the season — we know that we can get a lot better.

“We can’t give up a lot of points in this league and expect to win a lot of games, so I think they took the bye week, took the criticism to heart dug into self-scouting and it paid off and we went out and executed a lot better.”

The defense made Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson uncomfortable all day long. Not only did the Bulldog defense force him to throw an interception, he wasn’t able to throw at least 100 passing yards throughout the afternoon. That hasn’t been the case for Jefferson since the 2021 Outback Bowl.

Meanwhile for the Bulldogs, part of why Mississippi State was only able to score once on Saturday was due to the fat that they were without starting quarterback Will Rogers. Without Rogers, who is the third-ranked passer in SEC history and had logged 38 consecutive starts for the Bulldogs, they were lucky to eclipse 200 yards of total offense.

In his place, former Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright made the start for Mississippi State. He threw 12 passes for 85 yards, one touchdown and one interception while also tallying 12 rushes for 60 yards. Aside from him, the rest of the offense was responsible for 64 yards.

Sometimes, ugly ain’t bad at all.

“A W is a W … Hail State,” Arnett said before walking off the field.

Mississippi State now heads into Week 9 with another tough SEC road matchup, this time against Auburn inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET live on the SEC Network.