Zach Arnett says Mississippi State is 'still identifying' its identity

As new coach Zach Arnett takes over for the late Mike Leach, Mississippi State is still looking to figure out its identity. That was something it rarely had to do under Leach, as his ‘Air Raid’ offense was always a staple.

Through one spring, Arnett sees some things starting to shape up but a lot that’s still under evaluation.

“Obviously I think the coaches are also identifying what do we do best,” Arnett said. “I don’t think you can establish an identity until you know, ‘Hey, these are our best players and these are what we execute the best.’ We’re still identifying what run schemes are we best in, what type of passing game. Is it play-action pass? Is it run RPO world?

“We’re doing a whole lot of everything right now so we can evaluate everyone in all the different roles and figure out what we do best.”

Presumably, Mississippi State will still feature a fairly potent passing attack, as veteran quarterback Will Rogers is back.

But the Bulldogs also showed some signs during spring football that the running game could be a real strength. Could Mississippi State’s identity be on the ground after a strong showing in the spring game?

“They did a nice job,” Arnett said. “Sometimes the running backs got to know when you’ve just got to get north and south and get what’s there, right? And not try to bounce everything or hit the home run. The fact of the matter is four yards or more on first down is a pretty efficient run, right? I think the guys did a good job of getting downhill when it was there and obviously that means the guys up front did a good job of creating movement at the line of scrimmage and creating some push on the D-line.”

That said, the offensive unit was going against a defensive unit that was a little depleted due to injuries in the spring.

That’s one more thing that makes evaluating Mississippi State’s identity a bit trickier. Arnett has to take into consideration all factors when deciding which parts of spring football to build on and focus on.

“Now obviously we’re a little thin right now on the defense,” he said. “You saw us playing two defensive line groups the whole time unfortunately because of injuries and guys getting rolled up on and stuff up to this point. The defense, we’re having to operate with a four-linebacker group and manufacture some of our D-line stunts with actually a stand-up linebacker and noseguard.

“So that helps you run the football too. Obviously if you’re going to run the football you’ve got to gain yards and you’ve got to be effective doing it.”