Will Rogers, Mississippi State to give Georgia unique challenge

The term “Air Raid” gets thrown around a lot in College Football, with most common fans applying it to any team that throws the ball well while utilizing space. With Georgia tasked with preparing for high-flying offenses all around the SEC, Mike Leach and the Mississippi State Bulldogs introduce a special challenge for the Dawgs’ secondary.

Leading the charge for the Bulldogs is junior quarterback Will Rogers, who in less than three seasons has broken Aaron Murray’s record for all-time completions by an SEC quarterback with 1,044. While throwing the ball 50+ times a game certainly helps Rogers attain that statistic, it’s hard to ignore how quickly he gets rid of the football.

Earlier this week, Kirby Smart was asked about Rogers and how quickly he expects the ball to come out each play.

“I don’t know. It probably depends on the rush. He has not held it long a lot of games, but a lot of that is contingent on how many people you rush,” Smart said. “We thought we had a good plan for the last time we played him. It was his first start at quarterback, I guess. He held it some that game. He’s held it some this year, but I don’t know the average. If you rush three or four or five determines how long he holds it.”

Smart also addressed the concerns he had about the opposing Bulldogs, mentioning an aspect of their offense that may not be getting enough attention.

“You’d be mistaken if you think they’re just throwing it. Because they’ve got some really good backs and they’re really physical upfront,” Smart said. “And they space you out. There’s more gaps in the run game. They’re really gashing people running the ball this year. And I think that’s the biggest difference, is they are committed to running the ball and being physical upfront. And people have the wrong demeanor when they go to play this team that, ‘Oh, man I’m going to go out here and pass rush and get all these sacks.’ They’re not going to let you do that. No. 1, they pass-cover really well. No. 2 they run-scheme really well. And they’ve got good backs. So it’s not going to be a deal where it’s all about secondary. Secondary’s got to play well every week.”

Smart went on to highlight the Bulldogs’ complementary offense, denying any assumptions that the Mississippi State offense is forced to run just one type of offense.

“It’s not just the passing with them. You have to stop the run, and they’re usually right, meaning if you do not have enough in the box, they’re going to run it,” Smart said. “If you have too many in the box, they’re throwing. That’s a favorable box for them. And the passes aren’t like he drops back and holds the ball for a long time. He gets the ball out really quick which makes it tough to get to him.”

The last time that Smart faced off against Mike Leach was back in 2020 when JT Daniels led the Dawgs to a late win over Mississippi State. While Georgia was able to throw it all over the field against the Bulldogs and their defense, Rogers was able to find a lot of success in his first career start, throwing for 336 yards and a touchdown.

So what did Mississippi State do to find success against Georgia? Well, down below shows an example of the Bulldogs manipulating the Dawgs’ defense into a 51-yard touchdown pass. 

Mississippi State starts out in doubles (2 by 2 receivers) before motioning their boundary slot to the field side, giving the Bulldogs trips right (3 receivers on the right side of the formation). 

While safety Lewis Cine (bottom left of the picture) was initially covering No. 85 in man-coverage, the responsibility shifts to Christopher Smith (top left) by the snap of the ball.

What this motion does is isolate Georgia’s Mark Webb on Mississippi State’s leading receiver at the time, Jaden Walley. With No. 85 running a post and taking Cine with, Walley only has to beat Webb, using an excess of space to his advantage.

Once Walley gets the ball in space, there’s no deep safety to track him down, with Cine (bottom left) attempting to track him down while out of leverage.

To see for yourself, here’s the clip in entirety.

Example of Mississippi State motioning into trips to run post-corner, isolating the slot to the field-side. pic.twitter.com/ukrZXkOcID

— Jack Mathison (@JackMathison9) November 10, 2022

According to Smart, the Mississippi State offense has only gotten better since 2020, with Rogers gaining a ton of confidence over the last few years.

“A lot more experienced quarterback. You know, that was the kickoff for him. And he played really well in that game and kind of got a lot of confidence playing against us. I don’t know how many games he’s played since then, but a lot,” Smart said. “He’s broken a lot of records. He’s very intelligent. He doesn’t make mistakes. He uses Coach Leach’s offense to his strength. And they understand, very similar to last week, triple options. They know who they are. They have answers for what they do. They’re usually one step ahead in their answer than you are because you don’t play against them but once a year and they do it all the time. So they have exposure to everything every defense has tried on them. And, you know, their quarterback is very experienced. And that’s the biggest difference.”

So I showed an example of Leach and Rogers facing man-coverage in 2020, but what about them facing zone-coverage in 2022? Last week in the Bulldogs’ 39-33 overtime win against the Auburn Tigers, Leach gave a perfect example of the offense utilizing a pre-snap motion to reveal the defense and give the wide receiver leverage.

Coming up to the line, Rogers sees the defense showing a Cover 2 defense and the Bulldogs in doubles with a bunch far to the field side. Shortly after, Walley (the receiver furthest to the bottom) motions to the left, which causes the defense to reveal that they are actually running Cover 3 (the camera cuts out the bottom of the screen).

Still running horizontal to the line of scrimmage as the ball was snapped, Walley used his momentum to get behind the linebackers and secure the 17-yard reception.

Here’s the entire clip:

Mississippi State using pre snap motion to give receiver momentum to get behind hook zones. pic.twitter.com/WblKOb4vHF

— Jack Mathison (@JackMathison9) November 10, 2022

While Mississippi State presents a very difficult challenge for the Dawgs this Saturday, Georgia linebacker Smael Mondon feels that he and his teammates are prepared.

“Of course, they throw the ball well,” Mondon explained on Tuesday. “They have a lot of good receivers. They have an experienced quarterback. A part that a lot of people look over is them running the ball. They have a pretty solid run game, and they have been trying to improve over the last couple of years. It is a balance between both of those.”

Sophomore cornerback Kamari Lassiter also understands what Mississippi State plans to do and can’t wait for the opportunity.

“If you don’t get excited for every game, then there’s something wrong,” Lassiter stated. “It’s a great challenge that we have in front of us, and I think myself, the defense and the defensive backs as a whole we’re working very hard to prepare for that challenge.”

Saturday’s kickoff time in Starkville is set for 7:00 p.m. ET, 6:00 p.m. local, on ESPN. Georgia holds an all-time 19-6 advantage over Mississippi State with the last matchup coming in 2020 when JT Daniels found Jermaine Burton for 197 yards and a pair of touchdowns on his way to 401 yards passing and a 31-24 win between the hedges. This is just the seventh meeting at Davis Wade Stadium where Georgia has won four out of the previous six.