Mississippi State cornerback Brice Pollock adding production and confidence in secondary
Last weekend Mississippi State sophomore cornerback Brice Pollock had a productive return to his home state. In the Bulldogs’ 41-31 loss at No. 5 Georgia, Pollock collected his first career interception, which helped State get an early lead, and also forced a fumble.
With those plays, Pollock became the first Bulldog to record an interception and forced fumble in the same game since Collin Duncan accomplished the feat late in the 2020 season.
Following Tuesday’s practice, Pollock met with the media to discuss Saturday’s matchup against No. 14 Texas A&M at Davis Wade Stadium:
Q: How do you feel like you performed against Georgia?
Pollock: I feel like I did good. We left a couple of plays out there and I gave up one touchdown. But that’s going to happen. They are going to make plays and they are on scholarship, too. I feel like from a whole game standpoint, I did pretty good.
Q: After watching the tape of the Georgia game, what were the issues you saw with the pass defense?
Pollock: I feel like we broke some coverages. We broke some plays and we got the plays wrong. We got the wrong calls sometimes and it messed up the zones and people were not in the right spot they were supposed to be in. But we got it fixed and made adjustments. We just got to do our best to make plays.
Q: How big of a boost was it to get DeAgo Brumfield back on the field?
Pollock: Great. His first drive out there he did good and made his first pick of his career in his first start for Mississippi State. So that was good for him.
Q: How did it feel to play well back in your home state last weekend and get your first interception?
Pollock: That was great. I had a lot of family there and they were cheering me on. It was great. It was a great feeling and I watched it over and over again.
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Q: How big of an emphasis do the coaches put on creating turnovers?
Pollock: Every week. Coach (Coleman) Hutzler said specifically last week that we only had one pick on the season. So me and DeAgo and all of the other defensive backs took that personally.
Q: When you see the offense take strides, what does the defense need to do to match that?
Pollock: Coach (Jeff) Lebby said we need to balance each other better. So when the offense goes and scores, we need to try our best to make a play. It’s always like they score and give up something where we make a play and make them settle for a field goal. So we just have to balance each other out.
Q: You entered this program and saw previous cornerbacks make an impact early in their careers. How much did that motivate you?
Pollock: It definitely gave me a lot of confidence. That was one of the reasons I committed here when I saw them producing corners in the NFL like Martin Emerson, (Emmanuel) Forbes and I saw DeCam (Richardson) play a lot. So when I saw them do it I knew I could do it, too.
Q: What have you seen from Texas A&M’s passing game so far?
Pollock: Oh they’re great. They got two good quarterbacks – Conner Weigman and Marcel Reed. He likes to throw it down the field a lot so I feel like we got to get pressure on him and make him get the ball out quick. He doe like deep balls but I feel if we pressure then he will fold a little bit.
