WATCH: Mississippi State tight end Justin Ball discusses memorable Bulldog debut

Mississippi State’s Justin Ball is no stranger to college football. But the senior tight end did have a new experience last weekend regarding his Bulldog debut. Ball spent the previous four seasons in the SEC but at Vanderbilt before transferring to Mississippi State in January.

Ball is also able to spend his last college career with his brother Cam Ball, who also transferred to Mississippi State in January after playing his freshman season at Buffalo. After Tuesday’s practice, Justin Ball met with the media to recap his debut and to look ahead to Saturday’s road trip to Arizona State:

Q: What was that experience like for you Saturday coming out with all of the cowbells?
Ball: That was amazing. I was really in shock. Looking around, I caught myself a couple of times looking up in the crowd and just blown away. I haven’t felt anything like that in my six years of playing college football. So that was definitely amazing and everybody showed out.

Q: What was your assessment of how the tight ends did after reviewing the film?
Ball: We had a specific job and not every play goes according to plan. But I think we played hard, played physical. Definitely tried to dominate every rep. Of course, there’s stuff to clean up and we got that cleaned up this weekend. So looking forward to this weekend and another opportunity.

Q: What have you seen from Arizona State so far?
Ball: They’re definitely a completely different team from last year. From the film they’ve gotten a lot better. They like to fly around. They’re not always the biggest but they like to use their speed and get around blocks. They definitely have 11 hats to the ball on every play. So we have to play fast and match that, for sure.

Q: How is the team preparing for such a late kickoff and a long road trip?
Ball: Coach Leb (Jeff Lebby) has already been harping on that. We’ve got to hydrate and make sure are getting rest every single day. We are leaving on Thursday so we’ve already talked about on the plane to make sure we hydrate on the plane ride out there. When we get there make sure you get acclimated as quickly as you can. Just stay together and make sure we are focused, keep the goal first and execute the game plan.

Q: Your thoughts on the run game in the opener?
Ball: We had a couple of big runs that sprung off our blocks. So we are definitely proud of that and want to continue that. We have more plays this week to continue that idea. Whether it’s run or in the pass game, we’re going to do everything. That’s our job on this team.

Q: Seydou Traore recovered a couple of fumbles in the opener. How important is that for your room to be around the play and to be active like that?
Ball: It’s huge. Like I said, they (Arizona State) plays fast so we have to match them. Seydou is one of the hardest-working guys on our team. He’s always playing fast. He’s always trying to be the first guy here, the first guy there. Whether the ball is in our hands or not, chasing the ball, making sure we are around the ball, making sure we are giving blocks and touchdown-springing blocks. It’s going to be huge this week and there’s opportunity there.

Q: How do you feel like y’all handled tempo in the first game?
Ball: It’s kind of funny. We all felt like it was slower in the game than it was in practice. There’s no rest in practice most of them. So we’re used to flying, flying, flying. But with all of the commercial timeouts and the refs setting the ball, it kind of slowed down a little bit. But we’re a tempo offense and that’s what we’ve always been. We are going to continue that and make sure we are pushing the pace this weekend.

Q: How cool is that dynamic to play with your brother in your final year?
Ball: Yeah it’s a dream come true. I couldn’t ask for anything better. When the opportunity arise, we couldn’t pass on it. It’s great having him here and he’s my best friend. Him coaching me up, me coaching him up, just seeing his growth and progress has been great.

Q: What did you think of Vanderbilt’s big win over Virginia Tech?
Ball: Yeah, man, proud of those dudes. Really proud of how they went out there and handled business. They get a lot of heat over there so to see them answer those questions was great.

Q: What is the competitive nature like between you and your brother?
Ball: You ask him if he’s better than me at anything and he’s going to say ‘yes’. Same thing here. He’s only two and a half years younger than me so it’s always been battling each other since we were little. You ask anybody, we’re always playing together, playing against each other. So it’s great. Whenever I have a good catch, he says he’s going to have a better one. That’s how it’s always been and it’s great.