WATCH: Assistant coach David Turner wants more pressure generated from Mississippi State's defensive line

Last time out, Mississippi State’s defense exhibited its best performance of the season and led the Bulldogs to a 7-3 win at Arkansas. But defensive line coach David Turner was not pleased with his group.

Following Tuesday’s practice session, Turner met with the media to share his thoughts on the Arkansas game along with what needs to improve the rest of the way:

Q: Your thoughts on your group in the Arkansas game?
Turner: We didn’t play very good up front. We got to get a whole lot better this week against a better team and that’s what we’re concentrating on this week.

Q: De’Monte Russell returned to action last week. How is it having him and his brother Donterry both out there on defense?
Turner: I was proud of De’Monte, having been out for about three weeks and coming back and playing inside. He had some really good snaps. I think as he gets more comfortable he has a chance to be really good developing in that role. He is kind of a swing guy. He can play end and he can play inside. That is going to be where he has a chance to do some different things for us. So I am proud of him.

Obviously, two things Donterry has. He has length and athletic ability. That is what you can’t coach. Sometimes he is in the wrong place but he will work himself out of trouble with effort. He’s got to develop and keep working in the right direction. He’s got a chance to be a really good player.

Q: Auburn does a lot of odd things with their front. How does that impact your guys?
Turner: It’s things you obviously got to defend. You got to make sure you are in the proper place in terms of gap and gap it out. You just got to make sure you play hard. They do some things with personnel that requires you to make sure you are aligned correctly. That’s first and then you got to line up and whip somebody. It ain’t real complicated. We just got to do our job and do it fast and do it hard and play violent.

Q: Last night Nathan Pickering was saying he was grateful to have you here now. Your thoughts on his play this year?
Turner: Pick to me is a little bit of an enigma. He’s got a lot of ability, which we’ve got to get him to turn it loose and not be scared to go hard and make a mistake. Right now he played too controlled for me and he’s got to go out there and decide he wants to be the best defensive lineman on the field. Quite frankly, if he does that he will be. So it is a work in progress. Hopefully we can get him at a different speed and that is what we are trying to work on.

Q: With the injuries you had earlier in the season, how tempting is it to pull the redshirt off of the true freshmen?
Turner: Well, it was tempting when we went through that rash and hopefully, knock on wood, we will keep the guys healthy that we got now. It is tempting on one side and the other side is you don’t want to play a guy before they are ready. You can do more damage than good. That’s what you have to balance as a coach.

You throw a guy out there and he’s not ready, all of a sudden he is playing against grown men in a grown men’s league and he could lose his confidence. I’ve seen guys get ruined for their career just because played too early. You would rather play a guy late than to play him early. That’s what we’ve tried to be cautius of doing.

Q: Against Arkansas the secondary had a solid game. How much does that help your unit?
Turner: It takes all 11 guys. I told my guys we got to do a better job rushing the quarterback. We can’t give him time, which helps the back end guys. Those guys can’t cover all day long. So we got to work at our craft and get better rushing the quarterback. That was probably disappointing more than anything on Saturday is our pass rush. We didn’t generate enough in our 1 on 1s and win our 1 on 1s, which you got to do. That’s what we got to do up front. We got to help those back end guys and generate some pressure.

Q: What does it mean for you to see the linebackers and defensive backs get after the quarterback?
Turner: It’s like anything else. You guys know as fans, if you got guys playing in the backfield on defense it gets everybody excited. It gets the defense excited and it turns and gets the offense excited, creates a little momentum, creates a little energy. That’s what we try to do. It’s a fun defense, an attacking defense. We got to create negative plays. We got to create chaos in the backfield. Speaking for my guys, I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of that yet.

Q: You face a pair of mobile quarterbacks this week. How does that change your game plan?
Turner: Well you got to be disciplined in your rush lanes. You can’t rush wild, so to speak. You have to be disciplined. You got to understand whether we are rushing four or rushing five or whether we are rushing six, everybody’s got a lane and everybody has a job. If you get out of your lane now you create throwing lanes and you create run lanes, too. So it’s a challenge that everybody’s got to make sure we do a good job in our rushing.