WATCH: Mississippi State defensive coordinator Matt Brock recaps Arkansas win, previews Auburn matchup

Mississippi State defensive coordinator Matt Brock watched his defense hold Arkansas to 200 yards of offense and just one field goal in last Saturday’s 7-3 win on the road. It was easily the best showing by the Bulldogs’ defense up to this point of the season.

After Monday’s practice, Brock met with the media to reflect on that performance while also previewing the next challenge at Auburn:

Q: Against Arkansas what did you feel like your group did well and what needs corrected?
Brock: There’s still plenty of things to clean up. There are issues that don’t arise at times. But we got pressure, and that’s a good thing. Formations, we need to clean up. We got home on some blitzes. And I thought we played tighter in coverage as well. Things to build off, but a ton of things to clean up.

Q: Holding Arkansas to a field goal after that first drive, how much of a boost did that give the defense the rest of the way?
Brock: We’ve been talking about critical situations, third down, red zone. It doesn’t matter when it happens in a game. You have to bow your neck and get a stop. It gave them confidence. We’ve got to make sure our mentality is the same, and attack it. Get the job done.

Q: Your defense brought more pressure from the defensive backs against Arkansas. Were y’all calling anything different in that game?
Brock: Not a whole lot different. We brought some DB pressure here and there. They had struggled with it. Our typical pressures were in, and Bookie did a nice job, Dontae did a nice job getting his hand up late, hitting the quarterback’s arm, Russell did a good job and we got the pressure we needed.

Q: Safety Corey Ellington has been playing well lately. Your thoughts on him?
Brock: I thought he played with more confidence, coverage and in the run game, and when we blitzed him a couple of times. He’s a big strong athlete. We need him to play confident to uphold his end of the bargain.

Q: How big was the fourth-down stop of KJ Jefferson where he fumbled the ball?
Brock: Huge. Another critical situation, conversion downs. If you look at it and some may not have noticed it, Brice Pollock did a nice job coming in, punches the ball and it comes out. Shawn (Preston) does a nice job getting on it. College football is a momentum game and that was a huge swing.

Q: Your early thoughts on Auburn?
Brock: Very talented. They have a lot of new faces on the Oline. 62 (Kameron Stutts), the guard, is back from last year, but everybody else pretty much is new. Everybody knows about the running back (Jarquez) Hunter. They have a young scatback, #21 (Brian Battie), who is dynamic. He makes people miss all the time. He’s a problem. They have length at receiver. They have tight ends all over the field. They’re utilizing them even more the last couple of games. All of them are athletic. They cause problems in the run game and the passing game. The two quarterbacks are dynamic athletes. We saw Robbie (Ashford) last year and what he can do with his legs and his arm. But the new kid Peyton is a problem as well. You can tell when he gets on the edge, goes 69 yards against Georgia. There are plenty of issues they create.

Q: Your thoughts on your last trip to Auburn and that crazy comeback?
Brock: Tale of two halves. We couldn’t have started any slower or finished any better. We had that touchdown going in before the half, that swung the momentum. I thought we carried it over and made a couple of plays on all sides of the ball. When it started to unravel for them, it just kept building for us. It was a huge win.

Q: Auburn uses 14-personnel sometimes. How does your defense prepare for that and how does that change things?
Brock: Potentially it does. It depends on where it is on the field. Goal line and short yardage, you want to match personnel. But what is interesting with them whether it is 14 or 22 personnel or 13, you are not getting traditional. 22 personnel is high-pro, two tight ends but that’s not what it is. It is more like 21 formation with split receivers, split tight ends. So they do a lot of things that are not typical to those numbers. So we have to do a good job of understanding what formations we are getting and adjusting.

Q: Your thoughts on Bookie Watson getting SEC Defensive Player of the Week?
Brock: He’s a stud is what he is. Not just solid. He shows up every day. You want your most talented players play the hardest. Bookie doesn’t just do that on Saturday. He does that on Monday night and through the week. He prepares that way off the field. His attention to detail is second to none. Then the production coincides with that. As a young guy you look at that and hey, maybe I ought to follow that lead. We need to get more guys to see that and say I need to play at that standard on a daily basis. Not just on Saturday but on a daily basis.

Q: How have you seen Brice Pollock develop and take advantage of his opportunities lately?
Brock: Well, No. 1 he has the talent to do it. I told him that from the beginning. I am going to try to coach you hard and push you because we don’t need you to be a good player in two years, we need you to be a good player tomorrow. That’s the urgency level we have as coaches. You see the potential. He’s shown that. He’ll take some lumps but he’s done a nice job of accepting that and developing.