State running game picks up the pace with more progress needed
A staple for most offenses around the country is controlling the line of scrimmage and being able to run the football and Jeff Lebby’s philosophy is no different.
The coach has no issues stating that his teams need to be able to run the football with great success to have the type of production he wants out of his unit. Against Arizona State and Toledo, that wasn’t there, but Lebby thought that side of the game improved against Florida.
“I thought we played better fundamentally,” Lebby said. “I think I’ve said this the past couple of weeks. We’ve have been targeting the right people fundamentally, playing cleaner with leverage, with hand placement. How we’re playing the game with our feet is something that had to get better. That got a lot better.
“We cleaned some of those things up, there was great improvement. I felt really good about going into the game and the kind of week we had up front fundamentally. We have to build on that and that is going to be huge for us.”
Florida performance a step forward for Lebby’s offense
Though the Bulldogs lost the game against the Gators, running the football wasn’t a big part of the reason that it ended badly. State rushed for 240 yards on 56 carries and got three different players into the end zone on the ground.
The production followed up back-to-back weeks against Arizona State and Toledo of hardly any production from the running game. State combined for 54 carries and 90 yards with just one score. The offensive line group went to work to try and fix the issues and things improved against the Gators.
“I feel like we had our best performance on Saturday as a unit,” starting right tackle Albert Reese said of the ground game. “It was just guys coming together and meeting outside of the mandatory stuff and just knowing our jobs and executing. Having more confidence and being excited to play.”
Replicating that success is the challenge for the Bulldogs this week.
State travels to its first SEC road game of the year and the Bulldogs are breaking themselves in against No. 1 Texas in Austin. MSU will do it with two healthy scholarship running backs, down three from the preseason.
Prior to the first game of the year, State lost veteran runner Jeffery Pittman as Lebby said the senior back was no longer with the team. Freshman running back Xavier Gayten played in the first three games of the season but was out last week with an injury.
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The Bulldogs lost starter Keyvone Lee for an undisclosed amount of time due to injury and are now down to Johnnie Daniels and Utah State transfer Davon Booth. That tandem has did well last week as they combined for 30 carries and 152 yards with two scores. They’ve been preparing this week to take things up a notch.
“For me, practice has always been the same. The offensive line is working really hard and hopefully it translates to this week,” Booth said of the running game.
“One thing coach Tuck has done is make sure that we know what the offensive line is doing at all times. It helps us know the correct holes to hit or something like that.”
With numbers dwindling on the offensive and defensive side of the ball coupled with State’s struggles on the field, not many people give the Bulldogs a chance to compete on Saturday afternoon.
The players on the team are going in with nothing to lose. If the ground game can continue to improve, Booth and his teammates believe anything is possible.
“We’re excited,” Booth said. “That’s a really good team over there but we’re excited to be in that environment. It’s going to be a fun game.”
State and Texas meet in Austin at 3:15 Saturday afternoon. The game can be seen on SEC Network.
