Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett talks bye week, improvements needed moving forward

Midway through the lone bye week of the season, Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett met with local media on Wednesday afternoon. Sitting at 3-3 overall and 0-3 in the SEC, the players conclude the week’s workload on the practice fields later on Wednesday before taking off Thursday, Friday and Saturday (also fall break begins Thursday at the university).

Arnett talked of the week’s remaining schedule for himself and the staff along with the next foe in Arkansas among other topics:

Q: It is big for the players to get some rest during the bye week. But what about the staff and those plans?
Arnett: We’re getting a jump on Arkansas prep. Gives us more time with the younger guys, developmental guys who haven’t played a whole lot, getting back to fundamentals and techniques. Obviously, you’re doing self-scout. Coaches on the road recruiting the next two days. School has fall break, so we’ll practice today and give the guys Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. It’s a little more relaxed because you don’t have a game on Saturday. But there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Q: Halfway through the season, how would you assess the defense and where they are at?
Arnett: There’s drives, there’s quarters, there’s halves we can point to where we were executing at a high level, where we’re capable of playing good defense. There’s just the opposite of that. There’s drives and halves where we didn’t look like a very good defense. When you get an off-week like this, you’re doing a lot of self-scout. You’re being highly critical of yourselves as coaches, what you’re calling and how you teach it. Maybe tweaks you can make. That’s what a bye week is used for. But it gets back to fundamental and techniques. The game of football, any phase, comes down to blocking, tackling, putting your eyes in the right position according to what your keys tell you. That’s what the bye week reinforces.

Q: From your observations on film, your thoughts on Keyvone Lee and his play at running back lately?
Arnett: I think he had one carry that went for minus yards in the last game. He’d probably like to have that back. Other than that, if you look at the whole season, when he’s gotten carries, they’ve been positive yardage runs, a couple of explosive ones. He’s a bigger back, bigger lower half, he’s difficult to bring down and tackle. Those are the kind of backs you need in this league, because you’re playing a good defense every week. You’ve got to be able to break some tackles. There are some big, physical defensive linemen and linebackers in this league.

Q: Not so much an injury question but if Mike Wright had to start at quarterback, what is your confidence level in him?
Arnett: The reality is no matter what position you play, whether you are the starter or not, you must prepare as you are the starter. I have full faith and confidence in Mike. He’s taken advantage of every opportunity he has had this season. He’s scored several touchdowns, he’s distributed the ball for several touchdowns, he saw increased action last week. If he has to play additional snaps, we have no reason to believe he won’t perform the exact same.

Q: Who are some of the guys trending in the right direction when it comes to injuries?
Arnett: That’s the great thing about a bye week, everyone is trending in the right direction. You have additional time for rest and recovery. There’s some guys who have played a lot of snaps. We’re limiting their reps this week. We spent more time invested in the younger guys. You’re going to need depth. Some guys will need to play more than you initially thought going into the season. That’s been good for our coaching staff to spend time with the young guys.

Q: What are your initial impressions of Arkansas?
Arnett: The quarterback (KJ Jefferson) is a great player, tailback (Rocket Sanders) too. They’re playing good on both sides of the football. They’ve been in some close games against some really good teams. They play Alabama this week, so we’ll have another opportunity to watch. They probably feel very similar to us. Going into last week, we were both on three-game losing streaks. They played a heck of a game, they came up a play short. Really talented football team, we’ll have our hands full. But I can’t say enough about KJ Jefferson and Rocket Sanders and what they do on that side of the ball. New defensive scheme, Barry Odom gone. But they’re playing at a high level and they did a good job bringing in some difference makers in the transfer portal.

Q: Colorado transfer Seydou Traore is not eligible to play this season. But what have you seen from Traore in scout team work?
Arnett: Everything I have seen of him, I am glad we were able to get him out of the portal. He is going to be a mismatch and a really good player for us. Glad he is in our program.

Q: With freshman quarterback Chris Parson, how much experience does he get by running different types of offenses on the scout team?
Arnett: The biggest thing is you have a starting defense go against you. You feel the pass rush around you. You throw against different looks. A lot of time you’re going off a card, but I got this from Coach Leach: a lot of time you stand your freshman quarterback over there behind the offense and he’s getting “mental” reps. Coach Leach would say that’s the craziest thing in the world. He’s going to develop and be a better player throwing the ball every rep. Chris is: whatever helps the team. What can I do to give the defense a better look? Whatever helps the team better prepare for Saturday. It’s fun to coach those guys.

Q: Also with Parson, how have you seen him develop throughout this year
Arnett: He looks more muscled up, stronger. His arm is lively. He popped a couple of runs on the defense, mobile in the pocket. He took a quarterback draw for a touchdown. That kind of excites you to know you have a young quarterback in the wings who has a strong arm and ability to make plays with his legs.

Q: How timely is it in recruiting that you get to see high school and juco football in full swing during the bye week?
Arnett: There’s nothing like an in-person evaluation. You’re not allowed to have contact with recruits right now. You either get to watch them play a game or stand out there at practice. Every coach wants to watch a game. We’re gonna see every single junior college game on Thursday night, and we’ll be at a handful of high school games on Friday. Good thing for a coach.

Q: With the bye week and not playing Saturday, do you add any new things this week that Arkansas won’t see on film?
Arnett: I think you can over-do it. You try to reinvent the wheel and your guys don’t have many reps built up. Next thing you know, you’re asking them to do something in the most competitive league in college football they have only done for a week or a week and a half. That seems like a recipe for disaster. More importantly, you try to get back to the fundamentals, points of emphasis, and the base things you do. We’re having mistakes on X, Y, or Z, we need to clean those up, so we can execute the coverage or the pressure. On offense, same thing. These are our base core schemes. When we execute them we’re efficient, when we have breakdowns, it leads to negative plays. You come out on a bye week and say other schools are being real effective doing this, we’re gonna put this in and get really good at it. That’s probably not going to be a very good result for you.

Q: Your thoughts on Freddie Roberson and Jordan Mosley getting their first touchdown catch last Saturday?
Arnett: Hopefully many more to come. It’s funny, if you catch it and score a touchdown, quarterbacks have a way of going back to you.