WATCH: MSU safeties coach Brett Dewhurst media op - Auburn Week

Mississippi State safeties coach Brett Dewhurst recently met with the media to detail the team’s win against Arkansas and the upcoming game against Auburn.

Q: What did you think of the pressure the defense was able to create at Arkansas?

Dewhurst: Well, it’s always good when you can create pressure and get behind the sticks, get them into third and long. That’s where Arkansas had done a good job all year…they’ve been in every game in the 4th quarter, and they were good on 3rd down because they have a 250-pound quarterback that can run the ball in short yardage and stay ahead of the chains with easy completions and all of that, so anytime you can get the team behind the sticks and kind of control first and second down, it helps you on third down, and that was our advantage and getting off the field. You know, the improvement that our guys saw was that anytime we’ve struggled this year it was when we didn’t get off the field on third down, and drives continued to go 7-10 plays, we were giving up points. Well, there was drives this past weekend where instead of seven, nine and ten (plays), where we didn’t give up any points, so that’s taking a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of improvement moving forward.

Q: What are your thoughts on Corey Ellington the past few weeks and the strides he’s made?

Dewhurst: Yeah, you know, Corey, before I got here was his first year as a true freshman, kind of came in during the bowl game and played. (He was used) kind of sparingly throughout the year and has been involved in special teams, and then he’s been banged up with a knee all in the spring, and rehabbing, working his butt off. Then he finally got the opportunity to earn the starting job and has kind of taken advantage of it. The kid works hard, he’s waited for his opportunity. He’s continued to make strides and does some good things and like everybody else…there’s stuff on tape that we’ve got to get corrected or somebody else will expose, and he’s doing a good job doing that.

Q: When you see a guy like Shawn Preston Jr. rising to the occasion, what does that do for the rest of the secondary?

Dewhurst: Yeah, he’s a competitor. You know, Shawn loves playing football. He’s been around for a while now, like eight years it seems like, so he loves to compete whenever he gets in there, and he’s found the football a few times this year and made big plays whether it’s picking the ball off, making a tackle or getting a turnover, and like anything, you want momentum, you want to get things going, it’s guys making plays, and hearing coach Arnett talk about all the time, players make plays.

Q: How have you seen players embrace the situational stuff like Hail Mary plays in practice? How comfortable were you in that situation knowing you guys had practiced it?

Dewhurst: I worked for a guy that got fired over it in the NFL, so I’ve been scarred on that play, so we drill it every Thursday, like most teams do and go through it, but I don’t think until you’re really in that situation that guys understand, and that last drive, if you look back on it, we had only given up three points all game and they had opportunities to end the game and send us to the locker room with a different feeling, so when they see that on tape and they see how close it was and how hard it is to win, they see the importance and urgency of every play, but when the game is on the line, it’s about doing your job and executing.

Q: How much did you see your guys improve during the bye week leading up to that bye week?

Dewhurst: I think as you get to the bye week, like every coach says, you get time to kind of rest your body, get healthy a little bit. At the end, you get in a routine of practice and a game every week, and then you finally get a little time off, it feels like you’ve been off four weeks but it’s only been a week since you played, so they’re ready to get back at it, and I think our guys do a good job of playing on the road and feeding off that energy and all of that stuff, and we’re looking forward to another challenge going to Auburn this week. It’s going to be a heck of an environment.

Q: Auburn does some different things schematically, how does that impact your guys?

Dewhurst: Well, that’s football now, right? Everybody is using tight ends in 12 personnel, 13, 22. You’ve got to see the formation, right? Because all these tight ends, they can be on the line, they can flex them out and get you in multiple ways, especially teams that rotate personnel groups and go from base to nickel and dime. You know, we kind of have our package and adjust to all formations and all that, but you look at coach Freeze and coach Montgomery, they kind of do a little bit of everything, right? A lot of personnel, up tempo, throwing the ball deep, a lot of vertical stuff. They’ve also had the different personnel packages with both quarterbacks who are athletic and can run and have good personnel, so they’ve kind of hit the gauntlet of teams these last few weeks just how Arkansas did, and we know they’re going to be hungry, ready to play, and we’re going to get their best shot, so it’s going to be a good opportunity.