WATCH: Tight end Seydou Traore eager to make Mississippi State debut
The wait is nearly over for Mississippi State tight end Seydou Traore and that puts a big smile on his face. The former Colorado transfer began his college career at Arkansas State before spending one semester at Colorado. Traore then transferred to Mississippi State last year and had to sit out that season due to NCAA transfer rules, which seems crazy in today’s college football landscape.
Throughout training camp, Traore has received good reviews from State coaches and players. On Wednesday after practice, Traore met with the media to recap training camp so far and the progress of the team:
Q: How would you assess where your personnel group is right now?
Traore: I think it’s good. I think we’re doing great things that I see but you can always improve. But we’re on the right path and we’re doing good.
Q: Who stood out in Sunday’s scrimmage from your group?
Traore: I think everyone did their job, played hard. Played fast, be decisive and don’t get touched and that’s what we get told and everyone did that.
Q: How have Justin Ball and Cam Ball been performing in camp?
Traore: It’s been great. They’re great people. We hang out all the time. I’ve learned a lot of stuff from Justin and he’s played a lot of ball. Cam is going to be a great player, too, and that’s great.
Q: Now that you’ve had one scrimmage, how much urgency is there to correct things moving forward?
Traore: I mean, you always want to get things 100 percent. You always want perfection. But at the end of the day that’s not football. Mistakes are going to happen, stuff is going to happen. But we’re definitely working fast fixing mistakes.
Q: In practice how much are y’all working on the playbook for the season opener?
Traore: We’re just focusing on what we’re given every day. The coaches give us the plays and we just go out there and run them.
Q: Your thought on the newcomers that got here this summer like running back Davon Booth?
Traore: They’ve done great. They’ve adapted quick. Booth and Trent Hudson, they’ve come in and picked up where they left off at their old school. So they’ve been great.
Q: How different is the role of the tight end in this offense compared to last year’s offense?
Traore: I mean, we’re utilized all over the field. Definitely in the receiving game over last year and we’re getting a ton of touches.
Q: How’s it been with Coach Jon Cooper?
Traore: Coach Cooper is great, very supportive. He lets you play. He wants us to play fast and he will coach you up and wants us to give effort and learn every day. He’s a great guy.
Q: What did you learn last year as a transfer when you had to sit out?
Traore: You learn a lot of different things. You learn a lot about yourself and how much passion and knowledge you have for the game. It’s real easy to slack off when you know you’re not playing but that’s just normal. But just watching the games and going to the games, everything starts to slow down and you start to understand competition. You really use that time to grow.
