Will Rogers, Mississippi State adjusting to short week for Egg Bowl preparations

Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers is quite accustomed to the Egg Bowl rivalry. On Thursday evening at Davis Wade Stadium, Rogers is expected to make his fourth career start in the Egg Bowl and is seeking to even his career record at 2-2 with a victory.

Following Monday’s practice session, Rogers met with the media to discuss the Thanksgiving matchup with Ole Miss among other topics:

Q: Obviously a short week to get ready for the Egg Bowl?
Rogers: Yeah, quick turnaround obviously for both teams. You got to be ready and the game plan comes at you pretty fast but that is for both teams. That’s a challenge in itself. So we really have to make the most of our time this week when we are out there practicing, meetings. We got to be locked in. Obviously it is a challenge but like I said, it is a challenge for both sides with the game on Thursday.

Q: How much have you learned about this rivalry from playing in it the past three years?
Rogers: It’s a rivalry game, for sure. There will be extra juice added to it because it’s Ole Miss-Mississippi State and grew up watching the game and things like that. But at the end of the day, it’s all about execution, in my opinion. Who executes the best and makes the least amount of mistakes is probably going to win the game. We need to be locked in. Like I said, we need to get the game plan down. We have to have a great week of practice and come ready Thursday night.

Q: Former players have said the team that calms down first in the Egg Bowl usually wins the game. Has that been your experience?
Rogers: Definitely. I think it is easy when you have a game like this to let the emotions get the best of you and play emotional. That is one thing Coach (Greg) Knox told us. Play with emotions but don’t play emotional. So no doubt about it, we want to be excited to play Thursday night against our rival. At the same time we have to control those emotions and play within ourselves and execute. You don’t want to get outside your head and make a dumb play or a dumb penalty to hurt the team.

Q: What stands out to you about this Ole Miss defense?
Rogers: Their front, honestly. They do a really good job. They are really good at what they do. Coach (Pete) Golding coming over from Alabama, he is a really good coach and I have a lot of respect for him. He recruited me out of high school. I’ve gone up against him three times now and this will be the fourth. I have a lot of respect for those guys. Their front does a really good job, lot of moving, lot of stunts. Thet do a good job disguising things on the back end, too. Definitely trying to watch a little extra film this week, pick up on some tendencies, and just see how they do things.

Q: After missing the past month, how did your legs and conditioning feel after the Southern Miss game?
Rogers: I felt good, I felt good. That’s one thing even when I was out, I was trying to stay mobile and stay active. I was going with the scout team and things like that the last couple of weeks. So I knew it would be like that and some people would think I would be out of shape, be rusty a little bit. Honestly, the only thing is I lost some weight and wasn’t able to lift as much in the weight room. But I felt in good shape and I felt good after the game, just trying to take care of my body on the short week.

Q: Has there been any extra fire or energy this week going into the game with what’s at stake?
Rogers: I guess it is just normal stuff you expect from a team. For a lot of guys, this is our fourth, fifth or sixth Egg Bowl. We’re obviously real excited to play the game and I think both teams are. You know they are going to be excited to play and you don’t win nine games for nothing or whatever. They have a great team, great program, so you know they will be ready. We have to control our emotions, be ready to play and execute the plan.