STARKVILLE — Mississippi State had a good bye week.
Players got some much-needed rest, a few youngsters took a few more snaps in practice and the team polished their fundamentals. Now the Bulldogs (3-4, 0-4 SEC) enter game week mode with preparations underway for their trip to Kentucky (3-4, 0-3) on Saturday.
“We got a bunch out of it,”said MSU coach Dan Mullen, “but we’ll see how it translates in production on the field on Saturday.”
A few more notes from Mullen’s short chat with reporters during his teleconference Sunday:
— Kentucky’s failures this season can be traced to turnovers, Mullen said.
“They’re a good football team,” he said. “They’ve been hurt with turnovers at times this year. You don’t turn the ball over, they’re a very different football team. That can be corrected very easily and it looks like they got that fixed during their bye week.”
UK defeated Jacksonville State, the No. 8 team in the FCS, 38-14 on Saturday. The Wildcats rank 104th nationally in turnover margin (minus-6).
— Mullen says some of the UK defense’s statistics on defense are “deceiving,” especially on run defense. The Wildcats have given up a couple of big runs, but have mostly done a good job otherwise, he contends. He also likes UK’s efficiency defending the pass. The Wildcats rank 18th nationally in pass defense.
— Tim Tebow, Mullen’s protege when he coached at Florida, pulled off an 18-15 overtime win (reeling off 18 straight points) against the Miami Dolphins today. It was Tebow’s first start of the season.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Mullen said. “Tim’s a winner. He wins. It’s what he does.”
— No new injuries to report, Mullen said.
For more coverage, pick up a copy of Monday’s Clarion-Ledger.
