Mississippi State shows off progress in spring game

• Mississippi State sees growth at quarterback
• Questions still remain with kicking game, though it showed promise Saturday

STARKVILLE – Before Mississippi State’s Maroon/White game, Dan Mullen pegged this spring as the best in his six years in Starkville. Saturday’s game inside Davis Wade Stadium changed none of that.

It went so well that the Bulldogs ended it with a successful field goal. Here, that’s a big deal.

Evan Sobiesk’s 28-yard field goal as time expired gave Maroon a 41-38 win and closed out the spring for Mississippi State.

“It was a good day (Saturday). I was happy. I saw some good football out there on the field,” Mullen said. “We got to see, which is what I wanted, a lot of young players put in situations that maybe they haven’t been in before in this stadium. And a pretty exciting day.”

The spring game doesn’t hold much weight, especially among coaches. It shouldn’t with other observers either. Mullen said he considered the spring’s finish line to be during Thursday’s final practice. But Saturday’s game highlighted the progress of the program in some areas, along with the need for improvement in others.

Growth at quarterback

Mullen praised the importance of the spring game because of the replication of game-like circumstances. The final play Saturday proved his point. The game was tied at 38 with less than 30 seconds remaining.

Star quarterback Dak Prescott organized the special teams unit in 20 seconds. The snap, hold and kick took about seven seconds. All of it was executed flawlessly — including the kick.

“Dak took control of it, got them organized; Sobes (Evan Sobiesk) got out there, he had a similar location to end the last time we were on this field,” Mullen said. “But I think that will lead to some confidence.”

It helped Sobiesk but showed the maturation of Prescott as a leader. The process began last season during the fourth-quarter comeback against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. It carried over to Saturday. MSU hopes it continues this fall.

“We know we’ve got the momentum, the guys have to stay focused heading into the summer,” Prescott said. “And just have the best summer training we’ve had since he’s been here.”

Former MSU quarterback Tyler Russell left Starkville with his name throughout the Bulldogs’ record book in passing categories. Prescott could be even better. He finished the Maroon/White game 7 of 9 for 131 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed for a 6-yard score.

But he hasn’t started a full slate of Southeastern Conference games. It’s his first full season as “the guy.” Yet the program believes he can take it to the next echelon of the SEC West.

“I just feel a lot more comfortable,” Prescott said. “Just leading those guys and knowing those guys have my back. There’s not gray area of being a leader. It’s just going out there and trying to make them better.”

Field goals

One play epitomized Mississippi State special teams on Saturday. Sobiesk lined up for a 39-yard field goal. The snap was bad, but the defensive line stopped to allow the attempt. Prescott bobbled the ball on the hold. Sobiesk shuffled forward, stepped back and then finished his kicking motion.

Through all that, the sophomore missed it.

He rebounded by making his next two from 42 and the game-winner of 28. He made a 49-yarder last week, but missed two from inside 33 yards as well.

“What I saw is kind of what I’ve been seeing,” Mullen said. “And those guys, you watch them and say, ‘Hey it’s not a matter of whether they can do it. It’s just our confidence, our consistency to do things.’”

Mississippi State was one of four schools last season with a field goal percentage below 50 percent.

Defensive line

Both defensive coordinator Geoff Collins and Mullen refer to the second-team defense as “1B.” The defense as a whole returns 19 of the 22 players from last year’s two-deep depth chart. It’s not only experienced, but it’s also talented.

“We have 1As and 1Bs,” defensive end A.J. Jefferson said. “Our depth, that’s what could make us really good.”

Mississippi State’s second-team offense, the White team, carried the ball 17 times for 43 yards. Even when the staff moved speedster Brandon Holloway to running back for a change of pace, he still had trouble against the Bulldogs’ steady D-line, rushing for nine yards on as many carries.

Starting defensive linemen Kaleb Eulls and P.J. Jones missed both scrimmages and the spring game with injuries, giving more reps to second-teamers. Even so, the latter proved to be way ahead of the first-team offensive line.

“We’re going to put those guys in. We’ll wholesale substitute our defense in the fall,” Mullen said. “We’ll run eleven fresh guys out there to go play. We expect them to play”

No. 4 front runner

What Fred Brown remembers most about 2013 wasn’t some dramatic on-field highlight. He was ejected from Mississippi State’s 44-point win against Alcorn State after receiving two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.

His performance Saturday was a new highlight. He concluded an impressive spring by finishing with 10 catches for 219 yards and two touchdowns. The performance came a week after he caught five passes for 60 yards and a score in a previous scrimmage and no much longer after posting similar numbers in the first onet.

“The great thing I think we’ve been able to do this year is develop some depth and guys know it,” Mullen said. “Where you want to be, is be deep at receiver.”

To contact Michael Bonner, call (601) 961-7289 or follow @MikeBBonner on Twitter.