ATHENS — After an impressive showing against Tennessee, which had the nation’s top offense before last Saturday, No. 1-ranked Georgia looks to its next tough opponent: Mississippi State.
Mississippi State runs the “air raid” offense under coach Mike Leach. The offense is designed as a full-game variation of the two-minute drill. In other words, the offense passes the ball more than it runs it. It is also designed to force teams out of the zone defense, as plays are created to get skill players into spaces and take advantage of those weaker areas throughout the game.
Georgia sophomore linebacker Smael Mondon recognizes all of the threats that can come from Mississippi State.
“They throw the ball well,” Mondon said. “They have a lot of good receivers. They have an experienced quarterback. A part that a lot of people look over is them running the ball. They have a pretty solid run game, and they have been trying to improve over the last couple of years. It is a balance between both of those.”
Starkville, the site of Saturday night’s game, is one of the tougher places to play in the SEC too. Mississippi State is undefeated (5-0) at home this season.
Still, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said the maturity level of this team is embedded in its DNA, so the Bulldogs will be able to take their fierce defense anywhere.
“When you won the national championship the year before, there’s a target on your back from day one; it doesn’t change regardless of your record or the venue that you play in,” Smart said. “We talk about toughness and DNA, and DNA travels. If you have good DNA, it travels with you.
“We anticipate an opportunity to flex our composure muscle, our resiliency muscle, our connection muscle, and our toughness muscle. We don’t do all that lifting and preparing to not use it. I expect our guys to use it, and when or if we need it, you have got to be prepared for that. It’s a really tough place to play, and they’ve got a really good team.”
Smart said practice has been effective in preparation for the road test against such a pass-heavy offense.
“I thought they were very focused yesterday and excited for the opportunity to go play at a really tough place, a really tough environment,” Smart said. “I don’t think we have anybody on our team that has been there to play a team before, so they were really great yesterday. Good today. Work day. Probably not as much energy and juice as I would like, but they practiced physical, and they practiced hard. We’ve got a tough defense to prepare for, very unique in some of the things they do - not normal for a lot of the SEC teams. The SEC teams have started to copy what their defense does from watching them. And obviously, the offense is very unique, but our guys have been focused.”
One interesting aspect of Mississippi’s pass offense stems from quarterback Will Rogers’ ability to get rid of the ball fast, while still maintaining his accuracy.
“It probably depends on the rush,” Smart said of Rogers’ speed throwing the ball. “He has not held it long a lot of games, but a lot of that is contingent on how many people you rush. We thought we had a good plan for the last time we played him. It was his first start at quarterback, I guess. He held it some that game. He’s held it some this year, but I don’t know the average. If you rush three or four or five determines how long he holds it.”
Similar to the mentality the Bulldogs brought into the Tennessee game, they are excited to take on another tough SEC matchup.
“If you don’t get excited for every game, then there’s something wrong,” sophomore cornerback Kamari Lassiter said. “It’s a great challenge that we have in front of us, and I think myself, the defense and the defensive backs as a whole we’re working very hard to prepare for that challenge.”
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