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| Friday, October 8 Steady Bulldogs racking up SEC wins By Ron Higgins Scripps Howard News Service |
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STARKVILLE, Miss. -- College football's 13th-ranked team is unbeaten after five games and trying for its first 6-0 start since 1944. It has the nation's second best defense and one of the Southeastern Conference's steadier kicking games. But it has a hurting-for-highlights offense with no rusher or receiver ranked among the league's top 10 in either category, and its quarterback is only one of three starters not ranked among the conference's total offense leaders.
The wins have been against teams with a current combined record of 7-17, leading to this question for ninth-year Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill: "Just how good is your team?" `That's a hard question," said Sherrill, whose Bulldogs head to Auburn on Saturday. The last time the Bulldogs held a national ranking this high was when they were No. 13 in both polls in week eight of the 1986 season. There isn't an answer because State (2-0 in the Western Division) could keep on winning all the way to a return trip to the league championship game using a defiant defense, mistake-free kicking, usually favorable field position and offense that scores just enough without imploding from turnovers. Astute SEC observers would call that old-time Bear Bryant football. Sherrill, who played for Bryant at Alabama in the 1960s, won't characterize his team that way. But he and his players admit the bottom line is winning, preferring substance over style and thriving playing the underdog role. "We like everybody to doubt us because that makes us play with a chip on our shoulder," said State senior defensive end Cornell Menafee, who has played in more games (40) than any other Bulldog. "We play better with a chip on our shoulder." While other SEC teams ranked nationally have had show-stopping early wins -- Florida over Tennessee, Alabama over Florida, etc. -- the Bulldogs have plodded along against the likes of Middle Tennessee State, Memphis, Oklahoma State (which pounded State 42-23 last year), South Carolina and upstart Vanderbilt. State didn't even play outside of Starkville until Saturday's trip to Vandy. The inconsistent offense, ninth in the league averaging 342.8 yards, has left many fans and critics wondering if State can remain with Georgia as having a spotless overall record. With such a stout defense and a favorable SEC regular season schedule like State's -- it doesn't play Tennessee, Florida or Georgia -- it's possible State could win just its second league championship ever. That defense, one play away from having two shutouts instead of one, may have the lofty national rankings allowing just 208.2 yards and 8.4 points. But because of wily veteran coordinator Joe Lee Dunn, there's no time for complacency. "I think we can get better than what we're doing, but we're still having lapses that you don't have if you're really really good," said Dunn, an lifelong architect of terrific defenses at coaching stops like South Carolina, Memphis, Ole Miss and Arkansas. "If you're that good, you have a stretch that I had at South Carolina in 1987 against North Carolina State, Wake Forest and Clemson where we allowed minus-45, 60 and 180 yards in successive games. "If you're that good, you don't give up a 20-yard touchdown run to Vanderbilt on a fourth-and-five like we did last week. That was the most horrible play on film you'll ever see. We all ran over there thinking that somebody else was going to make the tackle. When you get a great defense, you don't do that." Still, Dunn admits his starting secondary may be one of the best he's ever been around. And there's enough depth on the line to rotate the entire front six with no reduction in quality. "This is one of the best defenses I've played on, not just because of the players but because of the depth we have," said senior defensive tackle Kevin Sluder, who has 22 tackles with seven of them for losses and one of State's 19 sacks. "I don't know of many other teams in the nation that can rotate their entire front six. We go into fourth quarters fresh." While the defense has been solid from day one, the offense is taking a little longer. With just two returning starters and a new coordinator, their jelling is a week-to-week adventure. Sherrill's past State teams had a steady offensive formula such as:
All the elements are in place again with sophomore quarterback Wayne Madkin, a committee of running backs, senior flanker Kelvin Love (who averages 22 yards per catch) and a young, but robust line that averages 323.3 pounds between the tackles. "If we can hold on offensively until mid-season, our offense should be good enough to help us and I think it's going to," Sherrill said. "We haven't thrown the ball and caught it well. When defenses stick eight and nine men on the line, it's harder to knock them off the ball. We were able to do that last year for different reasons, because of our tight end (Reginald Kelly, now with NFL's Atlanta Falcons) and James Johnson (now with the Miami Dolphins). We were able to dominate certain things." When Madkin has thrown well -- such as his 235 yards and three TDs against Middle Tennessee State, and 257 yards and two TDs against Vanderbilt -- the offense has been effective giving the sense the Bulldogs are a complete team. But when Madkin has struggled -- all four of his interceptions came against Oklahoma State -- the Bulldogs have looked rather ordinary. First-year coordinator Sparky Woods accepts some of the blame for Madkin's inconsistency. "We've asked much more of him this year than he had to handle last year," Woods said. "We've tried to put him more in control, so he has to know more. He audibles half of the time. But I've got to be careful not to give him too much knowledge because he'll run it all through his head before the ball is snapped. Wayne sometimes thinks too much. He tries to cross the bridge before he gets there." The Oklahoma State game was Madkin's wakeup call. Sherrill didn't start him because he skipped a class following as long film session. Madkin, clearly rattled, had the worst game of his short career. He rebounded last week against Vanderbilt, and he has a clear sense of what the State offense should be. "Go back to when Nebraska won a national championship a few years ago and Alabama won one (in 1992)," said Madkin, who has thrown for 859 yards and seven touchdowns. "Both of those teams didn't have pretty offenses. But they had great defenses, they rarely turned the ball over, they made a few plays and they won. It's going to be scary if we start hitting on all cylinders." Even with a sputtering offense, it looks like clear sailing on paper for the Bulldogs. They could be 8-0 heading into a Nov. 13 showdown at Alabama. "It's hard not to think ahead when you look at our schedule," Sluder said. "But as soon as you do that in this league, you'll get beat. You've got to worry about what's right in front of you. Besides, we get fired up when read about how good Alabama or Arkansas or Florida are. "You know, we have a pretty good team right here." (Ron Higgins writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn..) |
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