Previewing Mississippi State
by Jay Coulter on Sep 8, 2010 6:32 PM CDT
in Football
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PrintFrom Auburn Sports Information...
Auburn opens the 2010 Southeastern Conference season Thursday night when the Tigers visit Mississippi State. Both teams rolled to victories in their respective season openers last Saturday, as Auburn defeated Arkansas State 52-26 while Mississippi State thumped Memphis, 49-7. The game will be nationally televised by ESPN.
Auburn is 43-28-5 in SEC openers, including a 16-1 mark in its last 17 league openers...
Auburn is 6-2 all-time in Thursday night games, including a 4-0 record in SEC games...
Auburn leads the series with Mississippi State, 58-23-2, and has won 21 of the last 28 in the series...
Thursday's game will be a battle of the two top-ranked teams in the nation in passing efficiency...
Cameron Newton leads the SEC in rushing (171.0) and total offense (357.0), and was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week after accounting for five TDs in the season opener...
Auburn has totaled at least 500 yards of offense in five of Gus Malzahn's 14 games as offensive coordinator, after not reaching that mark in its last 40 games prior to his arrival...
Six of Auburn's seven touchdown drives against Arkansas State, including all five in the first half, took less than two minutes...
Auburn piled up 367 rushing yards against Arkansas State, which is the fifth-best mark in the nation...
Auburn played 12 true freshman in the season opener, which tied for the fourth-highest total in the nation, and 17 players overall made their Auburn debuts during the opener...
Auburn has four offensive linemen that have combined for 113 career starts, led by senior Lee Ziemba, who has started all 39 games since arriving as a true freshman...
Senior kicker Wes Byrum is just 63 points away from becoming Auburn's all-time leading scorer. He currently ranks fifth with 250 career points...
Auburn is the only school in the SEC that returns its entire full-time coaching staff intact from the 2009 season...
Auburn has won 57 consecutive games when scoring 30 or more points in a game, dating back to a 56-49, four-overtime loss to Georgia in 1996...
Auburn has 11 players on its squad that have already graduated, which is second most in the nation among FBS schools...
Auburn is 43-28-5 in SEC openers, and is 16-1 in its last 17 league openers. The Tigers had their 14-game winning streak in openers snapped in 2007 by Mississippi State...
In its last 12 SEC openers, Auburn has outscored its opponents, 386-136...
This is the seventh straight year Auburn has opened SEC play with Mississippi State. The Tigers won 49-24 last year, 3-2 in 2008, 34-0 in 2006, 28-0 in 2005 and 43-14 in 2004, with MSU winning 19-14 in 2007...
Mississippi State running backs coach Greg Knox was Auburn's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator from 1999-2008...
The Game will be televised by ESPN and in the booth will be Rece Davis (play-by-play), Craig James (analyst), Jesse Palmer (analyst) and Jenn Brown (sidelines)...
The game will be carried on radio across the Auburn ISP Network and on XM Sirius Channel 143.
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This sounds general and cliche BUT
we have to come out and hit the Bulldogs in the mouth, hard. I think the tone wiill be set in this game very early on.
War Eagle
Absolutely..
It is always smart to put your best side of the ball on the field first, given the choice.
Correction
Auburn’s last Thursday night SEC game was a 24-17 win over South Carolina in 2006
al.com has a poll out wondering who gets the most rushing yards tonight…
cam newton
michael dyer
o-mac
mario fannin
???
after week 1, my vote has to be dyer. i love his low to the ground speed and decisiveness. he didn’t look like a FR to me at all.
fannin is still #1TB on depth chart. how many carries does he get tonight?
I guess between 12 and 15. i just think that dyer may do a little more with his 8-10.
week 1 largely set him up as a TB decoy and then used him as a receiver… 2 TD catches.
is this a view of how fannin will be utilized in the BIG picture?
we’ll know a bunch more about how these TBs stack and how they are going to be used tonight.
i will also be very interested in the HB position: touches for e smith, burns, lutz, and reed?
wappa
I am at best, hesitant to annoint Dyer King of our runing attack.
The kid looked fantastic against Arkansas St., but I want to see more. He still hasn’t fully grasped pass blocking yet, so play calling with him in the game is more predictable.
I’m a huge Mike Dyer fan. I want him to be the best back he can possibly be, but I don’t want the fan base or the coaches to put too much pressure on him too quick.
Remember, last season McCalebb was the hot new RB and he tweaked his ankle in the first quarter of the season and was never the same. So let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have a tremendously talented offense, and should be very grateful for that.
War Eagle
i was just picking dyer to get the most rushing yards tonight.
i do think he has the confidence to play the position at this level… in this conference.
he looks the part, and he played the part.
he may sit the bench behind fannin and o-mac tonight. who knows.
if he plays considerably,… i would say that this O is still VERY MUCH figuring itself out in terms of pecking order. there is no doubt in my mind that these coaches will use these next couple games to pivot off.
we still want the ball in the best guy’s hands don’t we?
i do love this group.
wappa
Yea, I know Buddy. Wasn't jumping on you.
I have been hearing from a lot my AU friends/fans about Dyer. And it seems the people I’ve talked to in general are jumping the gun a little.
I am ready to see Ladarious Phillips get in a game. The first defense that sees his size and speed together might cry more than Kirk Herbstriet did when he found USC wasn’t bowl eligible this year…but probably not.
War Eagle
chad bumphis and heavens are good players for MSU... but AU should have the speed to defend.
this will be a good game to see how the bates move to LB might pay off…and if i’m not mistaken, freeman has speed on stevens as well. we’ll need the speed in the slot coverage against MSU.
do we know if stevens is playing yet?… i haven’t found a thing on his status with chiz. this is really weird.
wappa
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