By MSU Media Relations
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State head coach Joe Moorhead met with members of the media on Monday afternoon to preview the Bulldogs’ trip to Kansas State this Saturday, which will mark the first meeting between the teams since 1977 and only the third ever.
Kickoff between the Bulldogs (1-0) and Wildcats (1-0) is set for 11 a.m. CT at Bill Snyder Family Stadium and the contest will be televised by ESPN. Mark Jones (play-by-play), Dusty Dvoracek (analyst) and Molly McGrath (sideline) will call the action. For complete gameday and stadium information, visit HailState.com/gameday.
Behind sophomore quarterback Keytaon Thompson’s seven touchdowns, MSU earned a dominant 63-6 win over Stephen F. Austin in the season-opener and Moorhead’s debut. State racked up 618 yards of offense and also saw its defense limit SFA to just two field goals. The Bulldogs’ 63 points scored were the most by an MSU coach in his debut. The last mark was set in 1914, when State won 54-0 over Marion [Ala.] Military Institute in E.C. Hayes’ first game. It was the 13th highest point total in program history and the most scored by MSU since putting up 65 against Ole Miss in the 2015 Egg Bowl. State’s 63 points also were the most in a season opener since Sept. 23, 1950, when it defeated Arkansas State 67-0.
Defensively, MSU racked up a school-record 17 tackles for loss, breaking the previous mark of 15 against Troy (2015) and Alcorn State (2010). Thirteen different Bulldogs recorded at least a half tackle for loss, highlighted by a combined seven from preseason All-Americans Jeffery Simmons (3.5) and Montez Sweat (3.5). Sweat also recorded a pair of sacks.
Below is a transcript of Moorhead’s Monday press conference.
Opening statement…
“I’m very excited to be 1-0. I thought we had a great win over Stephen F. Austin. We did a lot of very good things on offense, defense and special teams, but there’s plenty to clean up. In recapping the game, we set a single-game school record in tackles for loss with 17. We had 12 plays with 20 yards or more, which was the second-most in the FBS in week one. We had 618 yards of total offense, which I’m told is the fifth-highest total in Mississippi State single-game history. Our offensive player of the week, as selected by the coaching staff, is Keytaon Thompson, as he tied an SEC-single game record with seven touchdowns. Our co-defensive players of the week, Jeffrey Simmons and Montez Sweat, combined for seven tackles for loss, two sacks and 10 overall tackles. On special teams, Dontavian Lee had three tackles. The offensive scout team player of the week was TJ McMahon. The defensive scout team player of the week was Aadreekis Connor. The special teams scout team player of the week was Cason Grant. Our student-athletes of the week, as selected by out academic staff, were Willie Gay and Chauncey Rivers. I’m excited to get a win in the left-hand column. I thought we did a lot of good things, and I’m excited to move on to Kansas State. Moving onto them, it’ll be our first true non-conference road game against a Power Five opponent since 2008, which was lost to Georgia Tech, 35-7. Our last Power Five non-conference win was 1995 in a 30-21 win over Baylor. We have the opportunity to compete against a coaching legend like coach (Bill) Snyder. If the stadium is named after you, then you know you’ve done a pretty good job, so we’re certainly excited for that opportunity. They’ve been to eight-straight bowls, and they’re the third-winningest team in the Big-12 since the start of the 2011 season. They started the year off with a 27-24 comeback win over South Dakota, who is a very good FCS team. They return 18 starters and went 8-5 last year, and they had a win over UCLA in the Cactus Bowl. Offensively, the coordinator is Andre Coleman who was a player at Kansas State in the mid-90s, and he played in the NFL for many years. He has a great pedigree and lineage. He’s been with Coach Snyder, so he understands the system. The offense is a fundamentally sound unit. They do what they do with a quarterback counter, quarterback power and zone read. They play with two experience dual-threat quarterbacks, and they force you to play with great eye discipline and gap integrity. I’m very impressed with their offensive line. They average 22 starts a player. They are very physical, disciplined and they finish blocks. Their best players are the quarterbacks in Skyler Thompson and Alex Delton. Isaiah Zuber at wide receiver played every game for the past two years. (Dalton) Risner, the right tackle, is one of the top offensive linemen in the country. He was an All-American and All-Big 12 in 2017, started 38 games and is a team captain. On defense, the coordinator is Blake Seiler at his first year there. They are a four-down defense and play a mixture of coverages. They are a mirror image of their offense and program. They are tough, smart, disciplined, physical and run to the football. They won’t beat themselves. We think the impressive guyup front is Trey Dishon. He creates a lot of havoc from his defensive tackle position. On the back end, Duke Shelley is one of the corners. Denzel Goolsby has also stood out to us in preparation. Although the offense and defense are both very impressive units, they are awesome on special teams. They coordinator, Sean Snyder is in his eighth year. They are one of the top special teams units in the country. Looking at last year, they had a 95 -yard punt return for a touchdown. Zuber had an 85-yard punt return last week in the fourth quarter, and he’s averaging almost 50 yards per return. Blake Lynch is their kicker, and he went four-for-four last week in field goals. They do an unbelievable job there. It’s going to be an incredible challenge, but on that we’re excited to prepare for. We’re excited to prepare for them and go out there and play.”
On how Nick Fitzgerald handled being on the sideline…
“I think Fitzgerald handled it extremely well. He was sent down to scout team for the week, so he worked to give our defense a good look. He was mature during the week in meetings and on the field. On gameday, he was a vocal presence on the sideline. He was a great resource for (Keytaon) Thompson in his second start. As a coach and program, it’s easy to mentor the guys when they’re doing well and scoring touchdowns. Everybody makes mistakes, but I think that’s part of the process. We need to do as good of a job when things go bad as when things go well. I think Fitzgerald has learned from the experience and he will be better coming out. It’ll be very positive moving forward.”
On practicing Sunday with Monday as the off day…
“I’m not quite sure of the standard across the country, but every program I’ve been with has modeled it that way. You watch tape, do individual corrections from the previous game and then you do an introduction to run and pass game for the upcoming opponent. You get into some special teams at the end. Today is the player’s off day, so it gives the coaches a day to game plan. They get the offense, defense and special teams ready for when the kids come in on Tuesday.”
On communicating with a new staff…
“I’m very happy we decided to go through it on Wednesday with a mock game situation. We went through all the logistics of the game. Offensively, it went very smoothly between series. We were gathering information, communicating information, getting it to the kids and making corrections to click it over to the defensive side of the ball. I thought we did a good job, and it went relatively smooth.”
On the sideline dunk contest…
“I might have had the most assists, but I don’t think I scored any of the buckets. I want our kids to be excited, and I want them to have fun. We did it at Penn State, and I wanted to carry it over here. I told our guys that I want us celebrating as a team when we score touchdowns. There were nine of them, so you find the teammates that helped you get there, and when they come to the sideline, we will have a little fun with it. Someone had a 360 reverse, so they may have won.”
On running back rotation…
“I think we had four guys get carries, and three of them scored touchdowns. It’s a luxury to have that many guys who are capable at this level, particularly when you get into the SEC schedule. You know on a weekly basis that it’ll be incredibly physical. We have a rotation set with Kylin Hill and Aeris Williams going into the game. We can ride the guy with a hot hand. You go into it with a planned rotation, then based on who’s playing well, the rotation can flow one way or the other.”
On running backs having more carries…
“It really was based on the flow of the game. There were a couple scoring drives of three or four plays or less. We also had a 13-play, 91-yard drive somewhere in there. A few were quick-strike scoring drives. With our offense running 75 to 80 plays a game, we’d like it to be split 50/50. I believe we will normally have more carries for the running backs, but (Keytaon) Thompson also had 10 as well.”
On what he will remember from first game at Davis Wade…
“I think the Dawg Walk was an awesome experience to get off the bus and have all the fans there. They show incredible support for our team heading all the way into the tunnel. We ran out of the tunnel to the cowbells, but just the whole experience of being an SEC head coach for the first time and winning the first game. The fan support here in Starkville is phenomenal, and that’ll be what stands out the most, aside from the win.”
On WR (Osirus) Mitchell…
“He’s a quiet and unassuming kid. I’m glad he was able to participate in the post-touchdown dunk contest to get him fired up. I’d like for him to show more energy, enthusiasm and body language because that’s just how he is by nature. For him to go two-for-two, and get his college career started that way then he can build on it and have success. I think that’ll help him moving forward because he is very talented.”
