The Jackets have two out of four of their ACC road contests out of the way and head this week into an out-of-conference matchup with the Mississippi State Bulldogs of the SEC. This is the first time the two have matched up since 1929 and the Jackets hold the series at 2-0.
Special Teams
The Jackets certainly improved at Virginia Tech. We did have an extra point, but then again we were playing VT and made up for it with the conversion later in the game. The bulldogs have a pretty good punter in Blake McAdams. He is on the Ray Guy Watch list and while his average isn’t eye-popping he is pretty good at pinning his opponenet inside the 20. Adam Carlson is their kicker and has made 18-29 field goals in his career and was 10-13 last year. Not bad, but he’s gotta get within range first.
GT Defense vs. MSU Offense
I fully expect us to dominate. Vance will play and AT Barnes will be back for this game. Kyle Jackson has been playing very well and I believe he might be the leading tackler on the team right now. The secondary has continued to play well and will continue that against a horrid MSU offense. Wesley Carrol has taken the majority of the snaps for the bulldogs. I’ve heard that their one of the RBs might be injured for this game. If the dogs can’t get some sort of running game going in this game then they don’t have much of a shot to put many points on the board (at least from their O).
GT Offense vs. MSU Defense
The pattern of coaches practicing our O in the summer continues as Sylvester Croom mentioned that they looked at our offense some during the summer. Their D is stout. They are just as good as the past two that we’ve faced. I expect them to get tired though after having their offense out there for very short periods of time and our offense to break some big plays late in the game to put it out of reach. This offense is obviously getting better each game and Josh showed us how special an athlete he is. Dwyer will not miss this game and Lucas showed us what he can do last week. I expect to see a few more passes this week though.
Sylvester Croom
Coaching
Sylvester Croom is a good man and a pretty good coach. Not spectacular but good. Their D coordinator obviously knows what he is doing. There’s a lot of calling for the O coordinater’s head though. The people of Starkville are getting restless and tired of such a productionless vanilla offense. Let’s hope that trend continues this week.
Who to Watch
Jessie Bowman – Will he get as much pressure up the middle as VT and BC have?
Wesley Carroll – Can he get any semblance of a passing game going?
Michael Johnson – Is this his breakout game of 2008?
Roddy Jones – He showed us how can be utilized in the passing game, will he be a threat in both aspects of the offense this week?
Prediction
Ugly, hard-fought game. Big plays by GT late.
GT 24 – MSU – 9
Sorry for the short preview, but I’ve got a busy week and, honestly, Miss State is a boring team to research. They are at the bottom of the SEC and have a boring defensive-minded team with no offense, kind of like NC State.
Interesting Note: My wife’s cousin is a strength and conditioning coach at Mississipi State.
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