Canon Boone, State's offensive line seeking more success in the run game

Mississippi State’s offensive line has been in transition so far this year, mainly due to a few injuries. But there was improvement made last week and that group is anchored by senior center Canon Boone.

Boone is also getting adjusted to his new position at center but has held his own after two games. Earlier this week Boone met with the media to discuss last week’s huge win over Arizona State among other topics:

Q: What needs to happen to get the ground game going?
Boone: I think one thing we can do to fix it is to continue to gel as a group. Obviously, the last couple of weeks we’ve had guys moving around at different spots. Just continue to go forward, continue to get the reps at practice against different fronts and continue to move forward as a group.

Q: How do you feel like yourself, Jacoby Jackson and Zack Owens are coming together on the interior?
Boone: I love playing next to them. Obviously, two very large humans. I feel like they help me out a lot, especially when I am at center taking care of the interior defensive linemen. I was with Jacoby last year and he is one of my best friends. We gel together a lot the past couple of years. Then Zack came along this summer and getting to know him, getting used to playing next to him. I feel like we’re in a good start right now playing now on the interior but we got a long way to go.

Q: With the recent struggles, how good was it to see people buying in and getting that big win on Saturday?
Boone: It’s huge. Obviously the past few years have been a rough as a program. A lot of change, a lot of disappointment I guess you could say. I was talking to some guys over the weekend about how, after Saturday, it is finally starting to feel like Mississippi State football again. The environment that the fans are bringing, the buy-in with the players. It does feel like we are back on track and ready to roll.

Q: How much confidence do you guys have in Jayvin James?
Boone: A lot of confidence. Obviously, he is one of those guys that came in during the summer. It was a short period of time and all the guys were able to gel with the group. But he is coming along and I am very proud of him, especially how he handled himself on Saturday. I thought he was a big part of how successful we were.

Q: How much do you feel like the offensive line improved from the first game to last Saturday?
Boone: I feel like a lot. Everybody talks about that Week 1 to Week 2 improvement and I feel like we really took that to heart. We have a lot of things we got to clean up Week 1, just normal Week 1 things you got to do. But I feel like going into (last) Saturday we improved a tremendous amount. Again, it was a huge part of what happened.

Q: Back to Jayvin James, how do you feel like his communication was in the huddle after he didn’t play in the first game?
Boone: It was great. I had no problems with him on Saturday and he did everything he is supposed to do and communicated throughout the way he was supposed to every single play. He played really hard. Especially how he played Saturday, I feel like that is a huge confidence boost, not just for him but as a unit, especially after continuing to gel with the new faces coming in. I felt like it was huge.

Q: What are some things Coach Phil Loadholt wants to see improvement with?
Boone: The run game, for sure. We had flashes of it on Saturday but that is one thing we really have to nail down to be successful at and to start opening things up across the board on offense. It’s really continuing to move forward together as a group. When you start moving guys in and out at different positions, you continue to play the way we play.

Q: What do you remember seeing with the game-winning touchdown pass to Brenen Thompson?
Boone: I was blocking my guy so didn’t see a whole lot. I see the ball in the air and I see (Thompson) wide open down the field for a touchdown and going to score. A lot of that was a bunch of a blur. I was super-excited and happy we were able to pull it off in the end.

Q: Did you see Jacoby knock down Brenen after the score?
Boone: I don’t think I did. I did not.

Q: As an offensive line, how rewarding is it to see a play like that?
Boone: Very well. At least one a week in practice we work on the two-minute drill. It’s for situations like that because at the end of the day, I may come down to it and you got to go win a game. It felt completely normal and natural what we did because we’ve done it a thousand times, which we have. It was awesome.