Mississippi State secondary narrowly escapes Western Michigan
When former Old Dominion starting quarterback Hayden Wolff checked into the game for the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, he had only thrown nine passes on the season, only completed three of them and had not tossed a single touchdown.
Wolff left Davis-Wade stadium on Saturday having thrown for three scores and more than 250 yards on 27 for 35 pass attempts. He and the Broncos offense gave the Mississippi State defensive backfield fits the entire time Wolff, who didn’t even start the game, was checked in. Wolff also didn’t throw a pass until the second quarter.
The Broncos completed five passes for 15 yards or more and found a lot of success over the middle of the field, an area where the Bulldog defense has had troubles all season. Despite Shawn Preston‘s late interception that sealed the game for MSU, it was a tumultuous outing for an MSU secondary that still has work to do, and the coaching staff knows that.
That includes head coach Zach Arnett, who spoke about the momentum that was lost on the defensive side of the ball against Western Michigan.
“The momentum flipped there and I think we gave up one conversion,” said Arnett. “We started really good on both sides of the ball. We emphasized all week starting fast on both sides of the ball…and then obviously the momentum flipped on us, and we had trouble getting it back.”
Freshman defensive back Brice Pollock saw meaningful minutes on Saturday as well in response to some injuries to the MSU secondary. His inexperience showed on a deep ball from Wolff that resulted in a touchdown, but otherwise, Bulldog fans got a solid look at one of the future cornerstones of a defensive backfield that will be seeing a lot of turnover in the coming years. Pollock registered five total tackles on the day with three solos and two assisted.
“The only way to develop at this game is to play this game,” said Arnett of Pollock’s snaps, “and so to have a true freshman who shows the promise to get on the field immediately and to get him a lot of reps, I would say it’s the best thing for his development.”
With the bye week on the horizon, MSU has time to rest up and get the defensive backfield healthy before resuming SEC play against Arkansas, where they’ll be tested again in a road bout against the Hogs. If MSU wants to come away with an SEC win or two before the Southern Miss. game, it’s going to have to start with stiffening up the secondary play.
