The Mississippi State coaches and players consistently say they are "very close" to getting to the point they need to be to turn around this season and actually win a Southeastern Conference contest.
"You don't look at the film and say, 'Boy, we can't compete. We need different guys.' We just need guys executing cleaner," Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen said Monday.
Mississippi State (2-3, 0-3 in SEC play) will travel to play Alabama-Birmingham team this Saturday (11 a.m., SportSouth) and the Bulldogs third-year coach said all he has to do is point to last year's 29-24 victory at Davis Wade Stadium to know how difficult the Blazers can be in a trap game situation.
"Obviously, UAB is a tough opponent, we saw that last year," Mullen said. "They took us right down to the wire, so we know we will have our hands full. When you look at the games they played this year, (they've) had the opportunity to win some tough games. They are a tough, tough football team and we are going to have to play well to win."
It was another week of discussing the problems at offensive line problems after Georgia had five sacks and nine tackles from behind the line of scrimmage. Mullen is still unsure as to how the five players will be arranged this Saturday but commented on the senior James Carmon's first day at left guard after not practicing at that position in the spring or fall workouts.
"He played guard for a grand total of three days coming off an injury," Mullen said. "What I'm happiest with is the attitude, of his approach of doing what it takes to help the team win and stepping into that role and not being shy about it."
Carmon was coming off a knee injury sustained in the loss at Auburn and was moved from his original line position at left tackle.
"We're not set yet. We'll see how practice goes this week, whether he stays at guard or moves back to tackle. Throughout the year he's going to have to be a guy that we depend on and have flexibility to do both in case there's some other injury situations. He went in and played as hard as he could, and that's what you ask for, for our team to be successful. To me, to have a successful program, that's what you need, is guys that are unselfish that are going to do whatever it takes for the team to win. He played solid. It wasn't spectacular. It'd be hard to expect him to be spectacular in what we asked him to do."
One of the letdowns for Mullen offensively as he looks at the stat sheet is Mississippi State is 10-2 when senior tailback Vick Ballard has more than 50 yards of production on the ground. The Bulldogs head coach got down watching the film Sunday and that fact was one of the first things he thought of.
"That's one thing that sticks out to me - boy, we didn't get the ball to Vick enough," Mullen said. "Then you look, why didn't we get the ball Vick? Do we put ourselves in position to get it to him and run our style of game. It's not really the defense's fault when your'e giving up a drive of 20 or 30 yards, you've got yourself out of the flow already. I want to see Vick carry the ball."
On the other side of the ball, Mississippi State is going to have to contain the rushing attack of UAB and specifically tailback Pat Shed that local fans should be very familiar with as a former star player at Starkville High School.
The Bulldogs defense was able to make slight changes to the gameplan in the locker room during the 24-10 loss at Georgia in order to keep tailback Isaiah Crowell in check for the final 30 minutes of play.
"(Shed) is a pretty dynamic guy," Mullen said. "Not a really big guy but he can play physical and break tackles, you've seen him do that. Obviously, he's real quick. (He has) ability to make cuts, make you miss, start to the left and put one foot in the ground and he's around the right end before you can blink an eye. You have to contain him at all times by being sound on defense."
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