For the past three years, Mississippi States’ air raid offense has been a staple of the program. Will Rodgers, who has been the starting QB for State for the past three seasons, has attempted over 600 passes each of the past two seasons, but that number is trending down in 2023.
The late Mike Leach, one of the greatest personalities in all of college football, was hired by Mississippi State in 2020 to revitalize the program, and one of the things he brought with him was the air raid offense. With so many rules protecting the quarterback and wide receivers in football now, passing the ball has quickly become the main source of gaining yards and scoring points at both the pro and collegiate level. But, after the passing of Coach Leach, State has completely changed their offense into a run-first, pass-second offense.
The past two seasons, MSU has rushed for a total of 821 and 1,062-yards as a team respectively. Now, with Zach Arnett taking command of the ship this season, he’s changing how the offense is ran.
Will Rodgers is still leading the charge for the Bulldogs, but fourth year running back Jo’Quavious Marks has become the focal points of their offense. In just two games, Marks already has 250-yards on the ground and 91-yards through the air. After years of passing almost on almost every single down, the Bulldogs offense has made the shift to a more traditional offense.
Kelly spoke about Will Rodgers and his experience at QB. Rodgers currently sits at 7th all-time in passing yards by an SEC quarterback with 11,078-yards and is first among active SEC QBs by a wide margin. Although his passing yards have gone down from their usual number with their new offense, Rodgers is still a very smart and accurate QB and will be a major threat every time he drops back to pass.
With the new offense comes a lot more running, and Jo’Quavious Marks has been States’ bell cow through the first two games of this season. Marks has never eclipsed the 600-yard rushing mark in a single season, and through two games, Marks is on pace to easily crack 1,000 in 2023. He gives State an experienced back that is a threat on the ground and through the air.
As I said earlier, the passing numbers are way down for Will Rodgers. He’s only attempted 46 passes through two games in 2023, a number that Rodgers has consistently hit in just one game over the years, but his completion percentage has gone up as a result of their new offensive scheme. In 2022, Rodgers completed 68% of his passes, but in 2023, he’s completed nearly 72% of his passes. Rodgers has always been a prolific passer, but he’s becoming more well rounded with the use of the run game and play action pass.
The Bulldogs new offense is going to propose a new challenge for the Tigers defense. They are used to playing an air raid offense when facing Mississippi State, but that is no longer the case.
The Tigers defense has struggled to defend the run game so far this season and they’re going to have to be ready for a heavy rushing attack on Saturday. The trick is going to be staying disciplined. State is going to run Marks a lot, and once the Tigers start loading the box to defend the run, they’re going to turn around and hit them with a hard play action and take shots down the field.
With just two games of tape of States’ new offense, Matt House and the Tigers defense are going to need to find keys that can help them decipher what State is going to do on offense. Going into Starkville at 11am against a brand new offense isn’t going to be easy, but if they can find a way to limit the run and stay disciplined on defense, the Tigers have a shot to come out with a win.
