Scrimmage Provides Opportunity For Young Defensive Dawgs
August 19, 2023 | Football
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State has the luxury of a lot of experience returning on defense this season.
The Bulldogs bring back the top two tacklers in the Southeastern Conference – Jett Johnson and Nathaniel Watson – as well as veteran defensive tackles Jaden Crumedy and Nathan Pickering. That foursome alone has played in 158 games combined with 103 starts and 612 tackles between them.
Those seasoned players saw very little action during MSU's second fall scrimmage on Saturday. Instead, head coach Zach Arnett and coordinator Matt Brock wanted to give some of their younger defensive players an opportunity to showcase what they could do during those live reps.
"There were highs and lows to it," Brock said. "I thought when the first group was in there, they played well. The good thing with those young guys is when they get reps – whether its painful at the time or not – it's beneficial in the long run. There will be great film to learn off of and teach from."
Brock singled out cornerback Brice Pollock and linebacker Zakari Tillman as true freshmen that have caught his eye during training camp. However, he still wants to see some of his young defensive linemen continue to develop before the Bulldogs' first game in two weeks.
"I think they're going to have to contribute a lot," Brock said. "Our expectation is that they'd better continue to get better. They've had a really good camp, but I think they're hitting that camp wall a little bit right now. They'd better get freshened up and be ready to go when we get back on Monday."
One area Arnett wants his young players focused on fixing is their tackling. He saw too many missed tackles for his liking during their time on the field during the scrimmage.
"We've got to tackle better," Arnett said. "There were some runs today where they ran through us like a warm knife through butter. We didn't tackle very well today, but it was a lot of those developmental guys."
Saturday's scrimmage was one of the first extended opportunities some of State's more inexperienced defensive players have had in live reps thus far in camp so it was not a total surprise there were some things that needed be cleaned up moving forward.
"We've had guys who have had a lot of gains," Brock said. "But when you have a scrimmage sometimes you expect to see a big jump. But you really don't see that every time because things are moving fast and you get into different scenarios that require a little more processing to get the job done on a consistent basis…We saw some weakness in that today but those are all growing pains that you learn from."
Although receiving limited snaps, several upperclassmen still made the most of their reps during the scrimmage. Pickering and defensive end Jordan Davis both recovered fumbles. Pickering's recovery came at the 10-yard line to halt an offensive drive deep in his own territory and was the second scrimmage in a row he's fallen on a football.
Defensive end De'Monte Russell recorded two tackles for loss to lead the defense in that category.
"I think I performed well but I still left a lot on the field," Russell said. "I think I could've done more than I did so it's on to the next step. We've got another scrimmage coming up, so I'll try to do much better. Each day, our motto is to get better. We're just trying to get better one rep at a time."
Safety Marcus Banks as well as linebackers Javae Gilmore, J.P. Purvis and Michael Robinson also made stops behind the line of scrimmage on Saturday. The Bulldogs will hold their third and final scrimmage next week inside Davis Wade Stadium before opening the season there against Southeastern Louisiana on Sept. 2.
