{"id":52442,"date":"2023-10-06T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=52442"},"modified":"2023-10-05T19:35:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T23:35:32","slug":"bulldogs-host-western-michigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2023\/10\/06\/bulldogs-host-western-michigan\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs Host Western Michigan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe goal is to go 1-0 this week.\u201d Those are the words on which head coach\u00a0<\/span>Zach Arnett\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>would like to concentrate for Saturday. In essence, he would like to forget about the recent three losses in SEC play, the last one to\u00a0<\/span>Alabama 40-17<\/span><\/a>. That is probably the right tone to set going into week six. The Mississippi State fan base may be of the same mindset. \u00a0Social media has been conspicuously quiet. They seem more interested in MSU baseball and golf. Where the Bulldogs go from here is truly up to how they perform Saturday. A good performance should get the fans engaged and have Davis-Wade rocking on Saturday. The Bulldogs will host Western Michigan as they get to the halfway point in the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bulldogs Host Western Michigan<\/span><\/h2>\n

This will be the third of the four non-conference matchups this season.\u00a0<\/span>This will be the first time State has played Western Michigan. They are in the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC) and have an identical overall record to the Bulldogs, 2-3. In conference play they are 1-1, winning their contest with Ball State last week convincingly 42-24. The loss came at Toledo 40-31. Their other win came in their season opener with St. Francis. The other two losses came at the hands of Power Five teams Iowa and Syracuse. Mississippi State will be their third venture into those waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arnett is quite pragmatic considering how to approach this game. \u201cWe\u2019re facing a good opponent,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cVery explosive on offense last week in particular. They\u2019ve had to face the defense one time already, playing Syracuse. We\u2019ll have quite the challenge.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Week six is the point of no return. \u00a0Meanwhile, for Arnett, he is just getting his sea legs as a head coach, and so far, it has been a rocky voyage. After this game with the Broncos, it\u2019s a bye-week before heading into the thick of conference play. If you\u2019ve ever played the game and run that drill, you know how brutal it can be. After the bye, State goes on the road to Arkansas and Auburn. Considering the way those teams are playing, one can see what a hard road it\u2019s going to be. It will certainly be a chance to bolster their character.<\/span><\/p>\n

Healing All Wounds<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Bulldogs were not 100% healthy against Alabama. As they go into the game with Western Michigan, they have reworked the depth chart. While, t<\/span>he defensive line is the most affected area needing the most help, especially stopping the run. However, it’s not all gloom and doom.\u00a0Stellar defensive end,\u00a0De\u2019Monte Russell\u00a0<\/a>missed the Alabama game. Arnett says he is \u201cprobable\u201d for the game with Western Michigan. Russell was a standout before the Bama game with 20 tackles, 1.5 for a loss. His brother\u00a0Donterry Russell<\/a>\u00a0had five tackles and 1.5 sacks in the game with the Tide. moves up in the depth chart, starting at strong-side linebacker.<\/span><\/p>\n

Against the Crimson Tide, the Bulldogs already missed\u00a0<\/span>Trevion Williams<\/strong>. Arnett says he has undergone season-ending surgery. He will not be able to backup ace D-lineman\u00a0<\/span>Jaden Crumedy<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0Williams got six tackles, 1.5 for a loss in three of their games. Also missing from the D-line will be\u00a0<\/span>Kalvin Dinkins<\/strong>.<\/strong> He backed up\u00a0<\/span>Nathan Pickering<\/span><\/a>\u00a0at nose guard. Dinkins has three tackles so far this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most defenses are keying on\u00a0<\/span>Tulu Griffin<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as the go-to wide receiver. Early on,\u00a0<\/span>Justin Robinson<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was a good distraction and had 12 receptions for 144 yards. He also missed the game last weekend. He is hopeful to return this weekend as a game-time decision.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arnett has a matter-of-fact approach to the players and injuries. “You only have 12 opportunities to play. You work year-round for those,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cIf a player can safely play, defend himself properly, not at risk of worse injury, I think you got to let that guy play. To hold a guy out, I think that\u2019s unfair to the player,”<\/span><\/p>\n

Start of a New Season?<\/span><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s a new month, a bye-week coming, and the remainder of the conference schedule ahead of that. \u201cComing off September, we know where we\u2019re at and we know where we want to be,\u201d Arnett said. \u201cThe month of October is an incredibly important month for us. The road to redemption begins. The offense needs to become more consistent than it has been in the first five games. That means execution as they did against South Carolina with fewer turnovers and a complimentary defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator\u00a0<\/span>Kevin Barbay<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0is well aware of that fact as he said in his Monday press conference. \u201cA crucial mistake in the two-minute end of the half, a turnover there (against Alabama),\u201d Barbay said. \u201cYou know, learning from those situations and making sure we\u2019re not making the same mistakes twice and really understanding the flow of the game there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same press conference, quarterback\u00a0<\/span>Will Rogers<\/span><\/a>\u00a0said he is aware that it comes down to their execution. \u201cOur coaches have said all week it\u2019s about what we\u2019re doing wrong, not necessarily what the defense is doing to us.,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cEverything we have not going for us is self-inflicted. Just need to clean some stuff up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite what some fans and social media may be saying, Rogers seems to continue to have the confidence of the team. \u201cYou want your team jacked up, playing angry, playing with a chip on their shoulder, but a quarterback\u2019s not hitting anybody so you have to stay calm, stay composed, and do your job every single play, \u201cRogers said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Playing angry is something Arnett kept alluding to and brought up repeatedly. \u201cDo I think angry football teams play the game better, I do,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cI want an angry football team no matter the record. It starts by going 1-0 this week. We need to go to work, respond properly, go 1-0, and take advantage of the bye week, before the second half of the season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe goal is to go 1-0 this week.\u201d Those are the words on which head coach\u00a0Zach Arnett\u00a0would like to concentrate for Saturday. In essence, he would like to forget about the recent three losses in SEC play, the last one to\u00a0Alabama 40-17. That is probably the right tone to set going into week six. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4559,"featured_media":52585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[35,32603,10220,86,5287,20,32602,10635,9739],"class_list":["post-52442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-featured","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-kalvin-dinkins","tag-kevin-barbay","tag-lsu-tigers","tag-mississippi-state-football","tag-sec","tag-trevion-williams","tag-western-michigan-football","tag-zach-arnett"],"modified_by":"Kate Pearson Halyburton, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}