Mississippi State offensive coordinator Les Koenning is worried about the number of blitzes his struggling quarterbacks will see Saturday night from Arkansas:


“When you turn on the film, they’re blitzing coming off the bus.  Last year, we saw every blitz imaginable and they even drew some up at halftime that we hadn’t practiced against.”


Against conference foes, MSU ranks ninth in the SEC in total offense and seventh in passing yardage.  Arkansas ranks eighth in total defense, and seventh in pass defense.

If State wants to spring the upset, however, it’s the Bulldog run game that will be key.  The best way to beat Arkansas is to make sure its offense isn’t on the field.  MSU will need to run the ball and eat clock if its going to dash the Hogs’ slim BCS hopes.

If quarterback Chris Relf has any intentions of resting on the improvements he made to his game late last season, Mississippi State offensive coordinator Les Koenning has a message for him:


“I told Chris (earlier this month) that you’ve got 12 more games possibly in your career and that’s it at Mississippi State.  I’m going to tell you point blank — nobody gives a darn what you did last year.  That was last year.  if you’re living on last year, you’re probably not going to get better at all.  It’s left up to you.  We put you in the position you got here and you worked hard to get here and you have to take the next step.  You can’t walk in here and say, ‘My shoulder hurts, my knee hurts.’  So what if it hurts?  Football is a physical game.  You either go compete or say you’ve already arrived.  I’ve been pretty hard on him and I’m going to be hard on him again.  The beauty about the position is, if he doesn’t do the job, we’ve got two more behind him.  It’s a great issue to have.”


Yeesh.  And the part of Les Koenning will be played by R. Lee Ermey.