Mississippi State blows out Vanderbilt 45-6
The Bulldogs bounce back after losing to Alabama, beat Vandy to the tune of 45-6
NASHVILLE, Tenn., (Hail State Athletics) – There were plenty of smiling faces leaving Mississippi State’s sideline following the Bulldogs’ 45-6 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday.
MSU amassed 522 total yards on the afternoon and limited the Commodores to just five first downs, the fewest surrendered during Mike Leach‘s two decades as a head coach.
“Our approach was just like every other week to put our best foot forward and go 1-0 on Saturday,” said cornerback Martin Emerson. “It was a big game for us to get back on track and I feel like we took care of the job.”
Offensively, the Bulldogs were a perfect 6 for 6 in the red zone with five different players finding the end zone on the day. Makai Polk scored twice on catches of 9 and 31 yards, marking the second time in his career to have multiple touchdowns.
Quarterback Will Rogers continued to shatter more school records. Rogers connected on 41 of 57 passes for 384 yards and a career-high four touchdowns through the air. The sophomore started the game with 14 straight completions, breaking his own Bulldog benchmark set in the season opener against Louisiana Tech.
“What he did best was maintain his composure and was ready to play the next play and the next series,” Leach said. “I think that rubbed off on our offensive unit and maybe even our team to a degree.”
A total of 13 different receivers hauled in a pass for State on Saturday, the most this season. Two of those grabs went down as the first career touchdowns for a pair of freshmen – Rufus Harvey and Rara Thomas.
Harvey (redshirt) hauled in a 6-yard score from Rogers in the second quarter and Thomas (true) brought down a 28-yard strike from back-up signal caller Chance Lovertich to close out the game in the final minute.
It was Lovertich’s first action as a Bulldog.
“I thought it was good and I’m glad we got them in a position to get involved,” Leach said. “I thought Chance did a really good job while he was out there. Both Rara and (Caleb) Ducking made some plays. I thought Rufus Harvey did some impressive things. We’ve just got to keep rolling.”
Mississippi State also kept the Commodores offense in check, limiting them to just 155 yards and 1 of 10 on third down on the day. Vanderbilt managed just nine rushing yards while the Bulldogs stacked up three sacks (Tyrus Wheat, Randy Charlton, Aaron Odom) and one interception by Emmanuel Forbes.
It was also a special day for several other defenders as well as John Lewis, Corey Ellington, Ty Cooper and Janari Dean recorded their first career tackles and Kyle Cass made his MSU debut.
