Video: Bulldogs Report For Spring Football; Fitzgerald Ready To Be Top Guy

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI / Miss. St. Athletics) – Mississippi State football returned to the familiar site of the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex with its first spring practice as the Bulldogs worked out in shorts and helmets Thursday afternoon.

MSU will practice in helmets and shorts Sunday before putting the pads on next week for two workouts prior to spring break.

“I love football,” ninth-year MSU head coach Dan Mullen said. “It’s so much fun to be out there doing ball. It’s been a great offseason pushing guys and conditioning but man I love football. When you get back out there, it’s a lot of fun.”

Mullen discussed the two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster this spring in junior Nick Fitzgerald and true freshman Keytaon Thompson as well as the center position the Bulldogs must fill that could include Martinas Rankin, Harrison Moon and Elgton Jenkins.

“What you want isn’t to find the replacement,” Mullen said. “What you want is to find two or three guys that can get it done for us. You have to have at least three centers. We’re going to have some different guys in there rotating for us.”

Thompson took his first MSU snaps just months removed from leading his Landry-Walker High School team to a Louisiana Class 5A state championship in New Orleans and earning Louisiana Gatorade Player of the Year honors.

“For a guy going through his first practice, I thought he did a heck of a job today,” Mullen said. “There was plenty for him to get rattled about, but he never looked confused.”

Mullen also said this will be a big spring for junior quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who, instead of competing for the quarterback job last spring, enter this year’s practice as the top guy.

“Everything is different for Fitz this spring”, Mullen said, “He’s always competing for a job. Keytaon [Thompson] came and he wants to play. So he’s always going to be competing for the job. I think he has confidence from having played through a season and knowing what to expect.

“You have a different demeanor in the way that you prepare because you know what you’re preparing for. Last year, he was trying to compete and win the job, but he didn’t really know what he was competing for and preparing himself for. Now he’s been through it and he knows what he’s preparing for.”

Fitzgerald enters his junior season coming off a 2016 season where he threw for 2,423 yards on 54-percent completion rate, with 21 touchdown and 10 interceptions. Fitzgerald also added 1,375 yards and 16 touchdowns on the ground for Mississippi State.