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STATION COLLEGE – If Mississippi State quarterback Nick Fitzgerald needs a vote of confidence now, Texas A & M players are not happy to offer it.
"We played against two guys who had real speed, but this guy also has power," said A & M defenseman Landis Durham to his senior countryman. "It's a very big cat."
Over the past two seasons, Fitzgerald, now caught in a controversy over the quarterback at MSU, has purred on the Aggies (5-2, 3-1 SEC), who have visited the Bulldogs (4-3, 1- 3) and at Starkville, Miss., At 6 pm Saturday on ESPN.
"He can run for days and he has killed us with his legs," said A & M defensive lineman Kingsley Keke. "We must be responsible for that."
Fitzgerald had 182 yards on the last time A & M played at the MSU two years ago – including 74 yards for a touchdown of the first Bulldogs breakaway game – and 105 last year at Kyle Field, two wins from MSU. The Bulldogs' 35-28 victory at Davis Wade Stadium in 2016 was particularly painful for the Aggies, who took fourth place in the first university football playoff rankings that season before heading to Starkville.
"That kind of tone set the tone," Fitzgerald said last summer during his 74-yard sprint that knocked out the Aggies. "We scored 28 points in the first half and in the second half we had seven points. I am extremely grateful to our defense for winning this match. "
The match was tighter than last season at College Station, a Bulldogs' 35-14 win that was an extra nail in Kevin Sumlin's six-season era at A & M.
"It was an atmosphere of madness – it was noisy," Fitzgerald recalled. "It helped us start (loud) early. This allowed the crowd to escape so that we could hear and do our checks and readings. And then the defense turned off the spotlight again and really helped us. "
Now A & M's new coach, Jimbo Fisher, gets his one and only goal at Fitzgerald – if it's Fitzgerald. If he is fighting early against number 16, he expects the second, Keytaon Thompson, to win a lot of playing time.
"This guy is a great player – he's going to bounce back," Fisher told Fitzgerald, the SEC leader in the quarter-yard standing (3,130). "He participated in important matches."
Fitzgerald appeared to have bottomed last Saturday at LSU, a 19-3 victory for the No. 4 Tigers. He led all the riders with 131 yards in 23 races, but he only completed 8 of 24 passes and he 59 yards left with four interceptions.
"Three points, it's not going to cut it," said MSU coach Joe Moorhead, about the Bulldogs' overall offensive effort last week.
Moorhead replaced Dan Mullen, who defeated last winter in Florida, and just before MSU announced the hiring of Moorhead, Fitzgerald said that Moorhead had sent him a message by message, your ring size, you will need it. "
The Bulldogs, who left the top 25 of the AP after their double-digit failure at LSU, are far from this bravado, but they remain slightly favored at home compared to the Aggies, who are trying to win four consecutive games at home. the SEC. for the third time since joining the league in 2012.
The odds makers know what Fitzgerald has done to them in the past.
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