We’re moving our notes over from Chomp and Cheer to We Like Sports! Here are notes taken live during Dan Mullen’s press conference with the media on September 24th, 2018. News and notes are expected to cover the the game week leading up to Mississippi State. Apologies for any spelling errors or related – I’ll do my best to go back and correct later:

If you go on the road and get a big win, most of the time you come home and have to get ready to play someone even better. That’s the way this league works.

Made a lot of good plays against Tennessee. We have some things we need to fix this week and become more consistent. Big plays and physical toughness were good, but it needs to be consistent.

Mental toughness and focus begins again today. We have continued to make progress and take steps each week so far, will want to do the same this week.

Has a better standing of the personnel on the team (Mississippi State) than previous opponents, obviously. Has to play a lot more physical than we played before to beat them and their play makers.

Some attention will be on Mullen this week with him going back to MS, but he doesn’t feel there will be much attention on him. They’re going against a team a lot of people could be a top 10 team by the end of the season, so all the hype and attention will be on the game.

The people of Starkville will always great to Mullen and his family. Incredible fan support who bought into their program and their system – started selling out games and making the team better with a strong community around it.

Biggest adjustment to living in Mississippi was (jokingly) probably more on his wife having to do more online shopping than she can here and other places.

Spent 9 years helping create the atmosphere there so now gets to see what it is like on the other side. That’s pretty exciting and will be fun to see and compete against.

Tells how they were able to get approval for the cowbell to be brought into the stadium for the home games and the rules they made around it.

Asked if he will be booed when he gets back? *smiles* ‘What do you think?’ – knows it will be a great atmosphere and that through all their passion he knows they appreciate him and his staff for what he was able to do for the program.

Thinks the Mississippi State defensive line is one of the best in America with some really great depth. Could even be three deep at times that will always keep fresh legs on the field for them. Sure some guys are electric and you need to know when they are on the field, but great talent fills that roster and we have to meet that challenge. Our offensive line needs to be physical.

Knows he recruited really competitive guys at MS and that they will do everything they can to win at home.

Remembers playing Florida in 2009 – Banks picked off Tebow for a couple pick-six’s. ‘It;s hard to say you can benefit from a loss, but competing with #1/2 Florida really showed our guys we can hang with the best in the country.

Similar to back in 2009, you know the personnel from the other team, so it certainly helps to be able to pick up eccentricities. Fitzgerald is a talented guy with a lot of experience. He has a huge arm and can make several throws. You have to be able to contain him as well because he is deceptively fast, but will also plow you over if you let him put his pads down. So we are asking our defense to cover someone who can both beat you down the field and with his feat.

Will simulate crowd noise again this week, maybe some ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ and cowbells. Thought they handled it well last week in Tennessee.

Have changed schemes a little this year, mostly signals and play-names. Their will be some comfort for them in seeing what we run on offense and defense because they all saw it last year. but we will be ready for that too.

Thought we were better on offense but need to be more consistent. Gave great effort on a lot of plays but that needs to become the norm on every snap.