By JOEL COLEMAN
Starkville Daily News
This wasn’t exactly how Mississippi State quarterback Tommy Stevens drew things up.
The graduate transfer signal caller, who joined the Bulldogs prior to this season and won the job as the team’s starting signal caller, is continuing to battle a shoulder injury he first suffered on September 7 in the season’s second week. Stevens has now missed about eight quarters of action since going down with his ailment, including all of last weekend’s win over Kentucky.
As frustrating as it’s all been, you won’t find Stevens moping as he tries to fight his way back in time to play this coming weekend at Auburn.
“It could be a lot worse,” Stevens said on Tuesday after practice. “I’m not going to get into the, ‘Woe is me,’ or anything like that. It’s a violent, physical sport and things like this happen. I’m not mentally down or anything like that. It’s just the cards I’ve been dealt right now and I’ve got to find a way to overcome it.”
Stevens was first hurt against Southern Miss when he landed on his right shoulder. Prior to that, Stevens was off to a fantastic start to his MSU career. Stevens completed 29 of his first 40 passes this year (72.5 percent completion percentage). He threw for 341 yards and four touchdown without a single interception. He looked exactly like the type of passing threat MSU head coach Joe Moorhead wants out of his quarterback.
Stevens looked like a different guy after getting hurt however. Against Kansas State the following week, Stevens completed just seven of his 15 passes for 100 yards. He threw two picks. He was then removed in the third quarter of that game and hasn’t seen action since.
He didn’t even don his pads for the Kentucky game last weekend and instead watched true freshman Garrett Shrader make his first career start. If Stevens can’t go this weekend, Shrader will again be the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs against Auburn and if that’s the case, Stevens thinks State will be in great hands given what Shrader has already done this season.
“I think maturity-wise, he’s grown up fast,” Stevens said of Shrader. “He’s kind of been forced to. I think that goes right with his personality. I think the stage is never too big for Garrett and I think that’s a very good tool for him to have. Especially as a quarterback, he just has an unfazed attitude and nothing is really going to rattle him. As long as I’ve known Garrett, I’ve never really seen him rattled. It’s a great tool for him to have and he’s only going to continue to grow.
“He’s got a very bright future. I think he’s going to win a lot of football games here.”
However the door isn’t at all shut on Stevens making a return come Saturday. Both Stevens and Shrader practiced and got repetitions with the first-team offense on Tuesday. In that practice, Stevens seemingly made a strong case that he’s nearly back to being his old self.
“(Stevens) threw (Tuesday) in practice like he’d been throwing in camp and leading up to the game where he got injured,” Moorhead said on the Southeastern Conference coaches teleconference Wednesday. “I don’t want to say he’s completely healed or all of the effects are gone, but this is as good as he’s looked since prior to the injury.”
Stevens will have to continue proving he’s healthy in the days ahead if he hopes to return to the football field this weekend. Things still seem very much a fluid situation for the Bulldogs at quarterback.
The good news for State is that it appears, based on both guys’ production so far this season, there really is no bad choice that Moorhead could make. Both Shrader and Stevens have at points proven to be more than capable of being strong leaders of the MSU offense. So for now at least, it’s just a wait-and-see situation for Mississippi State in terms of who will be behind center come Saturday.
“We’re going to see how it goes (Wednesday and Thursday at practice) and then into Friday’s walkthrough and then make a decision from there,” Moorhead said.
The Starkville Daily News Bulldog Beat 