Saturday evening turned into Sunday morning to begin the 2022 Mississippi State football season. Despite a two-hour weather delay, the Bulldogs trounced Memphis, 49-23.

Here are some of the takeaways from the Bulldogs’ season-opening victory.

A lot had been said and written during the offseason about how the Bulldogs will look offensively in year three under Mike Leach. Looking at game one, it seems they have improved.

While just the opening contest is a very small sample size, the comparisons between this year’s meeting with Memphis and last year’s can illustrate this point.

Saturday night in Starkville, the Bulldogs racked up 547 total yards—450 through the air and 97 on the ground—while totaling 34 first downs.

Compare that to 2021 in Memphis, where State accumulated 468 total yards—419 passing and 49 rushing—with 26 first downs. Between the two, State totaled 79 more yards while moving the sticks an additional eight times.

State had a much greater ground presence on Saturday than they did a season ago. The Bulldogs ran the ball 17 more times for 59 more yards. While the Bulldogs’ average yards per rush decreased from last year’s contest, incorporating the run more often could lead to better offensive performances.

The offense goes as far as the quarterback does, and Will Rogers showed some significant forward progress. Last night, the junior signal caller completed 38 passes on 49 attempts (77.6%) for 450 yards, five touchdowns, and an interception while averaging 11.8 yards per completion.

As a sophomore in 2021, Rogers completed 50 of his 67 passes (74.6%) for 419 yards and three touchdowns with an average of 8.4 yards per completion.

Despite completing 12 fewer passes on 18 fewer attempts, Rogers gained 31 yards and increased his yards-per-completion average by 3.4 yards from a year ago. He is progressively becoming more comfortable throwing the ball downfield, and his completion percentage increased while doing so.

Mississippi State’s defensive unit under Zach Arnett has been stout over the last couple seasons, and through one game, it seems as if that trend could continue.

Memphis was completely swallowed up by the Bulldog defense in the first half. State held the Tigers to just 29 total yards and a whopping two rushing yards. Memphis got a first down on their first possession of the game, which would be the only time they moved the sticks in the first half of action.

MSU’s lead extended to 35-3 in the 3rd quarter, which prompted most of the second-team defense to enter the game. Memphis was able to move the ball more effectively against the backups, but they were ultimately held to under 300 total yards with just 13 first downs. All in all, it was a very solid day from Arnett’s group.

Coming into this season, most expected Arizona to be one of the worst teams in college football. The Wildcats had totaled just one win over the last two years. However, after the first week, that may not be the case.

Despite being a six-point underdog at San Diego State, Arizona left California with a 38-20 victory. One of the Aztecs’ touchdowns came on a self-inflicted wound by the Wildcats, when they punted the ball into the rear end of their own player, resulting in an SDSU score.

Excluding that blunder, Arizona put on an impressive performance. State will have a greater challenge than most would’ve probably expected when they travel to the desert.