Wednesday Dawg Biscuits

Mississippi State wrapped up its practices on the farm and will move back to its regular practice fields today as school starts back. Check out the latest team and recruiting news in our daily biscuits.

Logan's first biscuit: Last night I spoke with Norcross four-star wide receiver Jason Croom. As you probably know, he will be announcing his decision Thursday before his first game and has two finalists - Mississippi State and Tennessee. He told me he'd already made his decision. When I asked him to tell me what he liked about those two schools he went on and on about Mississippi State and finished his quote without mentioning the Vols. I had to ask him what he liked about Tennessee specifically. Croom also told me he was the one who kept up the conversations with the Bulldogs and that his mom was the one speaking with Tennessee.

Bob's second biscuit: We reported where Dan Mullen said linebacker Brandon Maye has "a long way to go to get a spot," but I wanted to share a different perspective, particularly because Mullen was in a bad mood when he said that. We'll have more on the linebackers today, but here's what defensive coordinator Chris Wilson had to say about Maye: "I've been pleased with Brandon. Obviously, he's gotta get used to our culture and how we do things as far as tempo and energy and physicalness we play with, that's taking nothing from where he was at. But obviously when you change after five years, it's a bit of a transition, but he's doing really, really well."

Third biscuit: We talked to Mandeville, La., quarterback Matt Bergeron. He was the Most Valuable Player of some very exclusive camps this year. He called and talked to Dan Mullen and MSU is interested. He loves what MSU is doing right now and is very interested as well.

Bob's fourth biscuit: On another note about Mullen being critical, he has expressed his disappoint in the performance of the offense and did so again yesterday. However, sophomore running back LaDarius Perkins said he thinks the offense has done well. Mullen disagrees, but he does think the running backs have been fine. "Vick(Ballard has performed, I thought, at a really high level," Mullen said. "And LaDarius has really has picked up I think where he left off and it has continued to improve with those two. It's the third tailback that is the big question mark."

Logan's fifth biscuit: In talking with senior quarterback Chris Relf, I asked him what improvements he tried to make over the offseason after his first year as a starter. He said he mainly concentrated on his passing and worked out with the wide receivers three times a week. He credited his improvement throwing the football late in the season to the receivers. He also stated that it was good to have senior tight end Marcus Green back healthy and that Green has been catching a lot of balls.

Bob's gravy on top: Mullen also said he plans to get the special teams depth chart figured out on Friday in a big scrimmage. Mullen says he has "a pretty good handle" on who will do punt and kick returns, but he wants to try a few more people out who haven't done returns yet. I would expect that JUCO transfer cornerback Darius Slay is one of those guys. Mullen also said the field goal kickers are better, but admitted they really couldn't be much worse than that 1-for-8 showing in their first day on the farm.

The UPS Store of Starkville and the MSU Campus make the biscuits possible each and every morning. Stop by to see Mike and his staff on campus inside the Colvard Student Union or in town next door to Kroger. They can help you with all of your copying and shipping needs.