ESPN (Alex Scarborough) article on MSU

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Mississippi State has long been a team that likes to run the football and control the clock, but today both sides of the ball are working at a full sprint. The NASCAR offense, as coaches call it, is in full effect. There's almost no break between plays. The first series is over before there's even time to measure it by hand. Ready for the second series, the average time between the blow of the whistle and the snap clocks in at roughly 19 seconds.

Players aren't the only ones running. Coaches are, too. Defensive coordinator Geoff Collins waves his hands like a man possessed and screams at his cornerback to, "Crank your a-- up!" before he's dropped to the scout team.

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But rather than ask his defense to play under control in the face of such quickness, he's having them try to match the energy and deliver even more. He's hoping his guys will play with reckless abandon. Jumping, shouting and dancing on the football field is encouraged, if not mandatory. Talking smack is condoned and acting like a lunatic is rewarded. Collins doesn't want a spark -- he wants fireworks.

It's all part of a program he and a quality control staffer started this summer. "Juice Points," they call it, measures the amount of energy each player brings to practice. In the same way tackles and interceptions are measured, so are high-fives and fist bumps.

"We're just trying to create a little excitement, a little energy at practice," Collins said, "We wanted to find a way to reward the kids who brought some juice to practice."

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With fifth-year senior Tyler Russell back under center and LaDarius Perkins entrenched at tailback, Mullen feels good about his offense. What he sees on the other side of the football is encouraging, too. Collins, he said, is giving him exactly what he hoped for when he promoted him to defensive coordinator during the offseason.

"He knows what I want from defense," Mullen said. "When I turn on the film, I want to see 11 guys playing with a lot of energy, playing with a lot of excitement and running to the ball. I want to play an aggressive style of defense, and that doesn't mean we're just blitzing every play. An aggressive style of defense means we're running to the ball and getting there with bad intentions."

McKinney looks like a man with a mean streak. The sophomore middle linebacker burst onto the scene last year as a freshman, breaking the 100-tackle mark on his way to becoming one of just three underclassmen named to the Bednarik Award watch list this preseason."He's 6-5. He's 246. He runs a 4.5. He jumps 38 inches. He's a great player, but he's a better person. He's intelligent, he's caring, he's energetic. He's the prototypical person you want to draw up to coach."

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