Auburn Football: 3 Takeaways from win over Mississippi State

3. Nick Fitzgerald is who we thought he was

Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald just may be who we thought he was. Fitzgerald had a nice season in 2016 throwing for 2400+ yards and a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio. He added over 1000 yards on the ground and sixteen more touchdowns while leading the Bulldogs to a lowly 6-7 record. Fitzgerald is a good quarterback who is a dual threat athlete but he’s not someone who can take over a game and dominate a season. Against top-level competition he’s been anything but spectacular so far.

Fitzgerald threw for a lowly 83 yards and two interceptions in a high-profile matchup against Jake Fromm and the Georgia Bulldogs. Against Auburn he averaged 4.8 yards per attempt and threw two interceptions. In 2016, Fitzgerald only threw for five yards per pass attempt against the LSU Tigers, threw two interceptions against BYU, threw for 4.3 yards per attempt against Alabama including an interception. For all of the yardage and touchdown type accolades Fitzgerald struggled when it counted the most. 2017 looks to be no different and it may just be a true test of who he is.

Dan Mullen got a lot out of Dak Prescott in his time at Mississippi State and we’ve seen his sudden success in the NFL. The 6-foot-5 Fitzgerald has NFL prototypical height, and he’s very athletic as well, but he and his Bulldogs need to show up in big games in order to keep him in the weekly conversation.