It’s not often a position battle wages into the second week of the season, but that’s exactly what’s been happening in Starkville over the past few weeks.

Mississippi State head coach Dan Mullen remains unable to decide on a primary place kicker between Westin Graves and Evan Sobiesk, who are deep in competition for the job dating back to the team’s training camp last month. Mullen had hoped to be able to decide on a kicker following the Bulldogs’ Week 1 game against Southern Miss last Saturday, but never got a good opportunity to assess both players.

Graves was 3-of-3 on extra points, and Sobiesk was 4-of-4. The Bulldogs only attempted one field goal for the game, a 40-yarder by Graves, but a bad snap inhibited Mullen from accurately evaluating the kicker or the kick.

“It’s pretty much where it was last week,” Mullen said of his kicking battle in his weekly press conference Tuesday. “They both went 4-for-5 in live situations (Monday) in practice so pretty much status quo at this point.”

It appears both Graves and Sobiesk will have another chance to impress the MSU coaching staff on Saturday against UAB, which allowed just 10 points to Troy last weekend. Mullen went with Graves for the team’s first field goal attempt of the season, but he has not indicated who will get the nod if the Bulldogs are able to attempt a field goal this weekend.

“It was good to get to see them both kick in a game and both get experience,” Mullen said. “That seemed to work for us last week so we might do that this week and see how the rest of the practice week goes.”

Sobiesk was 3-of-6 on field goals in 2013; Graves had never attempted a field goal at the college level before last weekend.