Mississippi State has already hit the field this season, coming away with a dominating 63-6 win over Stephen F. Austin last weekend in front of the friendly confines of Starkville’s Davis Wade Stadium, but the team did so without the services of starting quarterback Nick Fitzgerald. The MSU team captain was suspended for the game following an unspecified team violation back in the spring.

In his absence, backup quarterback Keytaon Thompson scored seven touchdowns, and the defense was incredible in Bob Shoops’ debut coordinating the unit. This week, the competition takes a big step up as Mississippi State travels to Kansas State.

While Fitzgerald’s teammates have already hit the field, the Hail State captain admitted, in some sense, this game feels like an opening weekend to him.

“Yeah, in a way, it does feel like Week 1 for me. In another way, I know it’s Week 2. We had a great win last week, and I just want to build off of that,” Fitzgerald said during his latest media availability.

As noted, Mississippi State’s defense was in midseason form Week 1 against Stephen F. Austin. There’s probably a good explanation for that, Shoop’s defense faced Fitzgerald all week in practice. While he was out, Joe Moorhead put Fitzgerald on the scout team all week.

“It was rough. I take full responsibility for the reason why I was out,” Fitzgerald said. “I embraced my role as scout team quarterback and when I was in, just trying to give the defense the best look I possibly could. Make sure that hopefully I was doing it better than their quarterback was so they had a harder look in practice than they did in the game. Just kind of embraced that leadership role.”

Saturday won’t only be the first time Fitzgerald takes the field, it will be the first time he’s hit since last Thanksgiving. The Mississippi State signal caller admitted he’s not seen contact since the Egg Bowl when he dislocated his foot.

Naturally, there could be some nerves there, but Fitzgerald downplayed that talk.

“Nah, no. Not nervous at all,” he said. “I just know how sore I’m going to be the next day with my body not having gone through any contact yet.”

That soreness will likely be negated if Mississippi State returns to Starkville a victor after winning a big non-conference game against Big 12 opponent Kansas State.