Meet the Man Who Holds the Key to Dak Prescott's Heisman Campaign

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Rufus Warren is a marked man this season, and he knows it.

Wearing No. 77, the Mississippi State senior is a first-time starter—one of three on the offensive line—and playing a crucial role on the 2015 Bulldogs: left tackle.

That means his primary responsibility is to protect Dak Prescott’s blind side. With the quarterback who finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting last year as the undeniable key to MSU’s success this season, one could argue that Warren is therefore the most important player on the roster.

If that doesn’t put enough pressure on his shoulders, consider that Warren is a converted tight end.

“When you got a guy like Dak behind you, yeah,” Warren said. “Every freaking snap you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I just have to make sure that my man doesn’t even get close to him.’ 

“That’s what makes it good and fun, but it’s also a lot of pressure. It’s a pressure that I want.”

Fittingly, when Warren was recruited out of Gentry High School in Indianola, Miss., it was more for his potential than anything else. Rated by 247Sports as the 40th-best prospect at tight end and 25th-best player in his home state, he arrived in Starkville as a 6’5”, 238-pound project.

After redshirting, he spent the next two years working his way up to playing maybe 10-15 plays a game—mostly on special teams—and caught the only pass thrown his way for a 23-yard gain.

The thing was, Warren was still growing and filling out. The scale continued to rise up to 240, 250, 260...

“He was underdeveloped when he got here as a recruit,” offensive line coach John Hevesy said. “I told him about three years ago if he keeps eating he’ll end up in my room and he was like, ‘No, I’m not.’”

When Warren got to the point that it was a challenge for him to keep his weight near 270 pounds, the coaches gave him a choice. He could continue to fight against his natural body size at tight end or try playing on the offensive line and probably have a better shot at eventually starting.

Knowing that Blaine Clausell’s third season starting at left tackle in 2014 would also be his last, Warren agreed to the switch and to serve as an understudy for a year.

Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press

“It just kind of became a situation for us where you’re almost fighting the inevitable,” head coach Dan Mullen said. “Instead of trying to make him lose this weight and stay as small as he can to remain at tight end, [we said] “Hey, go have another burger at lunch or eat a biscuit at breakfast and go play left tackle.”

Warren’s now listed at 6’7” and 299 pounds without looking heavy. He played in all 13 games as a reserve last season—including some at right tackle—and in addition to doing a lot of film study, he continues to pick the brains of his predecessors about what to look for and expect.

Like with most first-time starters, his debut was a bit of a mixed bag last Saturday against Southern Miss.

He had the key block on what should have been a 10-yard touchdown run by Ashton Shumpert, only the running back fumbled into the end zone for an early turnover.

When pulling, which is more typical of an interior lineman, Warren contributed to both a 35-yard run by Brandon Holloway and 49-yard carry by Prescott.

However, late in the second quarter on 3rd-and-11 at the MSU 10-yard line, he was bull-rushed by Ja'Boree Poole, a 6’2”, 250-pound defensive lineman who sacked Prescott from behind.

In the third quarter, he got beat on the outside by linebacker Darian Yancey, who subsequently flushed Prescott out of the pocket. The quarterback tried to force a bad pass over the middle that came very close to being a pick-six.

Mississippi State finished with 205 rushing yards and 237 passing yards, and the line was flagged just twice—both holding calls, but neither on Warren—despite being on the road. Prescott didn’t necessarily play like a top Heisman candidate during the 34-16 victory, but he also didn’t take too many hits.

“I think all them improved very alike during the course of the game,” Mullen said about the new starters. “Hopefully I’ll see huge improvement this week because now they’re used to what game situations are like, making adjustments, talking on the sideline and playing. A lot of times at practice you have a bad play, you can do it over if something goes wrong.”

“To be honest with you, from start to finish I thought all three of the starters handled the situation very well. We can play a lot better.”

It’s kind of crucial with the upcoming schedule. Although Warren is really looking forward to facing Missouri because of the Tigers’ reputation for having a strong defensive line in the past couple of years, next up on the schedule is LSU on Saturday (8:15 p.m. CT, ESPN).

Two weeks later, Mississippi State begins a nasty back-to-back road swing through Auburn and Texas A&M. The Tigers notched four sacks against Louisville and the Aggies had nine against Arizona State.

So junior Jamaal Clayborn may be new at center and junior Devon Desper has taken over at right guard, but there’s little doubt who will be challenged the most: the former tight end.

“To me, it’s much easier,” Warren said about his position change. “At tight end, I have to know what the receiver’s doing, what the running back is doing, while with the O-line it’s just strictly learning how to protect Dak and [my assignments]. It’d definitely easier and it’s fun.”

Quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Christopher Walsh is a lead SEC college football writer. Follow Christopher on Twitter @WritingWalsh.