STARKVILLE — Jaden Walley felt out of shape in the summer swelter when the Mississippi State football team began training camp last August after a lengthy layoff caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twelve months later, he’s in the same situation — without the same feeling. Moving padless across the practice fields outside the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex, the sophomore wide receiver and his teammates seem as energized as they can be under the scorching sun.
“I know last year around this time I was almost dying, and this year I feel a lot better,” Walley said.
It’s the prevailing mood in Starkville after a valuable spring season on which the Bulldogs missed out in 2020 thanks to the nascent pandemic. Fall camp got underway Friday, and with less than four weeks to go until the 2021 season begins, Mississippi State no longer feels behind.
“It’s great to be back out here for sure,” head coach Mike Leach said Friday.
The Bulldogs’ first practice came with the typical “sloppiness” and “rustiness” of a first day but still delivered plenty of good signs for a Mississippi State team that went 4-7 last season. In practices Friday and Saturday, quarterbacks Will Rogers and Chance Lovertich looked solid, Walley and a pair of transfers will lead the way at wideout, and the offensive line has bulked up considerably to bolster a scoring unit that struggled for much of last season.
That’s not to mention a defense that looks even better than its respectable showing last season under coordinator Zach Arnett. Mississippi State lost some key contributors, but a strong linebacker corps and a far deeper secondary have the Bulldogs optimistic.
“I feel like it can be great,” junior safety Collin Duncan said. “I think it can be one of the great defenses here at Mississippi State.”
The Bulldogs fielded the No. 10 defense in the country under Joe Moorhead in 2018 and hope to reach that goal again this season. That won’t be easy against a schedule that features the likes of Alabama and LSU every year, but Arnett hopes his 3-3-5 scheme will compete with anyone in the Southeastern Conference.
With the shape Arnett’s defenders are in after months spent in strength and conditioning coach Tyson Brown’s weight room, it’s easy for the Bulldogs to dream.
“We’ve got the best strength coach in the country,” Arnett said. “He works the heck out of them all offseason and summer, and we’re fortunate enough we get to show up and they’re primed and ready to go start playing football.”
The same is true on the O-line, where position coach Mason Miller said all his principal linemen have crossed the 300-pound mark. Left tackle Charles Cross, a projected first-round pick, will lead the way on the line.
“I’ve been fortunate to be around some pretty good ones in recent years, and he’s no different,” Miller said.
Columbus native and East Mississippi Community College product LaQuinston Sharp received first-team reps at center Saturday with redshirt junior Cole Smith taking a back seat. Miller said the competition to start at the position is ongoing but praised the 6-foot-3 Sharp’s long-armed frame. Smith’s attacking mentality also can be a drawback, he said.
“We’re going to put the best five guys out there, and Cole is a headbanger going 100 miles per hour,” Miller said. “If you’re going to be at center, you’ve got to be a little more cerebral in what we’re doing.”
Whichever five players end up starting likely will be protecting sophomore Will Rogers, who received first-team reps Friday and Saturday with South Alabama transfer Chance Lovertich getting second-team snaps. Southern Miss grad transfer Jack Abraham warmed up Friday but did not participate in drills either day.
Leach praised the strides Rogers made over the offseason after stepping in for K.J. Costello midseason in 2020.
“I think leadership, he’s come a long, long way, as far as elevating the play of others,” Leach said. “He’s more consistent than he was starting as a true freshman without a spring. There’s plenty of progress to make, some of it is getting tuned in with your receivers.”
The talent in the group the Bulldogs have at wideout should help considerably. Walley set a Mississippi State freshman record in 2020 with 718 receiving yards, and Duncan — often matched up with the D’Iberville product in practice — said he should be one of the best receivers in the SEC.
Walley lauded the additions of Cal transfer Makai Polk and Washington State transfer Jamire Calvin, who knows Leach’s Air Raid offense quite well.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendous pickup for us with the speed, the talent, all the things they bring to the table,” Walley said. “I think it puts better depth on our roster.”
There’s certainly plenty of depth in the defensive backfield, with two standout cornerbacks, another impact transfer and considerable talent elsewhere. Junior Martin Emerson and sophomore Emmanuel Forbes Jr. will start at corner, while senior Fred Peters, redshirt junior Shawn Preston Jr., Duncan and Texas transfer Jalen Green will be among the leaders at safety and in the “Bulldog” role in the middle of the field.
And Mississippi State also has Janari Dean, Landon Guidry, C.J. Morgan and Londyn Craft — among others — ready to play roles in the secondary.
“That’s going to be tremendous,” Duncan said of the Bulldogs’ newfound depth. “We went from last year being one deep at almost every position to now being three or four deep at almost every position.”
But there are still strides to be made on both sides of the football. Arnett said the first couple days feature a lot of assignment work, while the heavier lifting — perhaps literally — will come down the road. The Bulldogs’ first practice in full pads will be Wednesday, another milestone as they progress toward their Sept. 4 season opener against Louisiana Tech.
“You really just get to see them run around, see how good a shape they’re in — or not in — coming out of the summer,” Arnett said. “We’ll evaluate them as football players here as we put pads on.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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