The fervor around Mississippi State football in Year 1 under Jeff Lebby was mostly a whisper by the fourth quarter of Week 4 in Davis Wade Stadium.
A prolific beatdown of FCS program Eastern Kentucky was followed by losses to Arizona State, Toledo and Florida. But something worse than falling to 1-3 had also happened.
Starting quarterback Blake Shapen’s first year with the Bulldogs was cut short after four games when he suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against the Gators. The Baylor transfer was forced to trade his helmet for a headset, but the experience changed his perspective.
“It gave me a different element,” Shapen said. “I’ve never sat on the sidelines and had to watch my own team play games.”
At Baylor, Shapen was always competing for the QB1 job, but in Starkville, he suddenly had to grapple with an inability to play. One thing that helped was mentoring the true freshman who had to take over the reins.
Michael Van Buren started the rest of the way for the Bulldogs, who limped to a 2-10 finish but never showed signs of quitting. His first start came on the road at then-No. 1 Texas, followed by games at No. 5 Georgia and then at home against No. 14 Texas A&M.
Shapen didn’t enjoy watching from the sidelines, but he knew he only had one way to help his team, and that was to do what he could to be there for his teammate.
The week of the Texas game, Shapen was in the building to begin his rehabilitation, but remained a part of the quarterback room and began coaching up Van Buren wherever he could offer advice.
“For me, the only option was to go help Mike out in the best way that I could,” he continued, “and that was me giving the knowledge that I had, or any questions that he had to ask, I just answered him and (was) there for him as his support system. That was the biggest thing for me, just to be able to support him.”
“I think you could see a lot about Blake when things happened the way they did for him last year, and how he took to Mike,” Lebby said. “How he tried to coach him and help him and mentor him and pull him along. To me, that showed exactly who Blake is. He’s done the exact same thing. He’s leading that room right now.”
New room, same goals
Once again, Shapen is first on the depth chart. Although Michael Van Buren and Chris Parsons both transferred, the quarterback room once again features an exciting true freshman in Kamario Taylor and a highly touted sophomore in Luke Kromenhoek.
“He’s trying to create the best room he possibly can, and that’s the fight for us every single day in that room,” Lebby continued. “The room right now, from a quarterback standpoint, is that it’s got a chance to be as good of a room as I’ve ever had. With that being said, there’s great leadership in that room, and we’ve got a guy that’s lived, done it, and it’s going to be a fifth year, senior year or two of the offense, and again, (we’re) excited about that.”
The young quarterbacks earned praise in the spring game, particularly the true freshman from Noxubee County, and Shapen sang their praises as teammates as well as talents.
“They’ve done awesome,” Shapen said. “Luke’s a great dude, came from Florida State, works hard. He’s probably one of my best friends on the team, so it’s been good. We’ve built a good relationship, and with Kamario, it’s the same thing. He’s one of my best friends on the team. For me, it’s just being able to help them out in any way that I can, both talented players and have a bright future ahead of them.”
Lebby’s high praise for the quarterback room is warranted, given the ceiling of both of the young guys, but he made it clear that he sees Shapen as a key to the team’s success in 2025. He’s not just the most experienced guy in the room, he’s the guy who has spent two years preparing to run Lebby’s offense.
“It’s a huge advantage (having someone who knows the offense),” Lebby said. “Inside this system, regardless of where I’ve been, who I’ve coached, you look at the quarterback in Year 2 of the system and it’s been a huge, huge jump. Again, through four games last year, we didn’t do what we needed to do while he was the starter, but you look at him statistically and from a production standpoint, that guy was playing pretty clean football. He’ll build on that in a great way, and we’re excited about that.”
While Shapen is still a competitor, not to mention the starter, he’s taken a liking to his new teammates and has once again embraced the responsibility that comes with leading the position group.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, they’re here to learn and get better, and obviously, whenever you come in, you want to compete, you want to be the guy, things like that,” he said. “But for me, I don’t look into all that stuff. For me, I’ve got to be the best that I can be each and every day, you know. Give them any type of knowledge that I have, and help them out.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
