STARKVILLE — Braylon “Stonka” Burnside’s performance as a special teams gunner last fall was one of very few bright spots for Mississippi State. So much so that his performance practically begged the question: “What would that guy look like playing defense?”
Burnside was recruited out of Starkville High as a wide receiver, which made sense when the head coach has an offensive background like Jeff Lebby. The best all-around athletes are usually going to play on the head coach’s preferred side of the ball. But with the Bulldogs lacking in depth in the defensive backfield, Burnside has indeed switched sides for his sophomore season and is now working out at safety.
“It’s been pretty tough. Kind of hard transitioning from offense straight to defense,” Burnside said. “They try their best to keep me in shape and make sure they take care of my body, make sure I take care of my body as well.”
He was primarily a receiver in high school but played free safety at times, mostly in critical moments when Starkville needed its best playmakers on the field. Burnside decommitted from MSU in November 2023 but signed with the Bulldogs anyway after the coaching change. Even in a wide receivers room that dealt with injuries, suspensions and players opting to redshirt the season, Burnside had just one catch, which came in the season opener for minus-6 yards.
But toward the end of the season, he established himself as a special teams ace, with two tackles on punt coverage at Tennessee and two more special teams tackles — one on a punt and one on a kickoff — against Missouri. Even when he was not in on tackles, he was always flying around to the ball, making safety perhaps a better fit for him at this level.
“He’s done a really good job. What I love is he’s having fun doing it,” Lebby said. “That’s the exciting part for me because his ceiling, he doesn’t have one. For him to be able to be both feet in, excited as can be about having the opportunity to play safety, play defense, he’s ate up with it. Every rep he gets, he gets a little bit better. He’ll continue to need to operate that way. Excited about where he’s going.”
MSU has 13 safeties listed on its roster for the spring, including Burnside, but apart from reigning Southeastern Conference tackles leader Isaac Smith, only Brylan Lanier and Hunter Washington have significant experience with the Bulldogs. Tanner “Duke” Johnson could be in line for a bigger role, and Jahron Manning is coming off a strong season in 2024 at Old Dominion.
Still, there is enough depth on the roster for longer scrimmages. Lebby said MSU’s first scrimmage of spring ball had 160 snaps, whereas last year there were never more than 120.
“Having 40 extra snaps because of bodies, I talked about that a ton post-season (and) in the offseason, being able to practice the way we need to,” Lebby said. “Right now, we’ve done a good job of practicing the right way when we haven’t been live. We have to continue that, because we have to continue to get all the reps and all the work.”
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