STARKVILLE — The writing was on the wall before the season even started, when Mississippi State had a hard time attracting defensive players to Starkville in the transfer portal.
For most of this century, the Bulldogs have been blessed with NFL-caliber defensive linemen – seven of them are active on NFL rosters as of this week. But the pipeline has dried up in recent years, and a program known for its physicality and toughness up front has been overmatched at the line of scrimmage just about all year long.
Saturday may have been rock bottom. While not as bad as the Bulldogs’ mid-September blowout loss to Toledo, MSU allowed Arkansas – a team missing its top running back – to pick up nearly 10 yards per carry and rush for 359 yards overall in a 33-point rout.
“At no point in time will it ever be one person. Individually, (it’s about) being the best we can possibly be so that collectively we have the opportunity to go play the way we need to play,” Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby said Monday. “Getting back to playing with really clean eyes and having incredible communication will get us back to the way we played the three weeks prior (to the Arkansas game), and that is something we have to do.”
MSU (1-7, 0-5 Southeastern Conference) added just three transfer defensive linemen in the offseason, and only Sulaiman Kpaka has started every game. Kedrick Bingley-Jones has made four starts but has missed the last two games due to injury, and Anthony Johnson is no longer listed on the roster.
Veteran De’Monte Russell and redshirt freshman Trevion Williams were also out last week, and another redshirt freshman, Kalvin Dinkins, has not played since Week 1 and will miss the rest of his second straight injury-plagued season. That left Kpaka, Deonte Anderson and true freshman Kai McClendon as the starters in the Bulldogs’ three-man front.
“We’re trying to make sure we’re staying tight from a game plan standpoint,” Lebby said. “Trying to give our guys the ability to go play free and go play fast, and have clean eyes, we’re going to continue to do that.”
MSU also brought in just three defensive backs in the portal, and they have played in a combined four games. DeAgo Brumfield has started the last two weeks at cornerback, but Montre Miller and Tre Wright have battled injuries and barely seen the field at all.
Struggles attracting transfers and injuries are hardly the only reasons the Bulldogs’ defense has bottomed out under first-year coordinator Coleman Hutzler, but the numbers speak for themselves. MSU is dead last among 134 FBS teams in opponents’ completion percentage and sack rate, and in the bottom 10 in first downs allowed per game, total yards allowed per game, yards allowed per rushing attempt and yards allowed per pass attempt.
“When we’re making an adjustment on the sideline after somebody’s done something that we haven’t seen on tape, we get over, we teach it, we correct it in the moment,” Lebby said. “We have to be able to take that meeting, which is literally a meeting in between drives, and then be able to go apply it. We have to be able to do that from the sideline to the field even though you’re not getting another rep of it like you would in practice.”
Scouting Massachusetts
The Minutemen (2-6) are visiting Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday to complete a three-game agreement originally signed in 2015, after the Bulldogs defeated UMass at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, in 2016 and in Starkville the following year.
One of three remaining FBS independents, the Minutemen have not won more than four games in a season since moving to the FBS level in 2012. Head coach Don Brown is in his third season in Amherst, and his team is coming off a 35-7 win last week over Wagner. Both UMass wins have come against FCS opponents, with Central Connecticut State falling to the Minutemen on Sept. 21. Neither team, then, has beaten an FBS school this year.
UMass and the Bulldogs do have a common opponent in Toledo. The Rockets defeated the Minutemen 38-23 on Sept. 7, a week before they throttled MSU 41-17. The Bulldogs are the second of three SEC opponents UMass faces this season – Missouri routed the Minutemen 45-3 in Amherst on Oct. 12, and UMass will visit Georgia on Nov. 23.
“These guys have played in some close ball games,” Lebby said. “When they’ve played good opponents, they’ve played better. They’re coached by a guy who has had a ton of success as a coordinator and a guy who has coached and seen a lot of football. I would expect them to be at their very best on Saturday as they come down here. We’re going to need to be at ours.”
For the second straight week, MSU will face a mobile quarterback after Arkansas’ Taylen Green shredded the Bulldogs for 393 all-purpose yards and six touchdowns en route to SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Taisun Phommachanh has been solid with his arm but even better with his legs, though he has been sacked 24 times. With sacks removed, Phommachanh has 419 rushing yards on 77 carries with three touchdowns. His top receiving target by far is Jakobie Keeney-James, who has 32 catches for 566 yards and three scores.
“We have to get (Phommachanh) on the ground when we have opportunities,” Lebby said. “Contain rushers contain, chase players chase, quarterback players play the QB. (We need to) do those things at a really high level.”
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