STARKVILLE — There was an air of positivity from the Bulldogs after the clock hit zero in Hattiesburg on Saturday.
Mississippi State football had to stew on a 10-loss season for 274 days before it had a chance to play again, which made a 34-17 win against Southern Miss feel that much better.
Head coach Jeff Lebby and his team celebrated on Saturday, but when they woke up on Sunday, it was back to business.
“ We talked a ton, all fall camp, all summer, about Aug. 30 and being 1-0 when we were able to come back home for this stretch,” Lebby said on Monday. “Able to get that done, the locker room after the game was exactly how it should be. A ton of fun and now we’ve been able to put the game to bed and get ready to move on with a great opponent coming in Saturday night.”
The Bulldogs turn now to Arizona State, the reigning Big 12 champions, who were one blown coverage away from playing in the playoff semi-final against eventual national champions Ohio State in January.
Stop the run
Last year, the Bulldog defense got torched on the ground. Breakout running back Cam Skattebo ran for 262 yards and two touchdowns in the 30-23 win. MSU trailed 27-3 at halftime, and while there was a decent comeback effort, the inability to stop the run was damning.
While Skattebo is now playing on Sundays, the Sun Devils still have a similar approach with plenty of different weapons.
“We’re all aware, they’re going to try to run the football,” Lebby said. “That’s going to be a huge part of the game. We’ve got to do a great job of being incredibly sound and fitting tight, fitting fast, and then we’ve got to get a bunch of guys in the ball game. The backs have the ability to win in one-on-ones, and we’ve got to game-tack all of these guys.”
Backs Raleek Brown and Kyson Brown got the bulk of carries in ASU’s opening win against Northern Arizona on Saturday, with Kyson the joint leader in rushing at 73 yards along with quarterback Sam Leavitt.
Leavitt tallied two scores on the ground, including a 52-yard scramble from a broken pocket. His speed poses a real problem for the Bulldogs, who face a dual-threat for the second week in a row.
Defensively, ASU also returns most of its starters from the 2024 group that gave the Bulldogs fits. Even without Skattebo, the team is loaded with experience and proven talent from their playoff appearance a year ago.
“There’s going to be a ton of similarities from a schematics standpoint,” Lebby said of the Sun Devils. “You look at them defensively, ten back on defense, offense has a ton of returners, the entire offensive line, obviously the quarterback and receiver Jordyn Tyson, and they’ve got two backs that are really good, and we’ve got great familiarity with. Their unit is really dangerous on the offensive side of the ball, creates a bunch of explosive plays, got a QB that I think people think is as good as good as there is in America. They put those guys in positions of success, so we’ve got a great challenge.”
Clean football
The biggest point of emphasis as the Bulldogs continue to work on themselves this week will be the penalties.
The offense had two touchdowns called back for penalties, and another play deep into the red zone was called back as well. It was a factor in the team settling for field goals twice in the first half, and nearly thwarted the first drive of the second half as well.
“We had one in nine plays that had a penalty, over 120 yards eaten up from the penalty piece of it,” Lebby said. “The non-playing penalties have to come out of our game completely, and the playing penalties, we’ve got to play smarter and cleaner. So, constantly talking and teaching the fundamentals of how we do what we do will give us a chance to do that. But the non-playing penalties is truly just a matter of attention to detail pre-sna,p and we’re going to continue to stress that in a great way and make sure all of our guys know how important that is.
Home sweet home
MSU had an odd case of playing a nonconference opponent on the road to open the season. The Bulldogs have made a point of playing against Southern Miss again in recent years, and the Saturday matchup proved a success with more than 33,000 turning out in Hattiesburg.
This weekend, however, the Bulldogs are ready to be home, be under the lights, and take their shot at one of the preseason playoff hopefuls.
“The motivation is the fact that we’re walking into Davis Wade, a home opener,” Lebby said. “My expectation is that we’ve got the greatest atmosphere in all of the country here at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night. Our fanbase showing up, being loud, being early. And the expectation for our guys on defense is to go play at a level that gives us an opportunity to win. That’s how we’ve got to prepare every single day. That’s how we had to prepare today, this morning, as we cleaned the last game, and now moving on to Arizona State. Our guys understand the expectation, they understand the standards that we are creating on that side of the football, and I’m ready for the challenge.”
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