STARKVILLE — Football season has arrived.
Kind of.
Mississippi State will open its fall camp Friday night as the Bulldogs begin final preparations for the 2019 season.
With question marks abound, there are a few key position groups worth keying in on during the lead up to the season opener Aug. 31 against Louisiana in New Orleans.
Here are three to be wary of over the next few weeks:
Quarterback
It’s no secret MSU will break in a new quarterback this fall. Though coach Joe Moorhead has said it will be an open competition for the starting job, the obvious frontrunners are Penn State transfer Tommy Stevens and junior incumbent Keytaon Thompson.
Thompson left the spring competition with freshmen Jalen Mayden and Garrett Shrader as the No. 1 quarterback, though Stevens didn’t make his transfer announcement until May 17.
In 19 career appearances, Thompson is 50-of-105 with 846 yards passing and eight touchdowns. He has also added 672 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground.
Stevens is the more dynamic athlete of the two having played everything from quarterback to receiver during his time at Penn State. In 23 games he was 24-of-41 for 304 yards and four touchdowns through and notched another 506 yards and eight touchdowns rushing and 14 receptions for 62 yards and two touchdowns receiving.
Moorhead has not put a set date on his competition but has said he would prefer to announce his Week One starter at least 10 days ahead of the Louisiana game.
Defensive line
The MSU defensive line isn’t so much a competition as it is a question of who will take a step forward.
With the departures of Montez Sweat and Jeffery Simmons, the Bulldogs must replace two first round picks in the trenches.
Chauncey Rivers and Marquiss Spencer are the most likely candidates to fill the void left by Sweat.
A one time Georgia player, Rivers spent a year at East Mississippi Community College before playing sporadically last season. He notched 24 tackles, seven for a loss, and 2.5 sacks in 2018. The media voted Rivers as a preseason third-team All-SEC member during SEC Media Days last month.
Spencer is a bit more of an unknown. He returns to the field following an upper-body injury that forced him to miss all but four games last year. Spencer set career highs in tackles and tackles for a loss as a sophomore and was well on his way to doing so again before going down.
Beyond the defensive end spots, seniors Lee Autry and Kendell Jones should help fill Simmons’ slot inside. Autry is a likely start at nose guard after taking second team reps behind Simmons last season while Jones is another big body in the interior that can aid in run defense.
Jones did suffer an upper-body injury during spring camp that may limit him in the immediate future.
Freshman four-star recruit Nathan Pickering could factor into the rotation as well given his blue chip pedigree and that Jones and Autry are the only upperclassmen defensive tackles on the roster.
Wide receiver
Though the Bulldogs’ inability to throw downfield in 2018 is an overblown narrative at this point, departed quarterback Nick Fitzgerald wasn’t exactly helped by his receiving corps’ uncanny propensity for drops last season.
Senior Stephen Guidry entered his first season in Starkville with palpable hype as the nation’s No. 1 junior college receiver. He delivered to a degree, leading MSU with 470 yards receiving.
But it wasn’t all positive for Guidry in year one. He was a major culprit of the aforementioned drops — most notably he bobbled a ball that Iowa defensive back Jake Gervase snagged to help the Hawkeyes win the Outback Bowl.
Kansas State transfer Isaiah Zuber is an interesting piece that Moorhead expects to move inside and outside of the formation. In 38 games with the Wildcats he notched 1,321 yards and 11 touchdowns receiving.
Zuber and senior Deddrick Thomas could make an intriguing tandem out of the slot as Stevens or Thompson take the reigns behind center.
Junior Osirus Mitchell should give the Bulldogs some much needed size on the outside after finishing with 427 yards and four receiving touchdowns last season.
Starkville native Cameron Gardner is another receiver who could see his role increased after a solid spring camp while incoming recruits JaVonta Payton, Quinton Torbor and Kyziah Pruitt could be called upon in the early going as well.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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