STARKVILLE — The hardest part for Trevion Williams was just remaining positive.
One of the crown jewels in Mississippi State’s 2022 recruiting class, the defensive lineman made three appearances as a true freshman to keep his redshirt status intact, then started strong last season with 1.5 tackles for loss in Week 2 against Arizona. But the following week against LSU would be his last game of the year, as a knee injury cost him the final nine games of his redshirt freshman campaign.
“Happy to be back out with the boys,” Williams said this week. “The toughest thing was keeping a positive mindset and knowing that I’d be back out soon, and just not to rush the process.”
A top-10 player in Mississippi for his class according to 247Sports and Rivals, Williams chose the Bulldogs over the likes of Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU and Auburn. And after losing Jaden Crumedy and Nathan Pickering from its defensive front, MSU will need Williams to showcase some of that potential this fall.
The Bulldogs also get back Kalvin Dinkins, another defensive lineman who made his collegiate debut in the season opener last year against Southeastern Louisiana but missed the rest of the year with an ankle injury.
“They’ve been right on schedule,” defensive line coach David Turner said. “They’re eager to get back and I’m eager to get those guys back, and hopefully we can keep them healthy. They’re progressing well, they’re running, they’re doing football-related agility (drills), so the deal now is to get them back out there, get them acclimated and go from there.”
Sixth-year De’Monte Russell is MSU’s most experienced face on the defensive line, and Deonte Anderson is coming off a productive 2023 season. The Bulldogs also brought in Sulaiman Kpaka from Purdue and Kedrick Bingley-Jones from North Carolina in the transfer portal.
But this is a program accustomed to having future NFL stars in its defensive front, and Williams has as much raw talent as anybody in the room.
“(Dinkins and I) most definitely kept each other motivated,” Williams said. “We just talk positively to each other — ‘It’s not going to be long before we’re back out there.’ So we just did our rehab, the treatment and all the things we needed to do to get back feeling good.”
Williams was not taking first-team snaps when the Bulldogs opened fall camp on Aug. 1, with Russell, Kpaka and Bingley-Jones forming the starting defensive line. He mentioned freshman Kai McClendon as a player who has caught his attention during the first week of training camp, and MSU needs as many fresh bodies as possible considering how many new faces will be playing critical snaps.
The defense as a whole may end up with just one returning starter — safety Corey Ellington — but head coach Jeff Lebby said that group has been the stronger side of the ball this week in practice. The Bulldogs worked out in full pads for the first time Wednesday and will hold their first scrimmage of the preseason at Davis Wade Stadium on Sunday.
“Defensively, (we’re seeing) a lot of really good things,” Lebby said. “Creating turnovers, having unbelievable energy and toughness and physicality. That’s what we want to see. You want to see things not go well and then somebody respond, and you also want to see true back-and-forth. But (defensive coordinator) Coleman (Hutzler) and the defensive staff have done a great job with those guys getting them ready to practice every day.”
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