6 questions I still have as Mississippi State enters the offseason
Mike Leach is entering his 3rd season as Mississippi State’s head coach.
The Bulldogs return 8 starters on offense and 8 starters on defense from a bowl team last season.
So Leach is establishing some consistency, but State does have its fair share of uncertainty coming out of spring practice, which concluded Tuesday.
He and his staff have plenty of time to sort out the remaining position battles before Memphis shows up in Starkville for the season opener Sept. 3.
But there is still sorting out to be done.
Here are 6 questions I still have as Mississippi State enters the offseason:
1. Who are going to be the tackles?
Leach recently called the offensive line “a work in progress,” which primarily means identifying the successors to left tackle Charles Cross, who’s headed to the NFL, and right tackle Scott Lashley, who ran out of eligibility.
The key is finding the 5 best players and periodic absences due to nicks required some shuffling along the line during the spring.
Leach has praised JUCO transfer Percy Lewis, sophomore Albert Reese IV and versatile veterans Kwatrivous Johnson, Kameron Jones and Nick Jones as tackle candidates.
Lewis is still learning, but he has helped himself by losing some 35 pounds and hopes to drop another 15 or so. If he does he could be the starter on the left side.
Reese has shown a lot of improvement from his freshman season when he was Lashley’s understudy, but Middle Tennessee State transfer Steven Losoya could push him.
2. Who will be the primary playmakers among the wide receivers?
State has a lot of productivity returning, but Leach uses a bunch of receivers and likes them to be interchangeable, so roles are yet to be finalized.
In addition the Bulldogs have to replace Makai Polk, who set school records in his 1 season last year, as well as fellow starter Malik Heath, who transferred to Ole Miss.
The returnees who were most productive last season were Jaden Walley, who is explosive, and Austin Williams, who has one trait lacking in many of the other competitors – consistency.
They should be the leaders in reps.
Leach has cited inconsistency as a factor slowing the development of receivers such as Caleb Ducking, Lideatrick Griffin, Rufus Harvey, Antonio Harmon, Rara Thomas, and Jamire Calvin.
Two transfers – Justin Robinson (Georgia) and Jordan Mosley (Northwestern) – had catching up to do mentally during the spring and could accelerate their development during the summer.
3. Can DeShawn Page steal a starting spot among the linebackers?
State has 3 solid, experienced linebackers in Nathaniel Watson, Tyrus Wheat and Jett Johnson.
Defensive coordinator Zach Arnett has said the veterans’ track record has allowed younger players to get more developmental reps in the spring and Page, who played in every game last season as a reserve and special-teams contributor, in particular, took advantage.
Arnett said the veterans “better be ready because DeShawn is ready to take some reps away from them with the way he’s playing.”
4. Will there be a newcomer in the mix at safety?
The Bulldogs lost starting safety Fred Peters from last season and they have 3 returning seniors with lots of experience – Jalen Green, Collin Duncan and Shawn Preston.
But can an experienced newcomer – former West Virginia DB Jackie Matthews – or an up-and-coming returnee – second-year safety Corey Ellington – claim a spot in the first unit?
5. Can CB Emmanuel Forbes mitigate the loss of Martin Emerson?
State is optimistic that Forbes can ascend to Emerson’s role as the No. 1 cornerback, but can he be as good and can his successor as the other starter be as a good a complement to him as he was to Emerson?
Forbes has 8 interceptions as a Bulldog, and his 3 returns for touchdowns are the most in FBS.
Highly touted JUCO transfer and converted quarterback DeCarlos Nicholson, veteran Decamerion Richardson, who had a strong spring, and Alabama transfer Marcus Banks are battling it out.
6. Who will be the kicker?
Two newcomers are vying to be the kicker, but Leach has said that regardless of which one wins, “It’s a lot better than last year.”
MSU missed 11 field-goal attempts last season, the most in the country and by far the most in the SEC. They made just 14-of-25.
The impact was significant last season, but Coastal Carolina transfer Massimo Biscardi and Northern Colorado transfer Ben Raybon both appear capable of providing a solid upgrade.
The place-kicking and kickoff duties are both open and it’s possible the 2 kickers could split the duties.
1. This is the only real question that needs answering. The answer is they won’t be quite as good. Cross was a killer and irreplaceable.
2. Griffin, RaRa, Calvin, and Rufus should seamlessly step in. I’m super excited about Griffin getting more touches. RaRa was beating out Malik Heath by the end of the year, so that’s simple. And, Walley is plenty good enough to be the one.
3. Probably not. This is the deepest part of our team.
4. I expect Peters and Preston to be the starters, but I honestly don’t know about the new guys.
5. I’ve always thought Forbes was a better cb than Emmerson. Emmerson was so physical around the line of scrimmage and we will probably miss that. I’m hoping Banks is better than we realize.
6. Anyone will be better than what we had last year.
“So Leach is establishing some consistency”. The only consistency, to this point, is inconsistency. One week they look formidable, the next week they get blown out. He had one fewer loss last year than the first, and he had 3-4 cupcakes to pad the record that he didn’t have in 2020.
Paul Finebaum, lookout! This guy wants your job.
Other than Alabama and Georgia (and OM’s unusually good season last year), what mid-teir SEC team doesn’t look formidible one week and then lose the next? That’s what makes the SEC the SEC.
You’re good at framing things a certain way. Only thing is, we played 11 games in 2020. 13 in 2021. His win % went from 36% to 54%. There’s a big difference between saying that and only “one fewer loss”.
Also – the only time we got blown out in the regular season last year was when we played bama, thank you very much. We were exactly 8 points away from a 10-2 season, with an arguably tougher schedule than OM, who also got blown out by bama in case you forgot.
I always get a kick out of people underestimating us, so keep it coming.
8 points away? You do realize those still count as losses, right? Memphis says hi.
Anybody who actually watched that game knows we didn’t lose to Memphis fair and square. Should we have won 56-7? Yes. But did we lose 56-7? (THAT would be a blowout loss.) No. I’ll help you out on the math: 8/3 = 2.67, (that’s the average for the 3 games we lost that kept us from going 10-2 by the way) Where I’m from we don’t call those blowout losses.
Based on that being all you could say, you seem to realize you’re losing this argument. I never said they weren’t losses. You just didn’t fact check to see that we were not blown out multiple times as you stated.
For future reference, ESPN has great resources for finding scores, yards per game in passing/rushing for college football games. If one was to look at that, they would find that our passing game last year was in fact more “consistent” than in 2020. You’re welcome :)
Also, don’t ever pick on a state fan for having poor reading comprehension again. Where did I say the games we lost by a combined total of 8 points weren’t losses? Or give any indication that I thought that? Nowhere.
I hate to break it to you man, we were really bad the past 2 years and it’s not likely we’re very much improved this year. I’d guess another season of some where between 4-8 to 7-5.
1. Name a more experienced coach Mississippi State could secured. 2. Name a better recruiter they could have brought to Starkville 3. If Leach retires next year will he leave MSU looking like a more modern competitive program or was Mullen the better poster boy. 4. What coach can find uniquely qualified winners to score more points every Saturday than Leach at MSU? No realistic fan is going to want MSU to start trying to find a replacement for Leach and expect the 2022 timing of that to do anything but hurt MSU football.