Mississippi
Unpacking Mississippi State football’s puzzling slow starts in Jeff Lebby’s offense
KNOXVILLE — The second play of Saturday’s game is one that irks Mississippi State football coach Jeff Lebby.
MSU (2-8, 0-6 SEC) started with the ball for the 10th time this season, needing to make a splash on the road to silence Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium crowd. Tight end Seydou Traore broke loose 20 yards up the seam on second-and-11, but freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. threw an uncatchable pass high and wide of him. Another incompletion on the next play resulted in a three-and-out punt.
From there, Tennessee (8-1, 5-1) took the ball right down the field for a 7-0 lead on the way to a 33-14 victory.
Slow starts have been an issue, and don’t appear to be getting fixed.
“For us, there’s no explosive plays,” Lebby said. “Everything for us, as we’ve gotten started, we’ve had some negative plays and then it’s been very grind. We have to have the ability to throw and catch on a couple of these first- and second-down plays on the first two drives.”
What the numbers say of Mississippi State’s early-game offense
Mississippi State has scored first three times in 10 games this season. Two of those were opening-drive touchdowns. MSU has held two halftime leads this season, none of them in conference play.
In Mississippi State’s 10 opening drives, it has scored two touchdowns, had six three-and-out punts and two turnovers.
Mississippi State is averaging 2.7 points in first quarters against FBS opponents, 122nd in the country, according to teamrankings.com. Meanwhile, the defense is allowing 9.1 points in first quarters, 125th in the country, so MSU is essentially playing from behind early in every game.
“I’m not really too sure,” running back Davon Booth said after a season-high 125 rushing yards. “I think it’s just a lot of critical errors from (ourselves), a lot of simple mistakes, but we’re going to pick it up.”
Jeff Lebby didn’t have issues with slow starts at Oklahoma
At Oklahoma, where Lebby was the offensive coordinator in 2023 before being hired by the Bulldogs, the Sooners didn’t have an issue with slow starts. Oklahoma scored seven opening-drive touchdowns in 12 regular season games, punted four times and had one turnover. In those seven touchdowns, Oklahoma had five drives with a play of at least 30 yards.
Lebby is right about MSU missing explosive plays.
The Bulldogs only have three plays of at least 30 yards in first quarters this season. Two of them have been on opening drives, the two possessions when they’ve scored touchdowns.
What’s next for Mississippi State football
Mississippi State has an open week before its final home game of the season against Missouri (7-2, 3-2) on Nov. 23.
“Film, film, film,” Booth said. “Got to get going. We have Missouri this next week and they’re a good team, so I’m just going to watch a lot of film.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
Mississippi
‘He was just a monster.’ Mississippi teen deer hunter harvests giant 167-inch buck
‘It was getting darker and I had four bucks fighting in front of me. When he walked up he was on a march.’
Can you believe this? Black bear raids porch for Halloween treats.
A stealthy bear visited a Connecticut home and stole all the Halloween sweet treats.
A Mississippi teen first got a particular buck on camera two years ago and although it was a 10-point, it didn’t really stand out. Since the buck appeared to be young, the teen’s father said they should let him grow and two years later that decision paid off with a huge buck that unofficially gross-scored 167 inches.
“He was nothing special,” said Walker Hilbun, 18, of Starkville. “He was 3 1/2 (years old) and my dad said we should let him go and it was a really good thing we did.
“The next year I passed on the deer four or five times. It was extremely hard to do. It was hard to let him go last year.”
When the buck showed up on camera this summer, it was a different story.
“He was just a monster with tons of mass and tons of points on him,” Hilbun said. “I was extremely happy I let him go last year and immediately wanted to kill him this year.”
Acorns make hunting the big buck difficult
Harvesting the buck was easier said than done. Hilbun said Patterning the buck was difficult because the cameras on the Oktibbeha County property where he was hunting were set up on food plots and at a feeder, but the buck wasn’t frequenting those spots.
Instead, the buck appeared to be feeding on the early crop of acorns in wooded areas, so that’s where Hilbun focused his efforts, but the plan wasn’t working. A month into the season, Hilbun had not had an encounter with the buck.
On Nov. 1, the buck decided to eat something other than acorns. While Hilbun was hunting in a wooded area, the buck showed up on camera at a nearby food plot.
That prompted a change. Hilbun said his dad said he should hunt out of a shooting house at the food plot in case the buck came back. The following afternoon, that’s what Hilbun did.
A food plot filled with deer
“I got in the stand at 3:15,” Hilbun said. “I saw lots of deer. I ended up seeing about 30 deer in the food plot.”
And soon enough, the big buck decided to join them.
“He did pop out at 5:30, 5:35 and I watched him,” Hilbun said. “He’d feed to me and then feed back.”
The buck continued grazing in the food plot for about an hour, but stayed out of range of Hilbun’s bow. Then something happened the buck couldn’t resist.
“It was getting darker, and I had four bucks fighting in front of me,” Hilbun said. “When he walked up he was on a march.”
Hilbun said he was nervous, but he managed to stay calm until he got a shot.
“It was right before dark,” Hilbun said. “I slowly drew back and when I shot he was at 27 yards, I think. I was really confident in my shot.”
Even though Hilbun was confident in his shot, his nerves finally got the best of him.
“I was really shaken up,” Hilbun said. “I was super nervous.”
Long, sleepless night ends with buck of Mississippi hunter’s dreams
Hilbun said he didn’t track the deer that evening because he didn’t want to risk jumping the buck before it expired. He didn’t have to worry about the meat spoiling because the temperatures went down into the low 60s that night.
Even so, it was a long night. Hilbun said he didn’t sleep as he replayed the shot in his mind over and over. The following morning, a handler came with a tracking dog to help with the recovery and it wasn’t long before Hilbun put his hands on the buck.
“It was the best moment in my life, probably,” Hilbun said. “He was just as big as I thought he was. I was really shaken up and excited.”
And there was a lot to be excited about. The buck had 11 points plus a kicker on one of his brow tines. The inside spread was 17 3/4 inches. The G3s measured over 7 inches and the other nine points racked up inches as well.
And the mass was, well, massive. Hilbun said the total circumference measurements came to roughly 40 inches with a total rough score of 167.
The buck is the biggest he’s ever taken and he realizes he may never harvest another of that size. However, that doesn’t mean Hilbun won’t try.
“It’s probably not super likely, but I can’t kill one if I don’t hunt,” Hilbun said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Mississippi State Earns No. 1 Seed In NCAA Tournament: Morning Bell, November 12
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State soccer’s run at the SEC tournament ended prematurely, but it wasn’t enough to change the impact Bulldogs’ dominant regular season in the eyes of the NCAA tournament selection committee.
Mississippi State received its first-ever No. 1 seed in the NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament, meaning the path to the College Cup will run through Starkville. The Bulldogs will open tournament play against Southern at 5 p.m. Saturday.
“We’re incredibly honored to receive the No. 1 seed,” coach James Armstrong, now the winningest coach in program history, said. “This group has worked tirelessly to get here, and it’s such a special moment to know that we’ll be hosting in Starkville with our amazing fans behind us. We’re focused and ready to put all our energy into Saturday’s game
No games played.
Men’s Basketball: Southeastern Louisiana at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, SEC Network+
“I know that in Ames, Iowa, they fancy themselves being experts on the wind, but in Lubbock, Texas, we’ll put our wind up against your wind in Iowa.”
Mississippi
Police investigating fatal shooting on MLK Street – Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper
Police investigating fatal shooting on MLK Street
Published 3:48 pm Monday, November 11, 2024
NATCHEZ — Natchez Police are investigating a fatal shooting today on Martin Luther King Jr. Street.
James Mitchell, 61, was found deceased by a single gunshot wound at 841 Martin Luther St. around 2 p.m.
Natchez Police Chief Cal Green said little else is known about what happened at this time.
“We don’t have a motive and the investigation is ongoing,” Green said. “He was a quiet, happy person and didn’t have an issue with anyone that we knew of. He was not a troublemaker of any kind.”
Green said Mitchell was found on the screened-in porch of his house with no visible damage to indicate the bullet may have come through the screen or glass storm door.
“We had one person say they heard a loud sound that could have been a gunshot, but they only heard one so they dismissed it and didn’t call anybody,” she said.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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