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_.
Ole Miss didn’t have to search very long, or very far, for the replacement to former head coach Lane Kiffin.
Defensive coordinator/inside linebacker coach Pete Golding is taking over. And not on an interim basis. He’s the new, permanent head coach.
The move ensures a certain amount of continuity for the Rebels’ run in the upcoming College Football Playoff.
Golding, 41, arrived in 2023. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and inside linebacker coach at Alabama, from 2018 through 2022.
The Mississippi job is Golding’s first head-coaching stint. And his first big challenge will be to persuade some of the Ole Miss players to not follow Kiffin to LSU.
Which is one of the main reasons why Mississippi wanted Kiffin out, once he decided to go. And while the outcome is a symptom and not the disease when it comes to one specific form of college football chaos, Kiffin could have just accepted it and left — without whining about not being able to stick around.
The Bulldogs were in control for the majority of the contest, as they led for 38 minutes. State also forced 26 Warhawk turnovers, the most forced in a single game this season. State also shot 83.3 from the stripe, the highest percentage this year.
Favour Nwaedozi led the Bulldogs in scoring for the third time this season, as she collected 13 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes of action. Nwaedozi shot a team-best 60 percent from the floor in the contest.
Kharyssa Richardson finished in double-figures for the second consecutive game, earning a season-high 11 points. Richardson got to the line on four different occasions and knocked down all seven of her free throws.
Jaylah Lampley scored in double-figures for the third time this season, finishing the game with 10 points and five rebounds. Lampley knocked down a pair of threes on back-to-back possessions to extend the Bulldog lead in the fourth quarter.
Madison Francis collected a season-high 13 rebounds alongside eight points, three blocks and two steals. Destiney McPhaul and Trayanna Crisp each picked up nine points in the contest as well.
Mississippi State will be back in action when they take on Pitt inside Humphrey Coliseum for the ACC/SEC Challenge this Thursday. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Visit HailState.com for the latest news and information on women’s basketball. Fans can also follow the program on social media by searching ‘HailStateWBK’ on X, Facebook and Instagram.
STARKVILLE — Kamario Taylor stepped to his left in the pocket, then the Mississippi State football quarterback side-stepped to his right to make three Ole Miss defenders whiff on a sack.
He dashed up field with just one more defender to beat. Taylor juked him, scoring a 35-yard rushing touchdown.
That’s the player MSU coach Jeff Lebby said is the center of the 2026 roster rebuild on Nov. 28.
It was after Taylor made his first career start in the Egg Bowl. Although it didn’t lead to a win, the 38-19 loss for the Bulldogs (5-7, 1-7 SEC) to No. 6 Ole Miss (11-1, 10-1) showed a potential future star for MSU at quarterback.
“As we continue to build it the right way and build these pieces of the roster around (Taylor) that’s going to be really important,” Lebby said. “I think we got somebody that’s going to catch a snap every single down and is going to be an elite player in this conference and in America.
“So building it the right way around him, creating stability for him will be huge. We’ve got to go get the pieces up front, offensively, and that will be a huge point of emphasis as we ready for the portal piece of it.”
Evaluating Kamario Taylor’s first Mississippi State start
The Egg Bowl wasn’t the first extended playing time this season for Taylor, a four-star freshman from Noxubee County.
He replaced starter Blake Shapen twice in the final month of the season because of injuries. Taylor played in all but two games, mainly for his running ability.
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Taylor led MSU to a 97-yard opening drive touchdown against Ole Miss. He scored on a 22-yard rushing touchdown. The offense struggled after that though, scoring six points until Taylor’s 35-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I feel like I could’ve executed a lot better,” Taylor said. “We left some stuff on the field. I wish I could get some plays back. Going into this, Coach Lebby made sure I was confident and Blake was very supportive of me, helping me learn like where they are going and what they’re trying to do to try to mess with me. He was very supportive, so I went into the game very confident.”
Taylor completed 15 of 31 passes for 178 yards and one interception on a pass that was tipped twice, one play after Taylor ran for a 39-yard gain. He rushed for 173 yards and two touchdowns, the first MSU quarterback since Garrett Schrader in 2019 to have over 100 rushing yards in a game.
It wasn’t perfect, as demonstrated by his completion percentage below 50%. Taylor will have to keep improving his accuracy. But the play-making ability was evident as he eluded tackles. The debut start was enough to give hope for Mississippi State in 2026.
“Moving forward, we are going to do some special things at Davis Wade,” Taylor said. “We trust Coach Lebby 100%. We know he’s going to put us in the right positions, so we just got to execute.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for The Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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