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_.