Before the Arkansas game, Mississippi State fans were starting to believe. They weren’t believing in a bowl bid, or even a winning season. Those beliefs went out the window after the Florida loss. But, they started believing the team might actually win another game, maybe a total of three this season, most notably an SEC win. Any momentum that was created would feel good heading to the Egg Bowl and a possible win against arch-nemesis Ole Miss. However, the question is, after such a sound thrashing by unranked Arkansas 58-25, is the belief completely gone for Bulldog fans for the 2024 season?
They had played then-number-one-ranked Texas, showing a glimmer of a new offense with quarterback Michael Van Buren at the helm. This was his first collegiate start. The Dawgs held the Longhorns to an eight-point lead until the very last seconds of the third period. Then, at Georgia, Mississippi State’s offense didn’t show until the second half. But they held UGA to a 10-point lead and scored 31 points against a No. 5 team. In the No. 15 Texas A&M game, the Bulldogs played a complete game, even scoring the first points on the first possession of the game. But then Arkansas came to Starkville, and the Dawgs reverted to the team they were against Toledo and Florida.
Following the game, head coach Jeff Lebby seemed deflated. “The frustrating part is we made such improvement,” Lebby said. “We had played some really good units and won some things to give us a chance to win games. Today we took a step back.”
Arkansas Game Brief
Without rehashing the entire game, words like disaster, rout, embarrassment, and other such terms have been used in postgame press coverage describing how the Dawgs went down. Their offense was sporadic but somewhat effective at times. Van Buren connected on 22 of 31 attempts (71%) for 309 yards. His Hog counterpart, Taylen Green, went 23 for 29 (79%), 314 yards. That’s where the similarity ends. State had 471 total yards of offense to 673 for the Razorbacks. The running games were also weighted toward Arkansas with their 359 yards to the Bulldogs’ 162.
But statistics aside, the fates didn’t seem to be on the Dawgs’ side at several points in the game. Twice, late in the second quarter, potential scores by Bulldog-tight end Seydou Traore were invalidated upon video review. What could have been 14 points became three, and a turnover-on-downs. Thus, the halftime score was 31-10. MSU left a lot of points on the field instead of the scoreboard. Some were also given away as Van Buren threw two interceptions and fumbled twice as well. Running back Johnnie Daniels was poised for a score in the fourth quarter but fumbled at the one.
Is D for Defense or Their Grade?
The most glaring Bulldog deficiency was the defense. They gave up 673 yards, 359 of them on the ground. Lebby couldn’t hide his frustration in his postgame presser. “I’m disappointed today,” Lebby said. “I thought we had made real progress, that we had gotten better, had played good normal down defense, but today it was just the opposite. We did some good things on third down, but we couldn’t get them into enough third downs.” As a point of reference, the Hogs went 0-7 in third-down conversion, but as Lebby said, they didn’t get them to that point often enough. In other words, they converted on first and second, never getting to third down. That says a lot about the defensive performance.
Comparatively, the Bulldogs once again never sacked Green and only had two tackles for loss (TFL). The Hogs sacked Van Buren four times and had six TFLs. Bulldog-leading tackler, and safety Isaac Smith, had insights from a player’s perspective. “We came out today and they beat us in all phases of the game,” Smith said. “They really weren’t really doing anything special, it was just our execution. We were flying around to the ball but had a lot of missed tackles. So I think it just came down to execution.”
But, Smith’s performance aside, the under-performance of the defense has been noted all season. Is it part of a more systemic problem that could be remedied?
Hutzler on the Hot Seat?`
This Bulldog defense allows an average of 36.4 points per game, placing them last in the SEC. This compares with Florida’s 23.6 points, next to last. State allows 107 more yards per week, and is also last in first and third-down defense. In eight games, the Dawgs only have five sacks. The next-lowest in the conference is Tennessee with 15. They have given up 29 touchdowns in the red zone, twice as many as any other team in the conference.
On a national scale, State ranks 129th among FBS teams in total defense, 124th in scoring defense, and 125th in rushing defense. The phrase “worst defense in school history” is being floated.
At the heart of the matter is defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler, who may understandably be on the hot seat. But Lebby sees it as a group thing. “At no point in time will it ever be one person,” Lebby said. “I’ve talked about that a ton individually being the best we can possibly be so, collectively, we have the opportunity to go play the way we need to play. Again we had shown great improvements the three weeks before Saturday. Saturday we did not we did not play the way we needed to play on the defensive side of the ball.”
What’s Left of the 2024 Season?
It seems odd to think of improvement in a loss, but against Texas, Georgia, and Texas A&M, the improvement gave fans hope for the future, the future of this season and beyond. It was far better than the feeling after Toledo, or Florida, two games that were thought to be winnable before playing them. The games that followed gave fans hope for the future of the program, especially when Van Buren started his first game and showed so much improvement from one game to the next. The question remains, is the belief in the future of Lebby’s program gone for Bulldog fans?
State is now 1-7, 0-5 in the conference. Hopes for a bowl bid technically ended with the Arkansas game, although practically they faded after Florida.
This weekend, the 2-6 UMass Minutemen come to Starkville, a game by all accounts the Dawgs should win. State is favored by 18 points. But, the Bulldogs were favored by 10.5 against Toledo, and that didn’t turn out so well. Momentum is a powerful thing, either in a game or a season. Perhaps the Dawgs can regain some of that this weekend. It will surely be necessary to regain the faith of the fans. Following Saturday, Missouri, Tennessee, and Ole Miss will not be so forgiving for momentum going into 2025.
