Mississippi State steps into Neyland Stadium Saturday night, facing Tennessee, now ranked No. 7 in the College Football Playoff (CFP) standings. The Bulldogs’ remaining opponents are No. 24 Missouri, and No.16 Ole Miss. The Bulldogs are 2-7, 0-5 in the SEC, a season testing a new coach and basically a new roster. Earlier in the season, State played at No. 5 Texas and No. 3 Georgia. Sending them into the toughest venues, first Austin, then Athens, now Knoxville, is a cruel way to welcome Bulldogs’ first-time head coach Jeff Lebby into the conference. As he said in his Monday press conference, it has somewhat prepared him. “The challenge this Saturday is a challenge of its own,” Lebby said. “I do think living some of the experiences that we’ve lived throughout the season helps us understand what it’s going to be like.” The Dawgs are coming off a big win over UMass, beating the Minutemen 45-20. That was after an embarrassing loss to Arkansas 58-25. The remainder of the season doesn’t look promising, considering their opponents. At least Mississippi State vs Tennessee is between old friends.
Band of Brothers
Football players consider themselves part of a brotherhood. The same is true of coaches. The matchup of Volunteer head coach Josh Heupel and Lebby goes back to their beginnings in coaching. The news cycle for this game has paid more attention to their relationship than to Mississippi State vs Tennessee.
Both attended Oklahoma and they met in 2004 working for head coach Bob Stoops. Heupel was a graduate assistant and Lebby was a student assistant. “We were grunting it up together in a tiny little office and spending a lot of hours together breaking down opponents and finding ways to create shortcuts for the staff,” Lebby said. “For me at a really young age, after he had such an unbelievable playing career, there was great growth. Being 19, 20 years old, being able to go at it every single day with him was great.”
Lebby headed to Baylor where he picked up the veer-and-shoot offense he runs today. After a couple of stints at other schools, Heupel fashioned himself into an offensive mind, running a similar veer-and-shoot style, and got his first head coaching job at UCF. Shortly thereafter, he brought along his old friend, and eventually Lebby was promoted to his first offensive coordinator position. Heupel still runs a similar style of offense as Lebby, and there is a lot of mutual respect between the two. “He’s a guy I have more respect for than maybe anybody in the profession,” Lebby said. “Having the opportunity to work for him was an incredible experience.”
The Bulldogs Now
To say that Mississippi State has not had the best of seasons is quite an understatement. The only wins have been to much lesser teams Eastern Kentucky and UMass. In the first SEC loss to Florida, the Bulldogs lost their starting quarterback, Blake Shapen, due to shoulder surgery. That meant they had to rely on true freshman Michael Van Buren. He had his first collegiate start in Austin against No. 1 at the time Texas, and the newby held his own in the second half. His next game against No. 2 at the time Georgia, was equally impressive and he kept his Dawgs within 10 points. He has recently played a very balanced game and has improved with each one.
At this point, State ranks sixth in passing yards with 255 per game. In the red zone, they have 21 touchdowns in 33 visits, or 65%. Although turnovers were the plague that hurt them heavily in the Arkansas loss, they rank sixth fewest in the conference.
The running game, a Lebby forte, has started to take shape with a season-high 241 yards against UMass. A trio of backs has emerged to share the load. Johnnie Daniels and Davon Booth carried the load most of the season. In addition, true freshman Xavier Gayten has accounted for big plays on the ground in recent games.
A drastic divide comes between the Bulldogs’ offense and defense. The Bulldog defense is last in every measurable statistic in the conference. For example, one of the most important stats is on third-down conversions. State allows first downs 47% of the time and ranks 125th nationally. They have allowed 40 scores in 44 opponent trips to the red zone. 31 of which were touchdowns.
The Volunteers
From a very high-level view, the Vols are coming off a three-game winning streak, their only loss coming at the hands of Arkansas. Before their last win against Kentucky, they had an impressive win against No. 11 Alabama. Needless to say, their ranking at No. 7 in the CFP standings is coveted, and their motivation to stay there is high. There is only one two-loss team in the top 12, and that is by the graces of the committee. Granted, they beat that team, Alabama, but it’s doubtful they want to challenge their graces again.
On offense, there are two names of significance, quarterback Nico Iamaleava and running back Dylan Sampson.
Iamaleava’s name has popped up in Heisman discussions early in the season, but his numbers leveled off somewhat after his season high against Chattanooga of 314 yards passing. However, he was playing caliber teams such as Oklahoma, Alabama, and Arkansas. He came close against Kentucky last week with 294 yards, so expect that trend to continue against State.
Sampson is a wrecking ball of a back. He is on pace to easily break the one-thousand-yard mark as he already has 980, averaging 122.5 yards per game. Considering the porous nature of the Bulldog defense, expect both players to give Lebby headaches on Saturday.
Defensively, the Vols are fifth best nationally in points allowed per game, 12.4. That’s second in the conference. Only two teams have rushed for more than 100 yards, and no team has scored more than 19 points. That was in the loss to Arkansas.
Still Believing
There is a silver lining. Two Bulldog stars are probable for Saturday’s game. State’s leading receiver Mario Craver and edge rusher De’Monte Russell. Craver is a true freshman hauling in 22.19 yards per catch and his total yardage, 355 yards, is second on the team. Russell is one of the two starters who returned from last year and has 13 tackles this year.
As far as being positive heading into Knoxville, the team must believe in an upset. It’s just the nature of being a football player and a Bulldog. Otherwise, why play the game?
Leading the Dawgs in tackles, safety Isaac Smith spoke to the media after practice this week. He thinks they can leverage that feeling following the win over UMass. “We got to keep the momentum off this past win, going to Tennessee and beat them,” Smith said. “That’s the goal, going to Knoxville to win. I think these next three games we’ve got to keep giving it our all and come out and compete hard each and every game, especially the last one. In particular, the rest of these games we need to come out and give it our all.”
