Mississippi State’s perfect start has earned the Bulldogs a place in the AP Top 25, but Jeff Lebby isn’t interested in letting the number beside his team’s name do any of the talking.
Not after the kind of September his team has put together. Not with No. 19 Missouri coming to Starkville on Saturday night for a Top 25 SEC matchup that doubles as the Tigers’ conference opener and Mississippi State’s first home league game.
“The ranking piece of it has absolutely zero bearing -- none at all,” Lebby said. “We've got a huge road ahead. We've got an unbelievable test Saturday.”
The Bulldogs are 3-0 after blowing past Louisiana-Monroe 62-13, winning by 25 at Minnesota and then surviving a comeback spot at South Carolina last week. That road win in Columbia mattered, but Lebby knows the bigger picture gets harsher from here. Mississippi State opened 4-0 in nonconference play last season before dropping its first four SEC games, eventually snapping that skid with a 38-35 win at Arkansas and then finishing the conference slate with three straight losses.
Lebby’s first two seasons in Starkville have been defined by struggle inside the league, with Mississippi State going 1-15 in SEC play. Saturday’s win moved him to 10-18 overall and 2-15 in conference games at Mississippi State.
“We're not even close to being where we've got a chance to be,” Lebby said.
Missouri arrives at 3-0 after handling Troy 27-17 at home. Before that, the Tigers picked up a 17-point road win at Kansas and rolled past Arkansas-Pine Bluff in their opener. Whatever the backdrop around “The Border War,” this trip looks like the most demanding challenge Missouri has faced so far.
Eliah Drinkwitz has been paying attention to what Lebby is building. He pointed to Mississippi State’s offense, with mobile quarterback Kamario Taylor in the middle of it, and to a defense that has started to play with real edge under coordinator Zach Arnett.
“You can tell,” Drinkwitz said of Lebby's impact. “The foundations of his culture, and the foundation of his schemes, are in place.”
Taylor was a big part of the Bulldogs’ comeback at South Carolina, throwing four touchdowns as Mississippi State turned an early hole into a road win. The SEC rewarded Amaree Williams for his work up front, naming him Defensive Lineman of the Week after he piled up 10 tackles, including a sack. Mississippi State’s defense also strangled South Carolina after halftime, holding the Gamecocks to negative-15 yards on 10 plays over the first four drives of the second half.
Lebby liked the way his team responded when things went sideways early.
“That's where you see real growth,” Lebby said.
He also knows the Bulldogs can’t keep leaning on splash plays to rescue sloppy stretches.
“The explosives got us out of a lot of really bad situations. You have to play cleaner,” Lebby said.
Missouri has plenty of production of its own. Austin Simmons has been sharp through three games, completing 69.1% of his passes while throwing eight touchdowns and no interceptions. Against Troy, he went 10 of 19 for 91 yards after opening the season with 544 passing yards and seven scores across the first two games.
The Tigers have also gotten solid work from the ground game, where Jamal Roberts has rushed for 300 yards and three touchdowns through three contests.
Mississippi State will have to deal with a Missouri front that Cayden Green says is a different kind of challenge.
“They're a lot bigger and a lot more physical than what we've dealt with the past couple weeks,” Green said of MSU's defense. “So obviously, that's SEC play in a nutshell. The competition is just going to get ramped up this week.”
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Mississippi States early momentum has carried it into a place the program has been waiting for, with a 3-0 start capped by a comeback win at South Carolina and a spot in the AP Top 25 this week. Now the Bulldogs get their SEC home opener, and it brings a little more weight with Missouri arriving in Starkville just as unbeaten teams meet in a game that should say plenty about where each one really stands.
Jeff Lebby has watched his team handle the first stretch of the season and will now see how it responds when conference pressure starts to ramp up at home. Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz has had similar questions to answer on the other sideline, and Mississippi States Amaree Williams added another bright note this week after earning SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors, giving the Bulldogs a little more buzz as they prepare for the first true test of this fast start. [Read more 🡒]
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The next step is the one that usually separates a promising start from a real draft-stock climb: showing it against better resistance. Mississippi State has reason to like where Taylor sits right now, especially with some of the other top names in the class still sorting through questions about consistency and mechanics, but the challenge ahead is whether he can keep that momentum when the Bulldogs run into their biggest test yet. [Read more 🡒]