Bulldog receiver Brenen Thompson looking for dominant performance in season opener

After experiencing college football at previous stops at Texas and Oklahoma, Brenen Thompson arrived at Mississippi State in January for his final college campaign. While Thompson’s playmaking abilities are needed this year, he has also become one of the top leaders on the team off the field.

Thompson didn’t anticipate having that leadership role as quickly as he has experienced. But he also did the little things that State coaches need from their top leaders. On Monday, Thompson talked to the media about Saturday’s season opener among other topics:

Q: How confident are you in this offense come Saturday?
Thompson: I am super confident. I think the whole team is pretty confident just being that we’ve been game-planning for almost two weeks now, going on the second week. So I think the whole team is excited to go out there and playing confident right now.

Q: Being a new guy here, did you expect to be in a leadership role this quickly?
Thompson: I wouldn’t say so quickly. I knew it would come with work and dedication and showing up every day. But I definitely expected to be a leader on this team. I think that is why (Jeff) Lebby brought me here. I got with the guys that have been here when I got here. Just being with guys like Blake (Shapen) and those guys who already had a leadership role established here on this team and what I have to do to earn their trust. So I started there and went from there to working in that role as fast as I could.

Q: How excited are you to show the receiver room on Saturday?
Thompson: Man, couldn’t be more excited. I think our room is one of the deepest in college football. I guess people could argue that but I truly feel that way. We have guys that can go play. No matter if it is 1s, 2s, or 3s, we can all play. I am just excited to be part of that room, blessed to be part of that room.

Q: When prepping for Southern Miss, do you watch more Southern Miss film from last year or Marshall film?
Thompson: I would say half and half. We definitely watched some Marshall film since some of those guys did come from Marshall and transferred to Southern Miss this year. So yeah, there’s definitely that component of it, as well.

Q: What do you like with Blake Shapen as your quarterback?
Thompson: I think he is an amazing human and I think it starts there. He is a great leader, great role model. He just takes this team and holds it up to whatever it needs to be held up to. I think he does a great job of coming to work every day, setting the standard every single day. He’s just a down-to-earth guy. He is a quarterback on the field leading everybody and he is the same off the field. He is still our quarterback, still looks out for everybody on and off the field. I couldn’t be more blessed to call him my teammate.

Q: What is Week 1 like in making that transition from camp?
Thompson: It starts with Week 1, obviously. But this goes back all the way to January. Working on yourself and at the end of the day, each week there is going to be an opponent. Each week we got to get better. This week for me, specifically, is just getting better. As a whole unit, we just got to get better this week and how can we get better in the next three days before we go play the game. We do go play the game and we got to learn from that and get better for next week. There’s that role that we have to get better each week. Then there’s also that role you have to study your opponent and respect your opponent and find their tendencies and see what they are about. So there is both sides to that.

Q: How would you say the receiver room has progressed to now?
Thompson: I think efficiency. Playing faster each day as we get comfortable with the playbook. I think all of those guys have done an amazing job of pushing one another and we are all learning from one another. I am excited about our unit and it will be fun to watch.

Q: What are you looking forward to the most with Saturday?
Thompson: I think the energy within the building and within the team. Obviously, didn’t have the season we wanted to last year. So being able to go and redeem ourselves. I think in Week 1 it is all about how can we turn this as fast as we can. So we are looking to go hang as many points as we can, keep them to zero points on the scoreboard and just go dominate. That is what we are looking for.