Senior Brylan Lanier gaining confidence in Mississippi State secondary

Brylan Lanier‘s first season at Mississippi State didn’t produce a lot of joy. Due to lack of depth and injuries, Lanier had to move to cornerback last season and it was a new scene for Lanier in the Bulldog secondary.

However, this season Lanier is using his 2024 experience to his benefit. He’s become one of the most productive safeties in the SEC and has become a playmaker for the Bulldogs. Lanier has a team-best three interceptions and is a major part of State’s defensive turnaround this year. As a whole, State’s defense leads the SEC with 10 interceptions.

Earlier this week Lanier talked to the media about his recent play and State’s matchup with Texas:

Q: Even though there were struggles, how much did playing corner last year help your ball skills at safety this year?
Lanier: I feel like it made me one of the better cover safeties in the nation. Coming from corner in a tough division, we play a lot of man coverage. So fortunate to be in 1 on 1 man coverage situations. I feel like doing it all last year and now playing safety, it just made me a better cover safety and it made my ball skills great.

Q: When the ball is in the air, what all goes into that and getting your hands on it?
Lanier: It’s just a blessing. Doing the right things, being in the right spot. God gave me the opportunity to make big plays. The first one (against Florida), the coaches were telling me all week that they scored on us on the same play last year with the tight end seam. So just expecting that and the coaches told us to jump the seam. So it happened like that and I jumped it.

The second one, just working a lot of man-to-man coverage. Like I said, coming from corner I am one of the better cover safeties and I just jumped the route.

Q: How did playing at East Mississippi set you up for your Mississippi State career?
Lanier: East Mississippi was one of the best decisions I could have ever made. It was just a blessing being there with Coach Buddy (Stephens) and just great coaches. It’s a smaller school so the development is crucial and not many guys develop at smaller schools. But my East Mississippi career got me way better than I was and made me more versatile. My first time playing nickel was at East Mississippi and I also played safety and corner. It just showed the coaches what I could do here and got me better.

Q: What is allowing the defense to force so many turnovers this year?
Lanier: Just doing what Coach (Coleman) Hutzler preaches every day. Ball out, just getting the ball out. We do a lot of strip-attempt circuits, a lot of interception circuits. He just preaches that every day, just get the ball out, let’s get interceptions, get fumble recoveries and fumbles. It’s happening in the games because of how we practice and how we work.

Q: Talk about how you and Jahron Manning are both playing well and piggy-backing off of each other.
Lanier: Jahron is probably one of the smartest players on the team. Great player. This is really my first year being at a set position playing safety so he is teaching me a lot. He is coaching me a lot and helping me out a lot. That is my brother and I love playing with him. He is a smart, great player and things go from there. I love playing with them guys. It allows us to have a good rotation. We’ve got great energy going out because you’re not having to play 100 snaps every game. Just split the reps and it’s been a great opportunity.

Q: On Florida’s last offensive play, everyone thought they were running the ball. What put you in position to make that play?
Lanier: That play has been working all week. We actually thought they were going to do a quarterback run, too. We were in the funnel. I saw the quarterback with the ball and saw he was about to run it. I ended up walking the path to him and he couldn’t see down the field and kind of panicked. I got the sack and just a great opportunity, great execution.

Q: You played against Arch Manning last year. What kind of quarterback do you think he is?
Lanier: Arch is a great quarterback, great runner, great passer. Played him last year and a pretty good guy. But we’re ready to go out there and just be us. Like we always say, it’s never about them. So we’re just going to execute on our side, make them throw us the ball and give us the ball and go out there and win.