Isaac Smith feeling more confident in self, Bulldog defense heading into 2025

While Isaac Smith was busy breaking out last year as a sophomore safety, Mississippi State was struggling to follow as a team.

Smith helped carry the weight of a defense that was historically bad for the Bulldogs and the overall record of 2-10 would reflect. In this era of college sports, fans can expect players like that to be on the move, but Smith has stood by the Bulldogs through thick and thin.

“I’ve stuck at Mississippi State through everything because the one thing that I love is loyalty,” Smith said. “The fans in Starkville are awesome and feeling that feeling from the coaches made me want to stay and be that face that wanted me to be.”

Make no mistake that Smith is indeed the face of the defensive unit.

As the crown jewel of the Bulldogs’ signing class in 2023, Smith was a player that the former State staff could hang their hat on as they beat out LSU, Ole Miss and others for the four-star’s services. After missing the spring of his freshman year rehabbing from shoulder surgery, Smith took his lumps as a freshman.

Playing in 12 games, Smith had 15 total tackles. He spend most of his time on special teams, but he also got a chance to play some increased reps late in the year. That taste of the SEC prepared him for what was coming.

“I’ve really grown a lot more mentally than I have physically. Mentally, overcoming a bunch of obstacles that I dealt with my freshman year, coming into my sophomore year was a lot different,” Smith said. “Playing every game, your body being worn down, doing media, practicing harder, I feel like the journey of it all shows not to take anything for granted. That’s the fun thing you get in football is you face so much adversity, and it helps in life as well.”

Smith looking to build on breakthrough sophomore season

As a sophomore, things changed drastically for the Fulton native. He became a full-time starter in the secondary and he immediately began to leave his mark.

Smith was a regular double-digit tackle man. He finished the year with 127 and had 1.5 TFL with three pass deflections. His only missed performance came on the road against Texas after being under concussion protocol.

As the top tackler in the SEC a year ago, Smith was a player that always seemed to be around the line of scrimmage. That will again be the case this season as defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler plans to utilize him more in the box defending the run and getting after the quarterback as an extra linebacker at times.

“He’s got great position flexibility, and we’re going to be able to line him up in a bunch of different positions to create an advantage,” head coach Jeff Lebby said of Smith.” I think that’s something that is exciting for him, also exciting for us, because the fact that we can put a lot on him and expecting big things from him, but he’s expecting big things from himself and that’s why he’s here. Everything you love about the game of football, that’s Isaac Smith, and there’s, there’s not a better spokesperson for our team, for our defense, than him.”

Entering year three in Starkville, a lot is certainly expected out of Smith, and he’s expecting more out of his team as well.

A season after the defense finished among the league’s worst in just about every category, the State coaches went to the transfer portal to try and cure the ailments. A lot of those issues were on the defensive line – a position group that was the most critical point of correction for the staff.

With year two of the Lebby era here along with the additions of players out of the portal, the mindset that Smith and his teammates have this season has drastically changed.

“Everyone is bought into what coach Shaud (Williams), our strength coach, is trying to get us to do, what coach Leb is trying to get us to do and then defensively, what coach Hutzler is trying to get us to do. I feel like everyone has bought into that well,” Smith said.

“It’s a lot better. We’ve got some guys that are going to get after the quarterback. I love the fact that you can go in and get guys like we’ve got that are going to go in and go to work. It’s just good to have them in Starkville to get us back to D-Line U.

“Last year we were last in almost every category and no one likes that. A lot of people like to put it on the coaches but the coaches can’t play for us. That was us last year. We just didn’t execute. Getting guys in that are going to come in and work and execute so we can get the ball back to Blake (Shapen).”