Everything head coach Jeff Lebby said in Monday's press conference

Mississippi State gears up this week for its final road game of the season with Saturday evening’s kickoff at Missouri. On Monday, head coach Jeff Lebby held is weekly press conference and discussed Missouri among other topics:

Q: After watching the film, what were your thoughts on the Georgia loss?
Lebby: The middle eight is where the game got away from us and that’s something you look back on. It’s 17-7 and there is two and a half minutes left. We go for it on fourth down, we’ve talked about being aggressive in those situations. We don’t end up converting and then they have to go the length of the field and do. We have three defensive penalties in that drive where they get seven points. They have a huge chunk play coming out of the half for the big touchdown to then make it 31-7. That’s where the game got away from us. It’s so frustrating that that’s how it played out. Inside our early drives offensively, we have the first one which is exactly what we want. The second starts with a false start and we end up not converting on third and 5. We shouldn’t be in that situation.

As you look at it, we get the turnover on our own three and we get two first downs. We have the ability on the second play of that drive. We’ve got Ant (Anthony Evans) and Brenen (Thompson) running wide open. We weren’t able to protect just long enough and we end up getting the interference call. We have a huge negative on the first and 10 on the third drive, and then we fumble the football on third down and give them incredible field position. Things like that when you’re playing as good a football team as we were playing, we’re not good enough to overcome those things. We didn’t tackle the way we needed to tackle, we had a ton of missed assignments. For us being able to get back here and clean that up, take that out of our game. Defensively, that’s not who we’ve been. So, getting that corrected and go on the road.

Q: When Blake Shapen has to exit a game, how valuable is it to have senior leaders like Brenen Thompson step up in those situations?
Lebby: We’re gonna need it this week. We’re going to need it as we go on the road and play a really good football team. We need our leaders to lead in a great way. Challenged them this morning and they’ve answered to that. Our energy this morning as we got on the field was workmanlike, which I love. Our guys know we’ve got so much out in front of us. We need to go find a way to play the best ball we’ve played all year, not perfect, and go 1-0 this Saturday. We’re going to need great leadership for that to happen.

Q: Was Shapen good to go in practice today?
Lebby: No, he didn’t do anything today. It will be evaluating him as we move through the week.

Q: If KaMario Taylor is the guy this weekend, what’s your confidence level in him?
Lebby: I got great confidence in Kamario. We got to make all the layups and play inside the scheme, inside the system. No. 1 made some great plays for us. He wants a lot of things back, which I knew that he would as he watched the tape. There is going to be great growth for him through playing. That’s the reality of it over these last couple of weeks. Then being able to watch the tape and being able to learn from things. But from a confidence standpoint, I do have great confidence in him.

Q: What are some of the ways to get this team ready to get back on Saturday?
Lebby: For us, it’s getting back to the basics of playing clean football. The two penalties for us, offensively, are absolutely critical and were drive killers for us. I said it on Saturday but we end up third and 5, fourth and 5, and don’t convert, and we should never be in those situations. We are because of pre-snap penalties. Those are a choice that has to be taken out of our game. Then along the same lines, defensively, we’re off the field on fourth and 3. They sub, we call timeout, get them over and talk about it about staying onsides, and we’re about to get the exact same thing and then we jump offsides. Doing those things inside a game when you’re playing that kind of opponent, you’re gonna get beat. We can’t operate that way. We’re not good enough to do those things and be able to overcome them. That’s a huge point for us as we get going this week.

Q: If Shapen is healthy for Saturday, is he the for-sure starter?
Lebby: If he is truly healthy, he’ll start. It’s all about him being healthy. As we evaluate this thing and move through, we’ll see where we’re at.

Q: A couple of these guys got injured in September but any updates on the rehab process of Will Whitson, Blake Steen and Kai McClendon?
Lebby: All three of those guys are in a really good place. It’s a work in progress to get them back going, obviously. Since their surgeries, they’ve done a really good job from a rehab standpoint. We understand what kind of impact those guys are going to make for us going forward.

Q: With Whitson and trying to get him another year due to injuries, is that a process that is already started or you wait until after the season?
Lebby: We began that process and feel good about that.

Q: Missouri has already lost two quarterbacks due to injury. How do you navigate that with their young quarterback that doesn’t have much depth behind him?
Lebby: It’s such a fine line because they’re still going try to do everything they can to put their guys in a position for success while at the same time still finding ways to protect him. They’re going to be able to protect him by how they do what they do with running the football. We have to do a great job in the run game. That to me, there is nothing more critical for us as a football team than us doing a great job defending the run on Saturday and creating enough stress for him at quarterback to where we’re changing the picture just enough to be able to create some turnovers.

Q: You talked about Kamario learning. With the short-yardage passing stuff, how much of that is just getting settled in the game?
Lebby: It’s just about playing, continuing to get those reps. Trust what you did Monday through Friday. Don’t make it something that it’s not. All of our quick stuff, our easy stuff, our tags, are just layups with ball placement. He’s been really accurate and he has to continue that trend. That was very uncharacteristic on a couple of those things Saturday that he has not done in practice. I expect those to be layups, and he does, too. It’s just him being able to go play. Take exactly what the defense gives us and do what you’re coached to do. Then when you have the opportunity to make the play, make the play. He did that on Saturday a couple of times.

Q: What has to be done to slow down the Missouri run game and the Missouri pass rush?
Lebby: We got to find ways to get the ball up and down, offensively. We can’t sit back there and pat the football all day. We’ve got to get the ball up and down and that piece will be critical. We have to be clean fundamentally to give ourselves a chance. Then in the run game, we got to align and assign with great technique, great eyes, and have the ability to strike blocks and get off blocks, and create some knockbacks. Those two things, you look at the game on paper, are two huge keys to victory right there. Finding ways to keep Blake and Kamario clean, and then having the ability to stop the run.

Q: Do you have any updates on Isaac Smith and Jayvin James?
Lebby: I don’t. Isaac did not go today. We’ll let the Wednesday report speak to it.

Q: Missouri’s Ahmad Hardy is having a great season. What have you seen from him?
Lebby: Both of these guys are really good. The first guy never tackles him. That shows up on tape over and over and over. You try to arm-tackle this guy, it’s going to be a long day. We got to do a great job of getting hats to the football. We got to gang tackle and that’s the thing that sticks out more than anything. The first one never tackles him.

Q: What kind of attitude did the team have today?
Lebby: There was great frustration, disappointment, for us to play the way we did. Understanding that middle eight of that game and how it got away from us. Those guys, as they watched the tape, there is great ownership from myself, the entire staff, every single guy that played on Saturday. We all got a hand in it. We all got a part of it. Now it’s about having the ability to reset, making sure that one does not beat us twice, and getting back to exactly who we’re supposed to be and need to be to be able to go win on the road.