WATCH: Mississippi State linebacker John Lewis impressed with defensive energy this spring
After receiving limited reps as a redshirt freshman in 2022, Mississippi State linebacker John Lewis earned more playing time last season and that included three starts. The Germantown native finished 2023 with 20 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and four quarterback hurries.
This spring Lewis is preparing for an even bigger role on State’s defense, which features a lot of changes, as well. Lewis has switched to will linebacker and earlier this week, he talked about that change along with other aspects of spring ball:
Q: You played sam linebacker last year and are now playing will linebacker. How does that change things for you?
Lewis: I played will in high school and then I was at sam when I got here. I feel like it is no different than high school. I had to learn it different but I adapted to it pretty well.
Q: What’s it mean to you when some of your teammates are noticing your work in spring practice?
Lewis: I like it but I feel like I can do more. I feel like I can be better at what I do. There’s a lot of things they don’t see and things they do see. But I do go sideline to sideline most of the time. I am trying to get the whole defense to do that and that’s the goal.
Q: This spring who has stood out to you on the defensive side?
Lewis: Nic Mitchell. Nic Mitchell has stepped up in a very big role and he’s doing really good.
Q: Your thoughts on State’s linebacker positions?
Lewis: With the linebackers we all meet as a group, no coaches, nobody and just us. Our goal is to just come out aggressive and go full speed and attack whatever is in front of us and play.
Q: How excited are y’all to play in Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday?
Lewis: You know how you flip a switch on and the light comes on fast? We are all excited. I mean, we were practicing good today but everybody is ready for Saturday.
Q: There’s been a lot of talk this offseason about Jeff Lebby’s offense. Does that put a chip on the shoulder of the defense?
Lewis: We actually like it. We like it because the more they get touchdowns the more we play defense, the more we get tackles and the better we can do. So it kind of weights out the same. We all like that they are tempo because it gets us ready, too, for the fall. We don’t have to worry about a tempo team that comes in. If you don’t have a tempo team, we’re gonna crush you. You gotta have a tempo team because we’ve already prepared for it and it’s going to keep on improving.
Q: How big of a boost is it for the defense when they stop the offense from scoring?
Lewis: A lot. It feels good because the older guys that have been here, we haven’t been practicing with a tempo team all day. So I feel like now, our energy and stamina, we don’t get tired now. At the first few practices it was kind of slow. Then when we saw that tempo it was ‘Oh my God’. Now we all like it and it helps us a lot.
Q: I imagine you go against offensive lineman Makylan Pounders some in practice. Your thoughts on him?
Lewis: Pounders is good. I mean, I knew he was going to be good but I didn’t know he was going to be that good. He’s good. I’m glad we have him on our side.
Q: Your thoughts on the running backs group?
Lewis: We got a lot of big, strong guys and they are all short. So it is hard to tackle them but that makes us better as tacklers, too. But for our opponents it is going to be hard. I mean, Woody (Marks) and Dillon (Johnson) were short but we got a lot of them like that now. It’s pretty good on our end, though.
