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Mississippi State

100 Day Bulldog Countdown: Kicking things off

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•05/22/25•

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Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby (Blake Harrell, Maroon and White Daily)

Year two of the Jeff Lebby era has arrived and the Mississippi State coach is back to work.

After a disappointing first season, the coach and his staff are doing what they can to get things back on track in Starkville. The players on the field will be the difference for State this season if they are to make a return and we’re going to discuss every single one of them over the course of the next few months.

As we do every year, we’re counting down 100 days until State’s first game at Southern Miss in Hattiesburg on August 30. Over this period of time, we’ll breakdown every scholarship player on the roster, look back at great moments in MSU history and even talk about legends that have come before the current Bulldogs.

Today, we kick this countdown off.

100 Days: The beginning of our countdown

 It was a tumultuous first season for Lebby in 2024.

The Oklahoma offensive coordinator was bound to be a head coach after what he showed leading offenses at UCF, Ole Miss and with the Sooners. Zac Selmon would be the one to pull the trigger and hired Lebby to lead the Bulldog program into a new era of athletics.

Lebby inherited a mess in Starkville. The Bulldogs lost their head coach Mike Leach in an unexpected way during bowl practice in 2022. With the roster being tampered by several teams and the recruiting class in danger of falling apart, interim Athletic Director Bracky Brett and President Mark Keenum handed the reins to defensive coordinator Zach Arnett to see if he could hold things together.

While the MSU administration gave Arnett a multi-year contract, the buyout and contract itself didn’t put the University in a deep hole if they had to make a move. After Selmon took over at the start of the year, he would have to be the one to make that move when the Bulldogs started 4-6 and were uncompetitive in several games.

Selmon pulled the trigger on Arnett’s firing after just 10 games into his tenure and would go into his first head coaching search. Lebby would be his choice after several weeks on the hunt.

It was evident early last season that the Bulldogs didn’t have the talent to compete in the SEC. The Bulldogs were depleted on the defensive side of the ball and didn’t have the players on either sides of the line to get the job done against some of the SEC’s best. To make matters worse, State had one of the toughest schedules in the league.

After getting off to a rocky start with non-conference losses to Toledo and Arizona State, the Bulldogs then had to take on a gauntlet of Texas, Georgia, Texas A&M, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida and Ole Miss. The Bulldogs showed some fight against several of those teams, but ultimately ended 2-10 with a 0-8 mark in SEC play.

It was the worst season of State football since the decade of the 2000s and it called for an overhaul of the roster. State had no players drafted and didn’t even have a player invited to the NFL combine.

30 players entered the transfer portal in the winter and spring, most of which were roster adjustments for Lebby. As those players left the team, Lebby and his staff went to work with 31 new players. They added an overhaul on the defensive, an impact running back in Fluff Bothwell, depth at quarterback in Florida State’s Luke Kromenhoek and a whole lot of wide receivers.

Now, the Bulldogs enter 2025 with some confidence. It might not be a group built for the playoff, but Lebby vastly improved his roster and added depth at most of the positions. It should be a team that takes a bit of a step in the right direction this year.    

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