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Mississippi State

100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 32 Days - No. 32, Fr. LB AJ Rice  

3rupauk8_400x400by: Robbie Faulk07/29/25RobbieFaulkOn3
AJ Rice4-crop
2025 linebacker AJ Rice (photo credit: On3)

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 look at a freshman linebacker that has a bright future in maroon and white.

32 Days: No. 32, Fr. LB AJ Rice  

For many players coming up in the state of Alabama, their fandom boils down to Iron Bowl rivalry and Auburn and Alabama. For Rice, he was a Mississippi State Bulldog through and through.

Rice played his high school ball at Madison Academy in Huntsville, Ala., but he has a strong bloodline that traces back to Crawford, Miss. After his family moved to Huntsville, he began to make a name for himself at Madison Academy.

After solid seasons as a freshman and sophomore, Rice picked up his first offer from the Bulldogs. He would follow through with 134 tackles as a junior with 10.0 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery on his way to First-Team All-State honors.

More offers started to come in for Rice as he picked up verbals from Ole Miss, South Carolina, Arkansas, SMU, Baylor, Indiana and several others. A regular visitor of his hometown in Starkville, Rice just couldn’t shake the feeling that he wanted to be a Bulldog and he was the first commitment of the signing class.

Recruiting was fairly quiet from there for Rice, though he continued to take visits to a couple of schools. When the season hit, however, recruiting was tossed to the side and Rice put together a strong year. The Bulldog commitment racked up 149 tackles with 21.5 TFL and three forced fumbles on his way to becoming the Huntsville Touchdown Club Defensive Player of the Year and a member of Team Alabama in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star game.

He ended his high school career ranked as the No. 29 linebacker in the country by Rivals and a three-star as the No. 33 player in the state of Alabama. Rice enrolled at State in the spring and began the process of preparing for his freshman year early. He’s currently 6’1, 240 pounds and looks the part of an instant contributor. Whether or not he does that will be up to him as training camp begins this week.

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