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Mississippi State

Isaac Smith earns preseason All-SEC honors as media predicts Bulldogs last

3rupauk8_400x400by: Robbie Faulk07/18/25RobbieFaulkOn3
isaac smith2
Mississippi State S Isaac Smith (Photo by Jared Thomas, Maroon and White Daily)

Following Mississippi State’s worst season in over 20 years, the SEC media isn’t very high on things getting much better in 2025.

The preseason media poll was released on Friday afternoon and the Bulldogs were projected to finish last in the SEC standings. Ahead of the Bulldogs were Kentucky, Arkansas and Vanderbilt.

Texas was the relatively strong first place pick in the conference with 96 votes to win the league in its second season. Georgia earned 44 votes for first place and Vanderbilt got its annual two votes.

The Bulldogs also had just one player selected by the SEC to earn All-SEC honors as junior safety Isaac Smith was selected third team. As a freshman, Smith had 15 tackles in 12 games playing mostly special teams. Smith would emerge as one of the top tacklers in the country in year two as he racked up 127 tackles in 11 games and added three pass deflections, 1.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

Smith comes back for year three as one of the team leaders for the Bulldogs and is expected to play more of a role in the box as a linebacker in addition to his safety position. He’s part of a defense that has been revamped with transfer portal players as defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler tries to get the State defense on track after a rough season.

The Fulton native would have had tremendous opportunities elsewhere had he entered the transfer portal, but he’s seeing it through in Starkville.

“I’ve stuck with Mississippi State through everything because the one thing that I love is loyalty and the fans in Starkville are awesome. Feeling that feeling from the coaches made me want to stay and be that person they wanted me to be.”

MSU enters Lebby’s second season trying to improve after having the worst record since 2003. The Bulldogs were last in the SEC in defense and went to the transfer portal to land more than 30 players while adding a top 25 signing class.

The season will begin on August 30 when the Bulldogs travel to Hattiesburg to take on Southern Miss to kick off the Charles Huff era for the Golden Eagles. State will play 2024 playoff teams Arizona State, Tennessee, Georgia and Texas at home along with projected top 25 team Ole Miss.

Lebby will look to turn around its fortunes after a rough first year.

“I think people that watched the game, that know the game, saw a football team that had great belief and saw a football team that had great energy, that had passion, that played for each other and played for their coaches. And to me, that speaks to what’s going on inside the building,” Lebby said at Media Days this week. “The result was not what we want, wasn’t the expectation. But if you know football and you watch you can tell that it’s a group of guys that believe, and so people want to be a part of that. There’s great belief, passion, toughness, confidence inside the program right now.”

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