Vincent Dancy happy to be home at Mississippi State

Jeff Lebby made just a few additions to his coaching staff in the offseason as the Mississippi State coach wanted to keep as much continuity within his staff as possible.

On the assistant coaching front, Phil Loadholt was the only coach that replaced a staff member as he stepped into Cody Kennedy’s role as offensive line coach. The Colorado assistant had another assistant coach from the Buffaloes that would make the move to Starkville with him as Vincent Dancy took over the team’s Edge and defensive end position group.

Dancy, a Noxubee County native, is back in his home state and in the area where he grew up as he has a chance to return to his roots. The former Mississippi Valley State head coach has experience to this point and is hoping to help bring the Bulldogs more pass rush in 2025.

He spoke to the media for the first time recently about the opportunity to return to the state and the progress of his players.

Question: What has it been like being able to come back home to Mississippi?

VD: “It’s been amazing – really a dream come true, especially growing up about 30 minutes away. As a high school football player, Mississippi State in this area is huge. Being there every weekend and being able to see these guys run out and play great football – especially defensively – was amazing. It’s been great.”

Q: Are the guys at the Jack position capable of putting their hand in the ground and playing defensive end in a 4-3?

VD: “No doubt. They’re big enough and athletic enough. I thought (the coaches) did a great job of going out and getting some quality depth at that position. We’ve got length, we’ve got guys that are bigger and guys with athleticism because that Jack position requires you to be multiple and dynamic in what you do. I’m very pleased with that position right now, but it’s a lot of work ahead of us and we’re going to keep battling that Jack position out.”

Q: What’s it been like working with David Turner?

VD: “It’s been great. Everything I expected – hard-nosed, down to earth, old school coach. That’s what the D-line requires. If you’re going to play up front, you’ve got to be disciplined. You’ve got to be willing to strike blocks. You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice. That’s what coach brings every day.

“The older that he gets, the younger he gets. He’s out there running around and has his shorts on. He’s moving around with us. It’s been great for me in my career to be around a veteran like that who has had a lot of success at this level and different schools in this conference.”

Q: Who are some of the Jacks or defensive ends that impressed you whenever you first got here?

VD: “To take the cake, Branden Jennings. He’s been a lot of places, played a lot of snaps last year and was productive for the most part. I thought he played too many snaps, but at the end of the day, he was the anchor and the bread and butter of the defense and I get it. Then you go and get a Mallick Sylla, a Navaeh Sanders, (LaKendrick James) out of Co-Lin.

“The quality of depth that we have at that position is just going to bring the best out of those guys because it’s about competition. Everybody in that room knows that we have a senior-led room. There’s only one that can start the game, but we’re talking about finishing game. We don’t know who will finish the game, but you have to put yourself in position in order for me to trust you to finish the game. It can be any of those guys – that’s how much trust I have in that room because we’re led by so many seniors and everybody has had an opportunity to play meaningful football.”

Q: Pass rush was a major issue for this team a year ago. How much different do you feel this team can be in that regard?

VD: “I watched last year, but last year doesn’t even matter. I don’t even bring it up to the guys. I understand how important it is, but it’s not important to these guys because half of these guys weren’t even here last year, including myself. But, it’s important for us to turn this thing around and generate more pressure on the quarterback.

“I came from Colorado and that was our thing – applying pressure on the quarterback, getting off the ball and causing chaos in the backfield. That’s what I’m looking to bring and those are the things that we emphasized when I got here. It translated through winter, to the spring and now we’ve got to take it up another level in the fall because we have to get after the quarterback, we have to generate pressure on the QB and create turnovers.

“That’s who we will be up front. We will be aggressive. We will be a bunch of guys chasing the ball every down, every play or else you won’t play. That’s the standard in the room.”

Q: The interior of the line is so important to pass rush too. What’s that done for your guys on the edge?

VD: “When we’re talking about pass rush, it’s not just the outside guys it’s the inside guys as well. We’re rushing four and I need to know what you like to do because we like to set up different things off the pass rush. Those guys have been amazing. The guys that we brought in understand how to get off the ball. It’s about the get off and they’re understanding it. The more they work together and understand and trust each other, the better we’re going to be when we rush four. I can win the pass rush and set my guy up that he can come free. It’s a lot of different things that they’ve been doing to help the guys on the outside, but we rush as one.”

Q: Talk about Jeffery Simmons and what an ambassador he is for the University.

VD: “Very special young man. Of course, I’m a lot older but I keep up with Noxubee County and we’ve had some great players come out of that program. He’s just one of them. He’s a great young man overall. Minus the NFL, the production and everything else that he has, he’s a great person and a great young man and that’s what I want every young man in this program to stand for.

“At the end of the day, we want to leave here better than we came and that’s being a great young man and going out into this world being a great citizen. That’s what we’re going to stand for. That’s what we want to be. If you do that, everything else will fall in line. Good happens for good people so we’ve got to stay consistent doing the right things and good things will happen on the field.”

Q: How did all this come together for you to get back home?

VD: “I’ve got to thank (Deion Sanders) for giving me an opportunity to even be at this level. If you understand, I came from an HBCU working my way up. I’m very thankful for those opportunities as well. After having that opportunity to work for coach Prime for those two years, this job came open and having a chance to talk to coach Lebby, wanted to come back home and do something special at home. That’s how it came about. I’ve been coming here since I was a kid and it’s a special place.”   

Q: Did you have a previous relationship with coach Lebby?

VD: “I didn’t. I knew of coach Lebby – everybody did with his offense and the quarterbacks he’s had success with and the places he’s had success with. It was just a mutual thing from a mutual thing. I was blessed to get in contact with him and blessed to have a conversation with him and it led to me being here.”