Zach Arnett reveals Ja'Kobi Albert will miss rest of the season

Mississippi State fans won’t see Ja’Kobi Albert suit up in maroon anytime soon. On Monday, MSU head coach Zach Arnett provided a critical update on the sophomore safety.

“Kobi is probably going to be done for the year,” Arnett said. “He had a little bit of a knee injury in camp. We gave it a couple of weeks to try and heal up and see if he could play on it braced. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to. But, my admiration for him, just the fact that he willing to try and do that because he wanted to play so bad. But, he’s going to end up having a season-ending knee operation.”

Albert is yet to play for the Bulldogs after transferring from Kentucky in January. In his lone season at UK, Albert appeared in 10 games, tallying three tackles.

Albert played high school football at Fairfield Prepatory (Alabama) School, where he was a three-star prospect. He was the No. 437 overall recruit in the 2022 cycle, according to On3 Industry Ratings, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Mississippi State’s secondary could use Albert’s help. Through two games, the team is allowing 232.5 passing yards per game, ranking 87th in the country. While the Bulldogs aren’t always lockdown, they cause enemy issues. MSU already boasts four interceptions this season.

Mississippi State shows resiliency in Arizona win

All four of these picks came during MSU’s 31-24 overtime win over Arizona on Saturday. After the game, Arnett discussed his team’s tenacity in the gritty win.

“It is fairly easy as a football team to throw in the towel and just accept defeat and they did not do that. And that’s credit to the players in that locker room marathon coach Fisher and his staff.” Arnett said. “They did a tremendous job of fighting off the whole game. We knew it was gonna be a 60 minute football game. It actually had to be more than that and it was fitting it came down with a scramble but now I mean credit to them.

“We got we got to have some really resilient football players. I could not be prouder of the way they continue to fight all the way till the end. And that’s what made a difference in the game. Players making plays.”

Mississippi State will need its resiliency more than ever this weekend. On Saturday, the Bulldogs will square off against No. 14 LSU at noon ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.