Everything head coach Jeff Lebby said after Mississippi State's spring game

On Saturday afternoon Mississippi State wrapped up the program’s second spring session under head coach Jeff Lebby. It was a split-squad affair with numerous guys getting their share of reps on both sides of the ball in what equaled one half of football.

Afterwards, Lebby met with the media to discuss the spring game and other aspects of spring football.

Q: How would you assess the spring game from a standpoint of your team’s health?
Lebby: That was the biggest goal. Again, we’ve had 14 really good practices up until today. We had a really, really physical spring. Today it was a scenario where we wanted to get on the field. We wanted to go compete, and we wanted to mix the groups, having these guys go play with different guys than they’ve been playing with all spring. But we wanted to stay healthy. We are healthy and we’re extremely excited and happy with that. Our guys’ energy was good.

At times I thought, defensively, we really flew around. I thought there were physicality on both lines of scrimmage on the defensive side of the ball and did a good job. Then offensively, got to be able to make field goals when you get down there. We have to be able to score touchdowns. We’ll go back and look at it. The sustained part of it and the ability to dominate up front, offensively, is not there right now. So finding ways to get better before we go to Hattiesburg will be important.

Q: What did you see from quarterback Luke Kromenhoek and the whole quarterback room?
Lebby: Starting with Blake (Shapen), obviously a guy who has lived it, done it. I’ve continued to talk about how proud of him for the way he’s led and how he’s continued to get better. He’s chasing being great every single day. Luke has gotten better each and every single practice. There is a great role for him inside the scheme and inside the system. Coming from Florida State, a guy who had to play as a true freshman, not ideal situations for him, and he’s continued to get better. Then you look at KaMario (Taylor) coming over being a mid-year, just turned 18 a month ago, and he’s taken to it in a great way. He’s gotten better with every single practice. The depth that we have in that room is exciting. You have to have that in this league to do be able to go do what we want to do. We have upgraded that room in an incredible way and that is exciting for me.

Q: When you have a scrimmage like today, is it the offense not being good or defense being good, or vice-versa?
Lebby: To start, the defensive line from a roster standpoint, we’re in a completely different spot than a year ago today. We’ve got to continue to get better up front on the defensive side of the ball. But from where we’re at today compared to a year ago are two completely different places. That was a must. We knew we had to get that done. We have a lot to do on that side of the ball up front, just like every single position group inside the program. I’ve talked where we’re going to attack in the portal. We need to add some pieces up front on the offensive side of the ball. That is going to be critical for us. We need to add some pieces of guys that have played and played a high level for us to go do what we want to do. We have some talented young players that got here midyear, but maybe aren’t quite ready. That’s the reality of it. I think they have a chance to be special for us, but that’s where they’re at today and it is a process.

Q: Along those lines, what have you seen from Jimothy Lewis this spring?
Lebby: Jimothy has had a really good spring and he has done really well. You look at Jimbo and you look at Luke (Work), those are two guys that have had good springs. We have to have depth at that position. Those guys will continue to grow and have chances to be great players for us here. Their mindset, their toughness, how they’ve worked to put them in positions of success has been really good. The biggest thing is we have to find a way to add pieces to that and have real competition at those positions to be able to go do what we want to do.

Q: Our unofficial stats had linebacker Jalen Smith as the leading tackler. What have you seen from him this spring?
Lebby: The linebacker group and I’ve talked about this this spring. You talk about Nic (Mitchell) and you talk about Jalen, Kari (Zakari Tillman) and DG (Derion Gullette), those four guys playing inside right now have done a really good job with Fatt (Clark) and Tyler (Lockhart) continuing to push. Obviously, both of those guys are young guys. But those guys inside at the second level, again we’re in a much different place than we were a year ago. We need to be able to go play four guys to get done what we need to go get done. We can’t leave somebody on the field for 65, 70 snaps as we were made to do last year. That will be huge for us and Jalen will absolutely be a big part of it and Nic, without a doubt. Then you look at the dime spot with Kari and DG and the young guys in that room continue to help and push.

Q: What did you see from the matchups with the quarterbacks and receivers today?
Lebby: With Blake and Brenen (Thompson), we had Brenen a couple of times down the field behind the defense, which was really good to see for the offensive side of the ball. But not being able to connect and throwing aggressive a couple of times, I thought the wind really hurt two of those balls from Blake early in the scrimmage when we had opportunities to be behind them. I thought, defensively, we had a chance to make plays on the ball. (Jaron) Glover was down the field a couple of times. I thought DeAgo (Brumfield) made a couple of good plays on the ball and that kept it from happening. We’re gonna be aggressive. We’re going to call it aggressive, and we’ll need to make the plays down the field to create explosive plays.

Q: What have you seen from punter Ethan Pulliam since he started focusing just on football?
Lebby: Hopefully, he’s not out there a whole lot, to start. But when he is out there, we want to be really dominant on that unit. He has a chance to flip the field for us, because he does have a big leg. A guy who just has to create consistency. Now that he is solely dialed in on ball, I think this summer for his growth will be huge. Obviously, instead of chasing the baseball piece of it, this guy will be punting all summer long. He has some great things set up that I think can really help him and his development to be able to get him where we need to get him.

Q: Tony Mitchell and Jamil Burroughs showed flashes today. Your thoughts?
Lebby: Tone (Mitchell), really over the last five practices has just started to hit his stride. A guy who had surgery at the end of the season, and he gets here and he’s rehabbing early on as we’re getting into workouts, and he’s really just getting his legs underneath him. He’s put together 4-5 practices together like what we expected when we got him, which was really good to see. We will go back and watch the tape today. Jamil is a big powerful human. He is a guy that can hold the point. That is a real interior defensive lineman within this league. What we got to make sure we’re doing is not having him go play 60-70 snaps a game. We need to be able to roll guys the way we need to and to keep Jamil fresh and playing hot. He has a chance to be a really good player.

Q: Your thoughts on KaMario Taylor‘s performance this spring?
Lebby: Talked about him a little earlier but KaMario has gotten better every single day. I think the thing I am most proud about is he a guy that has been incredibly bought-in to getting better, and spending time in the building. That’s been a huge piece of it. We talked aobut upgrading that room. We have upgraded that room in a great way. They’re doing the things they need to do when not on the practice field or when there’s not a mandatory meeting going on to give them the chance to go be great players, and KaMario has done that. So proud of where he is, excited about where he’s going. Again, the quarterback depth inside that room is what we want.

Q: What is the team’s biggest need going into the summer?
Lebby: Again from a personnel standpoint, I talked a little bit about it. For us as a football team, the biggest charge is us doing a great job of finding ways to get better when we don’t have the ball and we can’t go practice 11 on 11. Whether that is in the playbook or the weightroom or wherever that is, just continuing to be well-rounded as players so we can create this amount of trust so we can go execute the way we need to.

Q: What positions are you looking for in the spring transfer portal?
Lebby: Won’t talk about specifics from a conversation standpoint. But again, the Oline will be a big piece of it. Having the ability to go add a tight end. And having the ability to go look at a DB, whether it is a corner or safety, best available probably at that position, and then be able to loo from there. But that’s our focus as we move through this window.