WATCH: Head coach Jeff Lebby previews Toledo matchup

Mississippi State continues non-conference play this weekend when the Toledo Rockets pay a visit to Davis Wade Stadium for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff (ESPNU).

On Monday, head coach Jeff Lebby held his weekly press conference and discussed Toledo among other topics:

Q: After watching the tape of the Arizona State game, what stood out to you good or bad?
Lebby: There’s both sides of it, all three phases of the game. You want to play a heck of a lot better earlier so you don’t dig yourself that 30-3 hole. Again, incredibly proud of the guys for fighting and staying with it and continuing to play the next play. In the second half, created a little momentum, had the ability to cut it to a one-score game. But I think our guys, after watching the tape and having our Monday workout, just them understanding the fine line of being on the right side or wrong side.

That margin of error of what it is when you’re playing good football teams when you are on the road like we were. Understanding how clean you have to play and find a way to go win. That was the stress for us. That was the constant talk and messaging, understanding it’s all about the execution, cleaning that part up and looking forward to being in Davis Wade Saturday night.

Q: What lessons did you learn in defeat?
Lebby: I think there’s a bunch of them, especially going through this as a group Year 1. Our guys understand it that us as a staff, me, myself, am going to be exactly who I was last Monday. They’re not going to get somebody new or different in the building. The trust and culture we’ve created over the last seven months is for these times. It’s not for the easy times. The family, the trust, the connection is for the times when it is really, really hard. To me, that’s when things get exposed.

Our guys have answered the right way. They had great attitudes and energy in the building this morning. I think they were wondering how the building was going to be today. As they get off the practice field today, they’ve got a great sense of understanding. We’ve got to find ways to get better. We got to execute cleaner. But the people that are going to be leading them are not going to be different because of an outcome on Saturday.

Q: What are your early impressions of Toledo, defensively?
Lebby: This football team and program is incredibly established. The head football coach has been there nine years as the head coach and been there 16 years overall as a coordinator or head coach. Their program is incredibly established and they’ve had a ton of success. For them to be able to come down here Saturday night, it will be no big deal for their program. So stressing that for our guys and understanding exactly who we are going to get.

They’ve got a defensive unit that’s got seven of the 11 starters that are six-year players. They are old unit. Then offensively, they’ve got some skill guys that can do some really good things with the ball when they get it in their hands. So it is going to be a total team effort. They returned a kickoff for a touchdown last week, a running back that is a really good player for them that we got to make sure we bottle up and tackle, and make sure he doesn’t become a problem on special teams, as well.

A program that has won a bunch of games and a bunch of conference championships, and a staff that is incredibly established. So we look forward to that challenge Saturday night.

Q: After watching film, what are the issues you see with the running game?
Lebby: You look at the running backs, the offensive linemen, the decision-making from a quarterback standpoint and when he should pull the ball, how he should pull the ball or hand the ball, how we are blocking on the perimeters. It is the totality of it and what gives us the chance to be better in the run game. Just too many inconsistencies.

All day long, the run game we had it at the right people but fundamentally, we did not play clean. I’ve talked about this a bunch and with our guys. Our intent was really good but our execution has to be clean. Bottom line. I’ve got to coach them better. We’ve got to coach it better to execute in a cleaner way and I think our guys see that. Whether we’re blocking the right guys fundamentally, we have to be cleaner, whether that’s on the perimeter or in the core. Whatever that is.

Q: What were the issues of defending the Arizona State run game?
Lebby: It’s one story and it’s tackling. 25 missed tackles, over 250 yards after contact. I think that was the frustrating part for our guys. When they watched the tape there were plenty of times where we were in position and we got to get the guy on the ground. On the first drive, second and 10 and the quarterback makes an unbelievable play. We had him dead to right four yards deep in the backfield and not able to make the play.

There’s other times where, just like I want different calls offensively, Coleman (Hutzler) probably wants a couple calls back, defensively. That’s the reality of what we do. But we got to find ways and when we are in position, we got to make the play. Again, coaching them better, finding ways to make sure we are doing something different, defensively, from a circuit standpoint whether that’s live tackling and to be able to go address it. Then go and playing cleaner on Saturdays. But our guys felt that when they watched the tape from Saturday.

Q: What was the response from the players after Saturday?
Lebby: Our guys are going to fit off us, going to fit off me. Their energy in the building this morning was good. Our intent in practice was good, people incredibly locked in and talking about being our best on Saturday night. Protecting our home field is something we are going to talk about inside our program non-stop. Our guys understand that and they know the importance of playing well Saturday night.

Q: Will you get any guys back on Saturday that were not available against Arizona State?
Lebby: Eric (Taylor) is no longer with us. Dink (Kalvin Dinkins) and Deonte (Anderson) hopeful for these guys to be able to be back. It is too early in the week to know. They did a little bit today but not much. We are planning as if we are not going to have these guys. So we will see as we get later on in the week.

Q: What stands out to you about the slow start at Arizona State?
Lebby: Just like it’s one story defensively, in my mind, offensively, it’s one story. It’s the fact we could not play clean football on third downs. We’re in really good third-down situations early in the game, and don’t have the ability to make the play to stay on the field. Whether it was settling for a field goal down there on fourth down on the third drive or the first two drives of the game being third and six and third and three, and not executing in a way to give us a chance to stay on the field.

So those were the things, offensively, we’ve got to stress to do. We got to run the football more effectively. The way they play defensive, structurally, they were going to be more hats in the box than we could block at times. So again, be cleaner in the run game and we have to play better on third down for us to have a chance to stay on the field and go score points.

Q: You got a rushing and receiving touchdown from your running backs at Arizona State. How did you feel about them?
Lebby: They are trying to take advantage of the opportunities they get. You look at the first two games, we haven’t gotten a ton of carries, haven’t gotten a ton of opportunities. So guys not being able to get in a rhythm, I think is part of the run game right now. That’s with how the flow of the game ended up over the past two weeks. We took really good care of the football and the ball was not on the ground. Those guys made a huge improvement with that from Week 1. Now we have to find ways to win 1 on 1s when in space. But proud of Davon (Booth) for being able to go execute there and go score that receiving touchdown in the fourth.

Q: Did you feel your offensive tempo was slower against Arizona State than it was in Week 1?
Lebby: At times we did. There were times where we weren’t quite as fast. We got held a lot from an officials’ standpoint and that was part of it. But I thought when we had the ability to play fast, I thought our tempo was good.

Q: Do you talk to your team about facing a team from the MAC, a conference that had a team beat Notre Dame last weekend?
Lebby: I don’t talk about it that way. I talk about making sure we know exactly who we are playing and understanding Toledo has a long history of playing good football, winning football. A program that is incredibly established. A group that whether it was at Illinois last year where they ended up getting beat by two or two years ago they go to Notre Dame and they lose by two. They have been in complete fist-fights with Power 4 football teams. This will be nothing new for their football program. It’s got nothing to do with anybody else but Mississippi State and knowing who we are getting Saturday night.