100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 23 Days - No. 23, DL Trevion Williams and RB Seth Davis

Jeff Lebby’s era of Mississippi State football has arrived.

The Bulldogs are on their third coach in as many years as Mike Leach’s tragic passing opened the door for defensive coordinator Zach Arnett’s debut as head coach last year. That experiment failed before the year even ended for State and now it’s Lebby’s turn to take the wheel.

While there is always a risk in hiring first time head coaches, Lebby brings to Starkville an exciting offensive scheme that has been productive everywhere he’s been. The coach has also brought with him some swagger that has the fanbase ready to see what’s next.

Over the course of the next 100 days, we will take a look at Lebby’s roster and even some fun historical rewinds that will bring back memories for Dawg fans of all ages.

Today, we look at two young players with tremendous talent.     

100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 23 Days

 No. 23, So. DL Trevion Williams             

The Crystal Springs native took some time to get into the Bulldog boat.

Some of the top schools in the country came to Mississippi to recruit Williams with offers from LSU, Auburn, Florida State, Tennessee and others but the Seminoles and the Bulldogs were two of the early favorites. After visiting Tallahassee in the summer of 2021, Williams would pull the trigger for FSU and the Bulldogs were back to square one with him.

State’s coaching staff never stopped recruiting Williams as a priority and he ended up in Starkville for all of the Bulldogs’ home games. Much like Charles Cross two years prior, he would end up spurning the Noles and would sign with the Bulldogs on signing day.

MSU would land the nation’s No. 24 defensive lineman, the fifth best player in the state and the No. 187 player overall nationally.

After playing three games as a true freshman in 2022 and redshirting, Williams was expected to have a breakthrough redshirt freshman season last year. He made six tackles and had 1.5 tackles for loss in the first three games but he would go down with a knee injury that would end his season.

Now that Williams is healthy, he has been turning heads at training camp and is expected to be full-go at the start of the season. The hope is that Williams becomes the next great defensive lineman for the Bulldogs and the potential is there in his 6’4, 295-pound frame.

No. 23, So. RB Seth Davis  

The Bulldog roster for 2024 took a hit late last season when Davis went down with a knee injury early in the game against Ole Miss.

Davis caught a screen pass from Will Rogers and was left high and dry to get a big hit that would deal a serious injury to that knee that is still being slowly rehabbed a little less than a year later. That injury will keep Davis out for the entirety of the season, Lebby announced at SEC media days, and has set him back in his run to a productive career in Starkville.

It’s a tough turn of events for a player that had so much promise last season that the Bulldog coaching staff didn’t hesitate to remove his redshirt as a true freshman. The Katy (Texas) product is 5’7, 190 pounds, but his game packs a serious punch.

He produced one of the great careers in Texas High School football history when he rushed for 6,785 career rushing yards and 80 touchdowns in 6A football. The All-State product picked up offers from Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss, California, Louisville, Maryland and many others and committed to Duke in the spring of his junior year.

It didn’t take long for that commitment to change, as Jason Washington and Leach would get Davis to flip that verbal commitment to the Bulldogs in May. He went on to produce a monster senior season of over 2,500 yards and 30 touchdowns sending his Katy team all the way to the semifinals of the state playoffs.

Time will tell if the track star will be able to get back up to speed, but it won’t happen this season.