COLUMN: Jeff Lebby gets Dawgs off the mat

Exactly one month ago, Mississippi State football was at the bottom of the pit.

The Bulldogs have been through tough times before. A two-decade drought against rival Ole Miss, years of futility  and failed coaches and heartbreaking defeats have made for a plenty of callouses. Despite some of the toughest years, though, the Bulldogs enjoyed a relative golden age from 2009-22.

Dan Mullen started a trend of consistency that hasn’t been seen in Starkville. That culture carried State through two more head coaches that led the Bulldogs to bowl games each season on campus. But the death of Mike Leach began a spiral for State that has the 2024 team fighting to get back to where it wants to be.

None of us were totally sure where the Bulldogs were or how fall they might fall coming into the season. But after State’s embarrassing 41-17 beatdown at home against Toledo, it became clear that there was a large task in front of new coach Jeff Lebby.

The Bulldogs were outclassed and outplayed in every facet that day as State had one of its worst non-conference losses in years. It was a wakeup call to many that the Bulldogs are in a state of instability and searching for continuity and structure.

Fairly shortly after that game, things started to swing for the Bulldogs – a shift in the wind, if you will. Lebby entered his Monday press conference with a message of confidence in where things were headed. There’s certainly some coach speak in what he says, but it didn’t feel any less authentic and believable.

“We’re going to continue to make sure that our building and the guys inside our room have great awareness of just doing our job. Controlling exactly what we control. There is great disappointment in how we played, in how I coached and how we did what we did on Saturday morning. For us and our brand, what we do on Saturdays affects our entire state and it affects our fanbase, our university, the energy that is pumped into our community,” Lebby said.

“We understand that, we do. We want to find a way to get back on track. We want to find a way to focus incredibly small and go put a really good product on the field.”

Buy in coming across the board in Starkville

That week, a rally of support from the fanbase poured in at State. An anonymous donation of $8 million was announced and it triggered a new wave of financial support for NIL efforts. Slowly but surely, the football team’s effort and buy in followed.

Not a single win as been produced during that timespan, but this particular season is no longer about the wins and losses in totality. After losing to Florida 45-24 at home, the Bulldogs had a schedule of three top 10 teams in a row with No. 1 Texas and No. 5 Georgia on the road.

State went to Austin as 36-point underdogs and returned with a 35-13 loss in freshman Michael Van Buren’s first start. The Bulldogs executed a gameplan of holding on to the football and slowing things down and also made progress on defense forcing turnovers and getting off the field at times.

The deck was stacked against MSU again on Saturday when it traveled to Athens to take on a bigger, faster and stronger Georgia team. A slow start led to a 27-10 halftime disadvantage and a 34-10 lead in the third quarter. But something clicked with State in the second half. Van Buren would throw three touchdown passes and close the final score to 41-31 after being 34-point underdogs.

The 31 points were the most for State in a road game against a top 5 team in school history. It was the most MSU has scored in a game against a top 5 team since Texas A&M in 2016. It was as impressive a half of football as we’ve seen for State in a while and it left most fans feeling a major hint of optimism.

As we talked about on September 14, we didn’t know if darker days were coming but Lebby would need time to figure it out. While the coach is searching to end this losing streak, it’s never been clearer that Lebby is exactly what State needs in a time like this.

Note that this isn’t going to be easy. There are decisions to be made in the offseason on who to move forward with on the team and the coaching staff. There are major holes that will need to be filled via the transfer portal and the recruiting class. All of that in mind, the Bulldogs are getting back up off of the mat and putting up a heck of a fight.