State ends 2024 season on sour note with Egg Bowl disappointment

On Friday in the annual Egg Bowl matchup, Mississippi State put a scare into No. 14 Ole Miss for nearly four quarters. But the end result was a 26-14 loss at Ole Miss in a game where the Bulldogs had several self-inflicted issues.

For the game, State had three turnovers, including two interceptions thrown by quarterback Michael Van Buren, and couldn’t muster much offense in the second half. State finished the season 2-10 overall and 0-8 in the SEC, State’s first winless SEC slate since the 2003 season.

Ole Miss moved to 9-3 overall and 5-3 in the league.

“To me the game comes down to two picks,” said Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby. “We spotted them three (points) on the first drive of the game. We muffed the punt and we get no points down there 1st and 1 at the one. Those four drives right there, again, it’s going to be really hard to beat a good football team when those four things happen.”

Van Buren completed 17 of 32 passes for 280 yards with one touchdown (and one rushing score) and those two picks. Kevin Coleman had his best game of the season with six catches for 118 yards and a touchdown. But in the second half, State had several chances go by the wayside that kept them from victory.

“There’s so many things throughout that game that give us a chance for a different outcome if we play a little cleaner,” added Lebby. “If we execute a little cleaner, if we do some things a little differently. There’s frustrating moments. But there’s going to be incredible growth from this for (Van Buren).”

Interestingly enough, State’s defense kept the Bulldogs in the game for much of the way. State did allow 136 rushing yards to Uylesses Bentley, including an 89-yard touchdown run. But the Bulldogs held Ole Miss to under 400 yards of offense and held Jaxson Dart to 143 yards passing. State also sacked Dart twice and had eight tackles for loss, led by Stone Blanton‘s 14 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss. Zakari Tillman also had two sacks for State’s defense.

“Defensively, I thought our physicality was incredible and the way we flew around and the effort we played with,” Lebby noted. “Outside of the one explosive run that we did give up, I thought our guys played really, really well and we were put in some really, really bad situations.”

Trailing 26-14 in the fourth quarter, State got to the Ole Miss one-yard line after a 44-yard reception by Coleman. But Ole Miss kept State out of the end zone on four straight tries and held State to just 115 yards of offense in the second half.

“I don’t think they were doing anything differently,” said State center Ethan Miner of Ole Miss’ defense. “It was play execution. They were twisting a lot and they’re a really good defense. They have a lot of good guys on their Dline. I’ve talked about it a lot and at the end of the day, it just comes down to executing a play. I think we hurt ourselves a lot.”

While the effort was there for the Egg Bowl, the loss still stung and was a bitter ending to Lebby’s debut season with the Bulldogs.

“This one hurts,” said sophomore safety Isaac Smith, who had 12 tackles, one tackle for loss and a PBU. “I felt like we played really good, defensively, and offensively. It just came down to a couple of big plays where they executed better than we did. I do think it gave us some momentum going into next season, knowing we can come out and play hard, physical football. And it shouldn’t just be in this game. It should be every game next year.”

Moving forward, State will look to close out the Class of 2025 on Wednesday when the December signing period begins. Then the transfer portal officially opens on December 9th and it’s no secret that State has to quickly bolster it’s talent on both sides of the ball.

“From a portal standpoint we’re going to address a ton of needs,” Lebby mentioned. “We’re going to need to do a really good job of going and getting the guys that we need to get. There’s going to be guys at every single position that need to come in here and make an impact. We’re looking to constantly upgrade. We want to make our roster as good as we possibly can and as fast as we possibly can. We have the ability to go do that.”