Lebby Era Starts With Blowout Win In Starkville
The Mississippi State Bulldogs earned their 90th season-opening victory, 56-7, that ignited the cowbells early and often, over the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky in front of just over 48,000 at Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi, Saturday night.
This was just the 11th time State had opened the season in August in its storied history. We have you covered, and we will look at what went right and Jeff Lebby‘s first game as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Lebby and staff knew they needed to change the roster after a 5-7 season that netted them just one SEC victory in 2023. The staff recruited and brought in 20 players from P4 schools via the portal, the biggest of which was Baylor transfer Blake Sharpen.
The transfers for State made an impact early. They opened the scoring early in the first quarter, 40 seconds in to be exact, with a laser strike from transfer quarterback Blake Sharpen to Jordan Mosley for the 65-yard score to put the Bulldogs up, 7-0.
He efficiently slung it and completed 15-22 passes for 247 yards and three scores. The balanced attack helped Sharpen keep EKU off-balance defensively, and they ran the ball 35 times for 203 yards.
The Bulldogs outgained the Colonels 450-295 in the blowout victory. The defense was the story of the game; they gave up an average of just over 22 points a game and 350 yards a game, but their bend-not-break strategy paid off for Defensive Coordinator Coleman Huntzler.
Eastern Kentucky started the game with five punts and a turnover on downs before they got on the scoreboard. Late in the second quarter, they put together a 14-play, 75-yard drive that burned off 3:13 off the clock. By the time Eastern got on the board, it was 35-7, and that was as close as they would get.
Lebby was pleased with the effort and the win in his first game in Starkville. He replaced Zack Arnett, who stepped up in the role after Mike Leech suddenly passed away in 2022.
“I think there was a whole lot of good. Proud of our guys for their energy and their competitive spirit, the toughness they played with, but there are so many things to clean up,” Lebby said about the effort Saturday night. “I think that’s the biggest takeaway is that you got a chance to go win the way we won, but we are going to need to play better, play cleaner, and that’s what we are going to look forward to as we get back into it.”
Lebby spoke about the good, and Elijah Cannon was a highlight reel in the secondary. Cannon picked off Matt Morrisey and took it back 51 yards to the house in the third quarter, which extended the lead to 56-7.
Lebby and staff knew they needed to change the roster after a 5-7 season that netted them just one SEC victory in 2023. The staff recruited and brought in 20 players from P4 schools via the portal and the biggest was Baylor transfer Sharpen.
He was efficient slinging it and completed 15-22 passes for 247 yards and three scores. The balanced attack helped Sharpen keep EKU off-balance defensively, and they ran the ball 35 times for 203 yards.
“I think our guys understand that we want to have fun doing it every single day. Every single Saturday, we want to have fun,” Lebby said about the play in the win. “You get so few opportunities at this thing, and to have the ability to come out and open the season at home, our energy should’ve been through the roof, and we should’ve played as if we were having fun. That was the expectation. Again, I love where our guys are mentally and how much we’ve come together in a short amount of time, and we are going to need that as we get going later on in the season. Lebby said about the play in the win. “You get so few opportunities at this thing, and to have the ability to come out and open the season at home, our energy should’ve been through the roof, and we should’ve played as if we were having fun. That was the expectation. Again, I love where our guys are mentally and how much we’ve come together in a short amount of time, and we are going to need that as we get going later on in the season.”
Fans of Cowbell U will ask if momentum can carry to week two as they travel to Tucson, Arizona. The Sun Devils were 10-3 in 2023, and that was their 4th 10-win season, and the last was in 2014 under Rich Rodriguez. The Bulldogs defeated Arizona State, in Starkville, last season, 31-24, in overtime. Kickoff is set for 9:30 CT and can be streamed on the ESPN App.
