The entire college football world will miss Mike Leach forever.
None of this was supposed to happen in Starkville.
Twenty months later, Mississippi State is still in recovery mode.
Last year, they promoted highly regarded Defensive Co-Ordinator Zach Arnett to head coach and the results were disastrous.
Arnett scrapped the patented Leach Air Raid and the offense imploded.
The Bulldogs finished 5-7 and did not go bowling for the first time in more than a minute.
Four year starting QB Will Rogers saw the writing on the wall and transferred to Washington.
And the Bulldogs sacked Arnett to hire a coach to fix their offense in Jeff Lebby.
While the Lebby hire could work long-term, year 1 is going to be a work in progress.
The Bulldogs brought in Baylor QB Blake Chapin in the transfer portal to execute the offense.
And the defense lost a ton of production from last year.
Shapen has a strong arm but is not very accurate.
Mississippi State also does not have elite WRs to stretch the field vertically in Lebby’s uptempo offense.
This offense will be better than last year’s disaster but there are still way more questions than answers.
- Can the defense replace all of the lost production?
Mississippi State traditionally has a solid defense but they are in a bad spot this fall.
Gone are their top CB, top 2 LBs & top DL to the NFL.
Seven of their top eight tacklers from last season are no longer on the roster.
They also are breaking in a 1st year defensive co-ordinator in Coleman Hutzler.
- Where are the SEC wins going to come from?
State opens with a cream puff in Eastern Kentucky.
They have an interesting road trip to the desert in Tempe to face rebuilding Arizona State in week 2.
They will rebound with a home win over Toledo before opening SEC play at home against Florida.
UMASS will be a joke but will be their final win of the season.
They get smoked in all 3 games to finish 4-8 and no bowl in Lebby’s 1st year.
Brighter days are ahead in Starkville but they ain’t coming this fall……
