What Jeff Lebby Took Away From State’s Second Scrimmage
August 16, 2025 | Football, Joel Coleman
Bulldogs continue to get better with just two weeks until the season opener.
(Watch head coach Jeff Lebby's full post-scrimmage press conference by clicking the image above.)
STARKVILLE – Highway 12 is jam-packed. The Cotton District is busy. Campus is hopping.
As Mississippi State students have returned to town this week for the fall semester, it's apparent the buzz is back in the best small town in the South.
Business has also picked up for Bulldog football. Just two weeks from State's season opener at Southern Miss, MSU hit the field at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday looking to take another step forward. Head coach Jeff Lebby said afterwards that his team did exactly that.
"You do [see progression] with a bunch of the guys," Lebby said. "Sitting in the chair I am sitting in, you want more. You constantly want more. That is never going to change. We're going to stress [progressing] regardless of who is out there, whether it's the ones, the twos, the threes or whoever it is.
"So there's been this great amount of growth for a bunch of guys and there's a bunch of guys that have to get a heck of a lot better. That's where the strain is. I think that is part of coaching, part of leading and trying to find ways to get the most out of them every single day and get these guys where they need to be."
Constant improvement is really all you can ask for this time of year. Cliches are thrown around quite a bit in preseason camp, but that's because so many of them are true.
It's about getting better moment by moment. It's about stacking days. Just because you succeeded yesterday doesn't mean you can rest today.
Maybe that's the most exciting thing so far about State's camp. The Dawgs are seemingly developing with each outing.
Take the defense for example. One week ago, that side of the football was incredibly strong in State's first scrimmage. Rather than rest on last week's laurels, the group went out and again had a good day on Saturday.
"Defensively, we had some great energy and made some huge plays in some short-yardage situations where we were able to get off the field to end a couple of drives early in the scrimmage," Lebby said. "That created real momentum and once again, I thought that was great to see.
"I thought the energy, the toughness, the attitude and the edge showed we are getting close to where we want to be from that standpoint. We've got to continue to play cleaner and play better and create depth. But the mentality and the edge right now, I am proud of where our guys are, defensively."
Don't take the defense's Saturday success to mean the Bulldogs were unable to grow on the offensive side.
Lebby heaped praise on his team's offensive leaders and the accountability they took to be sharper this weekend than last. It showed up in the group's execution.
"[Running backs] [Davon Booth], [Fluff Bothwell] and [Kolin Wilson] all did some good things," Lebby said. "[Johnnie Daniels] did some good things as well. I thought all four of those backs had a pretty solid day and were productive.
"[Quarterback Blake Shapen] was solid, took care of the football and I thought that was good to see. From a decision-making standpoint, he was in a really good spot. Then the other two [quarterbacks] – [Luke Kromenhoek and KaMario Taylor] – both those guys had solid days. Again, it is all about the ball and taking care of the rock. Those guys did that today. We had one fumble on an exchange where there was an issue. Outside of that we were much cleaner, which we needed to be."
Cleaner. Sharper. Better.
Day by day, the Bulldogs are getting closer to ready.
That process will continue on Sunday as MSU starts shifting more from camp into game preparations.
Because again, business is picking up, and kickoff down in Hattiesburg will be here in the blink of an eye.
"[Sunday] will really be a day when we are in the office to dial in on depth charts and from a special teams standpoint, [identify] guys that are going to be on the bus and [start determining] where we are going to end up," Lebby said. "There's going to be great competition as we move through next week.
"There will be a lot of scout work next week as we get ready for the first few opponents and that will be important for our guys to be able to, again, have this great amount of growth and get ready to go, while some of our guys' roles are going to be changing. That is something we talked about after the scrimmage. Some guys we've got to make sure are buying into their roles as we get ready to go change the format of practice and do what we do."
