New Season, New Looks And New Opportunities
August 25, 2025 | Football, Joel Coleman
Mississippi State eager for a strong start to 2025 campaign at Southern Miss.
STARKVILLE – Jeff Lebby has been coaching football in some form or fashion for more than two decades. That's more than 20 years' worth of season openers for the Mississippi State football leader.
But like pretty much every head coach that'll lead a team into action for a first game this weekend, experience won't allow Lebby to be satisfied. Those opening-contest jitters are real for everyone.
"I can't imagine what that would feel like [to think you're completely ready]," Lebby said on Monday in his first weekly press conference of the season. "There's still plenty of work to be done.
"But our guys are really excited about the opportunity at hand. We've got a great challenge in front of us…We're excited about the opportunity."
Opportunity is certainly an appropriate word for Lebby and his Bulldogs to use headed into Saturday's 11 a.m. CT game at Southern Miss.
It's an opportunity to get the new season started off on the right foot. It's an opportunity to quickly put last year in the past. It's an opportunity to make an instate statement. And it's an opportunity for the Bulldogs' new-look roster to shine.
MSU added 65 new players over this past offseason. Of those, 37 came from the transfer portal, nine came from junior college and 19 are true freshmen.
State does return 11 starters though, 12 if you include quarterback Blake Shapen who played in just four games last year before his season got cut short due to injury.
Still – and here's that word again – opportunity is there for new Dawgs to show how much bite they have. That's across the board.
It's up front on offense.
"You're going to see guys at different positions [along the offensive line]," Lebby said. "We have multiple guys who will play multiple spots as we try to get to where we've got eight guys who can go play winning football."
It's the skill guys.
"We've got to make sure the ball gets in the right guys' hands," Lebby said. "To me, that's my job offensively, to make sure the right people are touching the football. We have the opportunity to spread it to a number of different guys. We have to get all those guys the ball early and often. That's probably the most fun part."
It's the same story on the defensive front, too.
"I think we have the ability to roll guys [on the defensive line]," Lebby said. "Going to continue to talk about fresh and fast bodies and we are going to need that in a big way, and that will be a big part of Saturday morning. Excited to see those guys cut loose."
Speaking of that defense, it's a unit overall that has a great opportunity to show it's a much-improved group. All through camp, the guys on that side of the ball have preached how their togetherness and unity has made them stronger.
"To me, when you watch our defense walk through, there is a great sense of urgency and there's this great sense of togetherness," Lebby said. "We have to continue to build on that. They have really taken to [defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler's] edge and passion and how he runs around every minute of every single day. There has been buy-in with that. Excited about that unit being able to go play well on Saturday morning."
Of course, the Bulldogs aren't the only ones with opportunity in front of them Saturday. The Golden Eagles have plenty of folks looking to prove themselves as well.
Similar to State, USM is a different team as compared to a year ago, starting with its new head coach Charles Huff – a former Mississippi State assistant.
Huff is now the head man in Hattiesburg following a successful run as head coach at Marshall. He brought 21 of his former players with him to Southern Miss, accounting for a total of 65 four-year transfers on this season's USM roster.
A new coach and new players lead to a whole lot of unpredictability as MSU preps. But that's all part of it Lebby admits.
"You try to not chase ghosts, but at the end of the day, there's some unknowns out there," Lebby said. "So, you're trying to prepare for everything as we get ready for it, not knowing exactly what it will look like on the other side of the ball. The way you do that is make it really simple on both sides of the ball so the guys can adjust and go play free and fast depending on what you're going to get."
At the end of the day, for Lebby and his Bulldogs, it's all ultimately about capitalizing on the new opportunities that await and building some early-season momentum.
"I want to see us play with effort, incredible physicality, and go execute and play clean," Lebby said. "That's how we will win and that's playing winning football. I want to have the ability to get off that field and be 1-0 and go play clean. That will be huge for us – [not having] pre-snap penalties, taking care of the football, hidden yards in special teams. That will all be a big piece of it."
