A new season is here as Mississippi State takes on year two of the Jeff Lebby era in Hattiesburg on Saturday. The Bulldogs are going head-to-head with Southern Miss at 11 a.m. on ESPN and will get an opportunity to show the college football world they made some major improvements. A 2-10 season could be […]
A new season is here as Mississippi State takes on year two of the Jeff Lebby era in Hattiesburg on Saturday.
The Bulldogs are going head-to-head with Southern Miss at 11 a.m. on ESPN and will get an opportunity to show the college football world they made some major improvements. A 2-10 season could be in the rearview with a big afternoon, or it could be a continuation of a disaster in Starkville.
As we get closer to kickoff, the Maroon and White Daily crew have their final predictions before kickoff comes on Saturday morning.
Paul Jones
After a long month of anticipation, Mississippi State finally gets the 2025 season underway on Saturday morning. And for the second time in a decade, the Bulldogs’ opener is at Southern Miss.
Yes, the Bulldogs will have more depth and more size than the Golden Eagles, and both programs are looking to atone for last year’s woes where the two teams combined for three wins. But even with that excitement of every season opener, we must also realize that neither team will be firing on all cylinders and mistakes are normally commonplace in those openers.
With little access to training camp, there’s a lot of questions I have with this Mississippi State team. But one thing I do know is they have improved the talent on this roster, especially on the defensive side of the ball. The defensive line actually looks like an SEC defensive line and State has several good skill players on offense, as well. Southern Miss does have a few playmakers, as well, and they will make plays on Saturday.
But my final prediction is Mississippi State 41, Southern Miss 19.
Robbie Faulk
The importance of this first game for State cannot be understated as Lebby desperately needs something positive to go his way.
There’s a lot of momentum around the University as a whole and inside the city of Starkville, but Bulldog athletics has also managed to pick up steam recently. With basketball on solid ground and baseball hiring an elite staff to run its program, two of the biggest programs are right. The non-revenue sports have been relatively strong across the board as well and Director of Athletics Zac Selmon has accomplished a lot in terms of fundraising, marketing and facilities projects on the way.
What’s left is for the school’s biggest revenue draw to become competitive again and Lebby is tasked in fixing that. After a disastrous first year, Lebby and his staff had plenty of NIL money raised by the fanbase to get the team more competent in the transfer portal.
Saturday will show us just how far the roster has come in one short season as the Bulldogs look to improve on an abysmal 2-10 season. Charles Huff and Southern Miss are looking to do the same after Huff inherited a 1-11 team and it’s a USM squad that is going to be fired up for the game in Hattiesburg.
Despite the home crowd and the improvements that the Golden Eagles have made, State is not competing inside the SEC this year if they can’t win this game comfortably. The Bulldogs need this one and they need to win it going away. I think they will.
Mississippi State 34, Southern Miss 17
Category: General Sports
