Mississippi State's Shapen, Bumphis confident in most talented WR room yet

“We’re so much further ahead today than we have been day one,” Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby said after Thursday’s first preseason practice. “So excited about that. We got a ton of work to do. I think our leadership is in a much better place and that, to me, is what helps as much as anything.”

One position group that experienced both lost a lot of production in the transfer portal and brought in several new faces is the wide receivers. The Bulldogs return just three receivers from last season and brought in six transfers and four high school signees in the offseason.

Several of those transfers are likely to be in the starting lineup against Southern Miss, including Brenen Thompson who was at SEC Media Days. Their transition will be helped by Blake Shapen, who is playing in his sixth season this year.

“It's a blessing for me to be able to come back,” Shapen said after Friday’s practice. “When you're in year two, you're more experienced and you kind of come prepared already knowing what’s going to be the game plan.”

As the starting quarterback, Shapen may be in a better position than anyone else to compare this year’s group of receivers to last year. Of course, Lebby is in a great position as is the wide receivers coach Chad Bumphis. Here’s what they’ve said recently about this year’s crop of wide receivers:

“This is definitely the most talented room that I’ve been a part of,” Shapen said. “Last year we were really talented, but it’s pretty crazy to think that you can grow from last year and have an even better room. And I think we do.”

“We've got guys in that room that can play,” Lebby said. “The thing that I love about that room is it’s an unselfish room. It’s a room that’s connected. There’s depth to it and a lot of different body types. And so when they're all in there fighting together, competing together, you've got a chance to be really good.”

“I've had really good rooms. This may be my favorite just because they love to ball. Like, you have to pull them off the football field,” Bumphis said. “You have to pull them back to protect them from themselves because they'll overtrain. There's trust in there. There are guys who've played whether it's been here or not. They played at this level, and they've made plays and then you add in the young guys. It’s a really good room.”

All signs point towards good things for Mississippi State’s passing game this year, but, again, we won’t know for sure until August 30.

But the Bulldogs are doing a good job of selling optimism.