Success across the board: Mississippi State football looks to join the party

It’s an exciting time for Mississippi State sports and there’s no shortage of hope and optimism about the upcoming seasons.

Soccer is coming off a SEC Championship and Sweet 16 appearance. Both men and women basketball advanced to the NCAA Tournament as did the softball team. Peyton Bair won a national championship at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Both men and women golf made their tournaments. The Bulldogs’ baseball team has a new coach, the top-ranked transfer portal class and sky-high expectations.

Really, the only sport that isn’t spewing out hope and optimism is the Mississippi State football team. And its coach, Jeff Lebby, knows it. He was asked about it Wednesday at SEC Media Days.

“We're going to change the outcome because of how we do what we do,” Lebby said. “It's not going to be anybody talking about it; it's going to be the work that we put in, the ability to go practice the way we need to practice with everything pointing towards August 30th. That's how we change that. Again, women's basketball, men's basketball in the tournament. Baseball, the excitement with Coach O coming in. Softball getting in the post-season. It's our turn to go do our job. It's not a turn that you get; you have to go earn it.”

The Bulldogs haven’t earned it. They won only two games in Lebby’s first season and neither of those games were against SEC teams. Just to make things harder there are a ton of new faces in the locker room.

And even in the time of year where everyone is undefeated and has a chance at winning a championship, those feelings aren’t very strong with the Bulldogs.

It can change. It has to change.

It’s a great thing other sports like basketball, baseball, soccer and softball are all successful and have postseason aspirations. But football is king. It’s the biggest money maker and most popular sport.

New Bulldogs’ wide receiver Brenen Thompson grew up in Texas, where football is insanely popular. And he’s seeing the same thing here in Mississippi.

“It's a big deal. Obviously coming from Texas, it's a big deal as well,” Thompson said at SEC Media Days. “But Mississippi State football, to me it's everything now. It's where my feet are. It's where God has led me. I'm excited to go put on for the State.”

So, yes, Mississippi State needs its football program to be on the same level as its other sports and it’s what the Bulldogs have working on all offseason.

“We've been working our tail off all summer long,” junior safety Isaac Smith said. “We had a great spring. The new guys we've got, they've been working real hard. The offense, they look really, really well. The defense, we did a lot of things to fix what we had last year, and it's going to be a fun season.”