Texas A&M travels to Davis Wade Stadium on Oct. 19 to face first-year head coach Jeff Lebby and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. On Tuesday morning, Brian Hadad of SuperTalk Mississippi joined TexAgs Radio to share his preseason expectations for the team in Starkville.
Key notes from Brian Hadad interview
- With last year, you look back in hindsight, and I don’t know why anybody still wants to hear my opinion because I thought that the Mississippi State team was going to be pretty good. Defensively, they had enough, and by the end of the season, they were pretty good defensively. Will Rogers, we just learned that he’s a system quarterback. You put him in the right system... You put him in the air raid, and he’ll be fine. Outside of that, Zach Arnett, at the end of the day, was just not ready to be a head coach. I’m thankful that Zac Selmon saw that early and went ahead and pulled the Band-Aid off and got State moving in the right direction.
- With Jeff Lebby, he’s a guy that his offensive reputation proceeds him. Everywhere he’s been, they’ve been really good offensively. It feels like, to me, that he was the assistant coach that everybody had circled as he’s the next guy to become a head coach. Talking to some people over in the athletic department, they get some similar vibes from Lebby to Dan Mullen in terms of how they carry themselves and the confidence they have in themselves. I think State is going to be better this year offensively, it’s just going to be a question to what does the defense look like and what do they look like in the win-loss record.
- People are going to want to put a number on what success looks like in year one under Jeff Lebby, and I get that, but talking to Lebby last week, he said, “I just want Mississippi State fans to feel like they’ve got the right guy at the end of the season.” There’s some qualitative things to this beyond just wins and losses. I think State can get to six wins. Their nonconference schedule isn’t terribly difficult.
- I don’t understand why Arkansas continues to get the benefit of the doubt over Mississippi State. Mississippi State has beaten Arkansas seven of the last ten years. They’ve finished ahead of them in the SEC West for seven of the last ten years. Yet every year, Arkansas is predicted ahead of Mississippi State. I think State can beat Arkansas.
- Mississippi State needs to lose some shootouts. That’s something that they’ve never really done. You feel like you can compete when you score some points. I think that’s where State is this year. They just want to see some points on the board.
- You’ve got to enjoy this season in a bubble. Ole Miss is going to do what they do. We’ll worry about Ole Miss when we get to the Egg Bowl, which is easier said than done because the Egg Bowl permeates things in this state 365 days a year. Ole Miss is going to be good this year unless they have some sort of unusual injury situation. Their schedule lends itself to winning nine, ten or eleven games.
- In the SEC this year, I would say there are six teams that you would say are real, legit College Football Playoff contenders: Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Missouri. State plays five of those teams, and four of them are on the road. That’s as brutal a schedule as they come. State has to win that Arizona State game. That’s a massive game for the Bulldogs just to keep early-season momentum going.
- I feel like A&M should easily be favored in that game against Mississippi State and will probably win that game when we get to it. I like A&M. I think they’re going to be a good team this year. I don’t think they’re in the CFP contender tier, but I think they’re going to be a very good team. It just feels like such a breath of fresh air over there in College Station from a season ago when everybody was kind of just under the burden of Jimbo Fisher. Now, it feels like, with Mike Elko, who’s a coach I respect, I like him a lot, and I love Conner Weigman. I think if he can stay healthy, he is a professional quarterback. I think A&M will catch somebody right now you’re not expecting them to beat. In a couple of years or even next year, they’re going to be a College Football Playoff contender.
- I like Blake Shapen. You see what he did at Baylor, and it’s the same thing as Weigman... Can he stay healthy? When he was healthy, he was pretty good, but he’s fought the injury bug. Lebby said that Shapen reminds him a lot of Matt Corrall. In this offense, there is a quarterback run component, and I don’t know how much they want him to run in this upcoming year because of the backup situation. You have a redshirt freshman in Chris Parson, who played against Texas A&M.
- Chris Parson, by the way, was the freshman All-SEC Quarterback last year. I think he completed three passes. There were no freshman quarterbacks in the SEC a season ago. Behind him is a true freshman who was highly recruited. With Shapen, Mississippi State really needs to do everything they can to keep him upright.
- I think Kevin Coleman will play a big role. He was really sharp in the spring game. I think he will be starting in the slot for Mississippi State. He and Kelly Akharaiyi, the transfer from UTEP, those are going to be State’s two big-play targets this year. For State, they desperately need Akharaiyi and Coleman to step up in this offense.
- With the transfer portal nowadays, I think the old days of hiring a coach and when his guys are juniors and seniors, we’re going to be really good, are over. Next year, I think State needs to find a way to be in a bowl game. By year three, I’d like to think that Mississippi State could be a preseason top-25 team and people saying if things go right, they could sneak their way into the College Football Playoff. I think that’s a fair assessment of this day and age of college football where you can constantly reshape your roster year-to-year.
