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WMD’s Mississippi State Preseason Preview: Defense

By Dakota Knight

Oct 24, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs live mascot bully sits on the sideline during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Wade Stadium. Mississippi State won 42-16. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 24, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs live mascot bully sits on the sideline during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Wade Stadium. Mississippi State won 42-16. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 3, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies running back Tra Carson (5) is tackled by Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Richie Brown (39) during the first half at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 3, 2015; College Station, TX, USA; Texas A&M Aggies running back Tra Carson (5) is tackled by Mississippi State Bulldogs linebacker Richie Brown (39) during the first half at Kyle Field. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports /

Mississippi State’s defense enters the 2016 with an entirely new staff and a bunch of fresh faces.

Greetings, peeps! WMD has arrived at Maroon and White Nation. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to get my first post up and going, but alas, real world responsibilities caused a delay. It’s game week, so we’ll get right to why you’re here: My preseason discussion of MSU football. We’re starting things off with the Part I: Defense.

Defensive Overview:

2015 Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz left for Miami so Head Coach Dan Mullen replaced him with Peter Sirmon from the University of Southern California. Sirmon has an outstanding resume. He played linebacker at the University of Oregon and spent 6 years in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans. After his NFL career, Sirmon went into coaching, spending his coaching career in the Pac-12 until he was hired by State.

The new boss named himself linebacker coach and immediately went about putting together his defensive staff. Deshea Townsend left to become defensive backs coach for the Tennessee Titans. Sirmon replaced him with Terrell Buckley. David Turner left to coach the defensive line for Texas A&M. Sirmon hired Brian Baker to coach his DL. Tony Hughes took the head coach position at Jackson State. Sirmon’s final addition to the staff was safety coach  Maurice Linguist.

MSU returns a boatload of talent in the front 7. The back 4 has experience at safety but not much at cornerback. The good news is the CBs are talented.

Defensive Scheme:

So what will State’s defense look like under new DC Sirmon? It seems that Sirmon is a 3-4 coach and will bring that scheme to State. It’s a switch from the Dawgs’ traditional 4-3 look, but it could be a good one. The best news is that Sirmon appears to be multiple in his approach, meaning the Dawgs will give opposing offenses lots of different looks. Expect to see some 4-2-5, traditional 4-3,  maybe some 3-3-5. Sirmon is implementing a hybrid OLB/DE position he’s termed the Viper. That position could bring a whole lot of excitement to the Dawg D.

Now we’ll move on and take a look at each position group.

Next: Defensive Line

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