Mississippi State football opened up the 2023 season with a dominant victory over Southeastern Louisiana. Let’s look back at some of the biggest plays from the game.
Game 1 of the 2023 Mississippi State football season was a success. The Bulldogs kicked off the Zach Arnett era with a 48-7 win over FCS Southeastern Louisiana.
Though the opening game to every season is always highly anticipated, this one was especially so. State would be unveiling a new brand of football with OC Kevin Barbay installing a pro-style offense, and everyone was anxious to see just what exactly that would look like.
There were close eyes on the defense as well.
While there was no massive schematic shift with that side of the ball, State was replacing 4/5 starters in the secondary as well as a few key players along the defensive front. What would we see out of the new starters?
Given that the Bulldogs left their season opener with a 41-point victory, what we saw was mostly positive. State had a 525 to 208 yardage advantage, had no turnovers, and committed just one penalty.
While it was a retty clean day at the office, it certainly wasn’t all perfect.
MSU got off to a slow start offensively in the game and a handful of miscues by the first team defense allowed SLU to go on a 16-play, 79-yard scoring drive. The result was MSU “only” leading 20-7 at the half.
But the Bulldogs settled-in in the second half to pull away with a blowout victory and a solid start to the season.
Let’s break down some of the impact plays from Week 1.