Bulldogs dealt crushing blow as leading receiver enters transfer portal

Mississippi State football's list of transfer portal entrants just keeps growing. And unfortunately for them, they've now been dealt a crushing blow, as arguably the best player on the roster has entered his name in the transfer portal.

Mississippi State Bulldogs leading wide receiver Kevin Coleman enters transfer portal

Mississippi State must now begin the search for a new #1 wide receiver. Junior wideout Kevin Coleman is entering the transfer portal after one season in Starkville. The elusive slot receiver earned All-SEC honors after catching 74 passes for 932 yards and six TDs in 2024.

After transferring in from Louisville this year, Kevin Coleman quickly emerged as the best playmaker on the MSU roster. He became the top target on a weekly basis, the lone consistent performer in the Bulldog offense. State worked hard to keep Coleman in Starkville, but he's instead going to explore other opportunities.

There's no spin zone for Mississippi State losing Kevin Coleman to the transfer portal - It's a bad loss

State has seen a long list of portal entrants, the majority of whom are fairly insignificant. But there have been notable losses in CB Brice Pollock, WR Mario Craver, and QB Michael Van Buren. Of those three, though, you could rationalize the losses.

Pollock was one of the few a solid starters on a bad defense but wasn't a game-changer. Craver was an explosive weapon with an incredibly high ceiling, but he wasn't the #1 target and, allegedly, was causing issues behind the scenes. And as for Van Buren, it made reasonable sense to not pay his high asking price to keep him when a good replacement is attainable and there's more on the roster in need of fixing.

There's no rationalizing the loss of Kevin Coleman. He was the best player on the team in 2024, and would've given the Bulldogs one of the best WRs in the country next season. He was the featured piece on offense, a key part of the foundation for Jeff Lebby's program.

Not anymore. Any impact he could've had is completely gone, and now State is left having to head to the portal once again to find a competent replacement. Could they? Sure. That's obviously how they got Coleman himself. But the reality of playing portal roulette is that sometimes you whiff, and when you whiff in the portal, you tend to whiff hard.

State isn't going to create any sort of momentum as a program is they're continually losing their top talent, regardless of why any one player chooses to leave. If Jeff Lebby wants any chance at a long run in Starkville, he's got to find some sort of continuity.