Mississippi State football opened up the 2025 season with a victory, pulling away from Southern Miss in Hattiesburg for a 34-17 win. The Bulldogs dominated the final stat sheet and led by as much as 24 against the Golden Eagles, but it was far from an easy win.
State went into the locker room leading just 13-10 at the half. After scoring a long touchdown just five plays into the game, the offense hit a lull, struggling to get much of anything going. And as HC Jeff Lebby pointed out in the postgame, that struggle was largely self-inflicted.
"The struggle early, to me, was a lot of what we were doing, from a penalty standpoint, throwing a pick on the second drive."
It was a different story in the second half though, particularly the third quarter. Building off some momentum found from a long field goal drive to end the first half, the Bulldogs came out locked-in and put together three-straight TD drives to put the game out of reach for USM. Lebby felt his team's performance in the "middle eight" was crucial and a good sign for them moving forward.
"I think my biggest takeaway is how we ended the half and how we started the third quarter. So if we can continue to do that, playing great football and complimentary football in the middle eight, that's gonna give us a chance."
Experience helps in a situation like that. With a veteran at QB in Blake Shapen and other veteran players on offense, Lebby saw a team that was ready to respond to a slow start and understood the need to simply execute.
"Our guys did not panic at all. I think the nice thing is with Blake and some of these wideouts that have played a bunch of football, they understand it's hard to go score every time you get the football. That is our goal, but if we can clean things up and get out of our own way, we have the people to go execute and do those things."
Lebby's quarterback fully agrees with that sentiment. Blake Shapen said that his halftime message to his teammates was to play fast and, as he put it, "cut it loose."
"In the first half we shot ourselves in the foot a lot...for us, we've just got to continue to play fast."
Shapen echoed his coach that, at the end of the day, Mississippi State's struggles against Southern Miss were straight forward but correctable. They've just got to execute.
"The biggest thing is executing. If we do our job, then we're going to be able to be really good."
The Bulldogs will certainly need to play clean football and execute for four quarters next Saturday. when the Arizona State Sun Devils come to Starkville. The reigning Big 12 champions and playoff participant are a preseason Top 12 team and off to a 1-0 start to the year. And of course, they beat MSU last season in Tempe. They're a great squad that the Bulldogs won't be able to beat if they make the mistakes they made in Hattiesburg.