What to expect of Mississippi State football's wide receivers in year one with Jeff Lebby?

What to expect in year one from WRs with Jeff Lebby

And now, what can we expect in year one of Jeff Lebby’s offense? What will Mississippi State football fans see out of their wide receivers as this season gets started? To be completely honest, I think it’s hard to tell given how little of that unit is returning for this season. 

Remember that tweet I shared earlier with the table of MSU receiving stats for the wide receivers last year? Let’s look at that again.

Tulu Griffin? Gone. Zavion Thomas? Gone. Justin Robinson? You guessed it, he’s gone too! Where did they end up? Well, signing with the Las Vegas Raiders as a free agent, LSU, and West Virginia. That’s what managed to take the top three receivers from the Bulldogs from last season. 

Freddie Roberson is also out, though, like much of the rest of Mississippi State’s receivers from last season, he didn’t have much of a real chance to demonstrate his skill set with the Maroon and White. So… That’s not great.

But, just as it’s important to note the roster turnover and departures, it’s also important to highlight the new additions and who stayed. And Jeff Lebby recently highlighted this during the Houston Road Dawgs alumni association event. 

Jaden Walley is back for another year (and maybe this is the season where things click once more for the receiver who seemed to have a ton of potential as a freshman). Creed Whittemore is really exciting to watch when he’s got the ball. Antonio Harman will be lined up at wide receiver this season. 

New additions? Chad Bumphis and Jeff Lebby did a great job recruiting as they picked up JJ Harrell, Braylon Burnside, and Mario Craver as freshman additions.

Then there’s Kelly Akharaiyi (we need more Texans on this roster, Jeff Lebby please continue to pick up more Texans), who caught 48 passes for 1033 yards and seven touchdowns last season. Kevin Coleman, who was at Louisville last year, caught 26 passes for 362 yards and two touchdowns.

There’s a real argument to be made that MSU has a really strong receiving corps for Lebby to work with rolling into this year. It’s probably not the most proven or talented bunch that Lebby has ever worked with, but there’s a reason to be excited about this group. And if you’re feeling excited about what Lebby could do here, then that’s fair!

I’m not ready to say that MSU is going to have a 1,000+ yard receiver this year, but I wouldn’t totally be surprised if you saw someone like Akharaiyi break that mark this season. Also, there were several remarkable freshmen brought in. Keep an eye on what Craver and company get done this season. 

More than likely, I suspect that MSU will have a sizable group of wide receivers clustered between 600-800 receiving yards and 4-6 touchdowns by the time this season is wrapped up. But don’t be shocked if someone emerges to catch the bulk of the passes and helps elevate the team’s ceiling a bit.