The Jeff Lebby era in Starkville kicked off with a bang as Mississippi State football dominated Eastern Kentucky with a 56-7 victory to start the 2024 season. The highlight of the game was undoubtedly the offense, which fans had eagerly awaited seeing in action—and it did not disappoint.
Even though State kept things fairly simple with a basic version of Lebby’s offense, it was more than enough to dismantle Eastern Kentucky and excite Bulldog fans about the future. Let’s take a look at some of the big plays from Saturday that highlighted the explosive potential of this offense.
State strikes fast
Ever since Jeff Lebby was hired, all the buzz has been about his desire to “score from far.” It took just three plays for the Bulldogs to showcase that against Eastern Kentucky.
On the game’s opening play, State attempted a deep shot, faking a jet sweep into a play-action Post/Over concept. The goal was to hit Jordan Mosley on the deep post, but Eastern Kentucky had it covered, and Shapen’s checkdown attempt fell incomplete. Interestingly, Lebby called the exact same play on Oklahoma’s first drive of the 2023 season, successfully connecting on the post for a big gain.
Lebby’s philosophy is simple: if an extra defender comes at the snap, throw the football. In this instance, Shapen reads the boundary safety (#24). As EKU rotates to a 1-high safety look, the boundary safety drops into the box to stop the run. Recognizing this, Shapen knows he needs to pull the ball and throw, so he once again looks to Mosley.
The cornerback (#6) covering Mosley was supposed to drop into a deep zone, but when he saw the run-fake, he hesitated. Mosley blew right past him, and Shapen connected for one of the easiest long touchdowns of his career. If the corner had dropped into coverage, Mosley would have adjusted his route for a short completion, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as electrifying.
SCORE. FROM. FAR.#SHOWTIME | #HailState pic.twitter.com/Ap5XyuQFK7
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) August 31, 2024
On 2nd down, Shapen found Mosley on an access hitch route to move the chains. On 1st & 10, Lebby called for Inside Zone, but as with most of his run calls, there was an RPO tag attached.
State lined up in 11 personnel with the tight end in the backfield. Eastern Kentucky showed a 2-high safety look, and with only six defenders in the box, State had the numbers to run the ball. However, Lebby doesn’t want his quarterbacks simply handing the ball off based on pre-snap alignment. If the defense adds an extra player to the box late to outnumber the run, the offense needs to respond by executing a post-snap read for the RPO.
Creating a mismatch
In the passing game, Mississippi State focused on exploiting EKU’s cornerbacks. A key philosophy of this offense is to “find the donkeys,” meaning they identify the opponent’s weakest defender and target them relentlessly. With a significant mismatch on the outside, Jordan Mosley and Mario Craver were frequently targeted against EKU’s cornerbacks.
However, it would be a missed opportunity not to design a big play for the explosive Kevin Coleman out of the slot, and that’s exactly what we saw on State’s fourth touchdown of the game.
Throughout the game, EKU consistently lined up in 2-high defensive shells, rotating into a 1-high safety look at the snap to bring a safety down as a run-stopper. This is a common strategy against offenses like Mississippi State’s, and to EKU’s credit, it did help limit MSU’s run game at times.
The downside of this approach was that it left MSU’s wide receivers in isolated matchups against EKU’s defensive backs, which didn’t work out well for EKU. Lebby exploited this midway through the second quarter, setting up a 1-on-1 situation between Kevin Coleman and a safety, leading to a perfectly executed play.
EKU rotated into a Fire Zone blitz, sending five rushers, with three defenders in underneath coverage and three deep. The Fire Zone aims to pressure the quarterback while avoiding deep passes that can burn a traditional man-blitz defense.
However, for this strategy to succeed, the defense must effectively pressure the quarterback (which they didn’t, as State’s offensive line handled the blitz perfectly) and rely on their defensive backs to hold up in coverage (which they couldn’t).
The boundary safety (#24) rotated down to cover the seam-to-flat area. Mario Craver ran a post route, occupying the cornerback (#6) and leaving the boundary safety 1-on-1 with Kevin Coleman. Coleman ran an “out and up” wheel route, crucially selling the out route first. Since the safety was responsible for the flat, he was forced to react to the out.
Coleman then turned upfield, glancing back at the quarterback before accelerating up the sideline, leaving the safety in his wake. Shapen delivered a perfect pass to the back corner of the end zone, making it 28-0.
Pouring it on
As mentioned earlier, this offense is built to identify mismatches and exploit them repeatedly. EKU’s cornerbacks struggled to keep up with Mississippi State’s outside receivers in 1-on-1 situations, so Jeff Lebby consistently targeted that weakness.
Late in the second quarter, Lebby called the Outside Choice concept for Mario Craver. This play is part of the Deep Choice series and, as expected, it targets an outside receiver. The receiver running the choice route has three options: go vertical, run a snap/comeback, or cut inside on a post route.
The decision on which route to run is based on the leverage and depth of the cornerback covering him. The quarterback reads the cornerback’s positioning the same way the receiver does, ensuring the throw aligns with the receiver’s choice. The slot receiver next to the targeted outside receiver runs a “bender,” a 10-yard in-breaking route meant primarily to occupy the safety.
Typically, when running Outside Choice against a cornerback playing off coverage with inside leverage, the receiver will snap his route back underneath for a short completion. In fact, earlier in the game, Craver ran the Outside Choice and chose this exact option.
However, in this instance, the cornerback, despite being positioned off and with inside leverage, failed to get deep quickly enough. Recognizing this, Craver sped past him, and Shapen connected with him for a long touchdown.
Once again, EKU rotated into a 1-high safety look, and this illustrates the inherent risk of playing 1-high against an offense like Mississippi State’s. While it might help slow down the run game, if your defensive backs can’t keep up with the receivers, you’re essentially defenseless. The choice routes in this offense make it extremely challenging for most teams to cover the wideouts effectively.
To be fair, even if EKU had stayed in a 2-high safety look, it wouldn’t have done much to contain Mississippi State’s receivers given the talent gap. However, the outcome still highlights the dangers of a 1-high approach against this kind of offensive system.
Shapen to Coleman for 6⃣!
📺 https://t.co/YGkq8ltMRZ | @SECNetwork #SHOWTIME | #HailState pic.twitter.com/O50udbKPxO
— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) August 31, 2024
Of course, it won’t always be this easy for Mississippi State. They were up against an FCS team with a poor defense that had little hope of covering the Bulldogs’ receivers. Stronger, more talented defenses won’t be as easily exploited. But then again, Mississippi State also won’t be running such a basic version of the offense against those tougher opponents.
This system is designed to keep them competitive almost every week, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.