Three Bulldogs Picked as Preseason All-SEC by Coaches

Mississippi State football represented on First, Second and Third Teams

The following is courtesy of Mississippi State media relations:

Three Mississippi State Bulldogs were selected as members of the 2020 Preseason Coaches All-Southeastern Conference Football Team, the league office announced Thursday.

State selections were highlighted by preseason All-American running back Kylin Hill, who earned first-team honors. On the defensive side, linebacker Erroll Thompson was tabbed to the second team, while defensive end Kobe Jones made the third team.

Hill, a candidate for the Maxwell and Doak Walker awards, is the SEC's leading returning rusher. Behind an SEC-best eight 100-yard rushing games, Hill led the league in rushing yards during the 2019 regular season and finished the season with 1,350 yards. He found the end zone on the ground 10 times and finished as one of just eight Power 5 running backs with 1,300-plus rushing yards and 10-plus rushing touchdowns.

The Columbus, Mississippi, product finished the season with 1,530 yards from scrimmage and had the longest reception of the season by an SEC player (88-yard TD against Abilene Christian).

As the anchor for the Mississippi State defense, Thompson is the only SEC defender to enter the 2020 season with 200 or more career tackles. He led MSU with 84 total stops last fall, which ranks 11th in the conference among returning players. Thompson was also second on the team with 87 tackles as a sophomore.

The Florence, Alabama, native and Butkus Award candidate recorded seven or more tackles eight times, including three games with double-digit stops. He led all SEC linebackers in quarterback hits with six.

A leader on the field as well as the classroom and community, Jones enters his senior season in 2020 with 70 total tackles, 18.0 tackles for loss and 5.0 sacks. The Starkville native finished second on the squad with 4.0 sacks in 2019, and was dominant down the stretch, racking up 4.5 TFLs and 3.0 sacks over the last three games.

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