Cowbell Corner

Mississippi State Suffers Embarrassing Home Loss to Toledo

Toledo dominates Mississippi State in a shocking performance.

Jacob Bain

Sep 7, 2024; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
Sep 7, 2024; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Mississippi State football dropped its second game in a row and first home loss of the season. The team's play was embarrassing, as Toledo won in a 41-17 rout.

Toledo is a solid program, but Mississippi State should never lose to it, and frankly, not dominating the game is disappointing - it's a MAC program. The SEC shouldn't be this bad at home against a Group of Five team.

Now, without a big improvement, the UMass game might be the only time the Bulldogs are favored at home the rest of the way.

Mississippi State lacks high-end talent, which is evident, but the coaching did not seem much better as, once again, the Bulldogs came out flat, made back-breaking mistakes on offense, and Rocket receivers were running wide open.

Thinking Mississippi State would dominate Toledo was far-fetched, but seeing the ease with which the Rockets just handled MSU was shocking.

Mississippi State finished the game with 385 (most in garbage time) total offensive yards, allowing Toledo to rack up 454 yards. Toledo shoved Mississippi State around and showed up the Bulldogs on their home turf.

This year, the Mississippi State team was always going to struggle under first-year head coach Jeff Lebby, and there is a path forward.

However, it will be a painfully slow journey moving forward. A potential three-win season will not generate much excitement from the fan base heading into next year, making recruiting in the transfer portal even more challenging than it was.

Mississippi State desperately needed momentum after an unfortunate past few years, and it will be hard to get fans back inside Davis Wade Stadium after this performance.

This is undoubtedly Mississippi State football's worst loss in the past 15 years, and now there's an uphill battle to put together any sort of a decent season.

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Jacob Bain
JACOB BAIN

Jacob Bain first joined Cowbell Corner as an intern, and was promoted to lead day-to-day coverage in Starkville of Mississippi State sports in 2023. His primary beats include football, baseball and basketball. He's originally from Fulton, Miss.

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