Mississippi State Coach Praises 'Incredibly Dominant' Texas Longhorns

During his Monday press conference, Jeff Lebby talked about Texas' dominance in all three phases of the game.

Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian the field ahead of the game against UTSA at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. / Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For its first-ever SEC conference game, Texas will face off against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. In his Monday press conference, Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby talked about what his team will be up against.

"They've been incredibly dominant in all three phases," Lebby said. "Defensively, they're as good as there is in America, giving up five points a game."

The Longhorns, who are ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll, have dominated in every aspect of all four games they've played this season. Mississippi State has struggled its way to a 1-3 record this season under Lebby. The Bulldogs are coming into Austin after losing to Florida 45-28 in Starkville.

In Mississippi State's loss to the Gators, the Bulldogs lost quarterback Blake Shapen to a season-ending shoulder injury. Freshman Michael Van Buren will be tasked with going up against the stellar Texas defense in front of 100,000 fans in Austin.

In the loss to Florida, Van Buren was 7 of 13 for 100 yards in just over one quarter of football. In Texas' win over ULM, the Longhorns gave up 111 total yards. Van Buren will have his work cut out for him, but so will the Mississippi State defense.

"Offensively they've got this incredible amount of skill, they're playing really good (football) up front," Lebby said. "Regardless of who the QB is going to be, both those guys have the ability to run the offense the way Sark wants them to and then they're very very aggressive from a team standpoint, so again it's a football team that's playing as a good as anybody in the country."

The Texas offense has been as dominant as ever, and the Mississippi State defense has struggled to stop everyone. Texas averages just over 47 points per game and the Bulldogs have given up an average of just over 30 points per game.

Lebby's team has quite the task ahead of it this weekend, but its up for the challenge. The Bulldogs are still shaking off the frustration from the loss to Florida, but Lebby says they are in good spirits going into facing the No. 1 team.

"It's like we talked about as a group (Monday), what an unbelievable opportunity for us to see how we're going to respond," Lebby said. "Our guys, they had energy on the practice field today, (they're) frustrated, disappointed without a doubt, but our energy, our toughness, our effort and our focus is about us. We're going to continue to focus on those things and get ready to roll."

Texas and Mississippi State will kick off at 3:15 on Saturday and will air on the SEC Network.