Kelley Jones, Kalvin Dinkins showing All-SEC potential highlights Mississippi State defensive observations through the first two games on the 2025 season
Mississippi State is only two games into the 2025 college football season, but you can already tell the defense is much improved from a season ago.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs are 2-0 for the first time under head coach Jeff Lebby. A big reason for the improvement comes down to the defense picking up its play in 2025. Last season, State allowed 34.1 points per game, which ranked No. 118 nationally. Through two games this year, that number has dropped to 18.5 points.
Below, you’ll find my observations for Mississippi State’s defense through these first couple of weeks.
Defensive observations for Mississippi State
-Kalvin Dinkins is a dude. Now that he’s finally healthy and available, the 6-foot-2, 320-pound interior defensive lineman is wreaking some havoc as a run defender. I’d like to see him do a better job of finishing plays, but he’s disrupting run plays while also doing an excellent job of holding the point of attack and maintaining gap integrity, even against double teams. His three defensive stops (which PFF defines as a play that constitutes a failure for the opposing offense) against Arizona State tied for the second most on the team.
-A quick thought on State’s defensive line: it’s creating way more plays across the board. Obviously, Will Whitson was leading that charge, and losing him for the season hurts badly. But I want you to look at the top “defensive stops” producers along the DL from last year to this year. Below, we look at every player who averaged or is averaging one or more per game. And before you look at that, understand that the top guys five players in stops a season ago were Stone Blanton (31), Nic Mitchell (24), Branden Jennings (24), Isaac Smith (22) and Brice Pollock (16), so no defensive linemen.
2024
Sulaiman Kpaka: 16 stops (1.3 per game)
Trevion Williams: 13 stops (1.2)
De’Monte Russell: 11 stops (1.1)
2025
Will Whitson: 5 stops (2.5 per game)
Kalvin Dinkins: 4 stops (2.0)
Ashun Shepphard: 3 stops (1.5)
Trevion Williams: 2 stops (1.0)
Deonte Anderson: 2 stops (1.0)
Kedrick Binglsey-Jones: 2 stops (1.0)
-This has easily made the biggest difference for Mississippi State’s defense compared to a season ago. Everyone knows you have to win in the trenches in the SEC, and at least so far, the Bulldogs are doing that at a much, much higher rate. It’s a lot of fun to watch. Based on what I saw from Deonte Anderson during the spring game, I thought he was poised to take a step forward. Wasn’t great against Southern Miss, but took a big step forward this past Saturday. Effective run-stopper while also providing some juice as a pass rusher (two pressures, one sack). He’ll be needed even more with Whitson out for the year. Trevion Williams is another guy who must step up. The flashes have lived up to his four-star potential, but there’s been zero consistency so far. At this point, I don’t expect him to pick up the slack as a pass rusher, but he at least needs to be disruptive against the run. Negative plays don’t have to be sacks.
-The second-level run fits still need to be more consistent. Nic Mitchell has improved overall from a season ago, but he did have some issues fitting the run against Arizona State. He wasn’t the only one, but was the most glaring, in my opinion. Still, I do want to acknowledge the improvement. Really strong getting downhill and being physical against the run, as long as he’s fitting into the right gaps. Can tell he’s a leader too. Tennessee transfer Jalen Smith saw his snap percentage drop drastically from Week 1 to Week 2. Against Southern Miss, he got a healthy 40 snaps, which comes out to 52%. This past weekend, that number dropped to just 16 snaps (or 20.5%). Considering this was a closer game, that shouldn’t be surprising, but it does show that Mitchell is clearly the lead Mike when games are in doubt.
-Texas transfer Derrion Gullette, on the other hand, has been solid as a run defender. When he’s able to diagnose, his ability to trigger downhill and make tackles is impressive. Plus, I noticed a couple of reps where he did an excellent job of sticking on the receiver in man coverage. From what I’ve noticed, Gullette is a boundary (Will LB) option who’s rotating in with Zakari Tillman. Obviously, he’s the lone true LB on the field in those six-DB looks with Jahron Manning playing some Dime LB next to him, but Jalen Smith is the main one rotating in with Mitchell. In other words, I don’t know how much you’ll see Tillman and Gullette on the field together. Gullette feels like a guy who will only get better as the season wears on, but I remain a big fan of Tillman too.
-Branden Jennings isn’t a twitched up edge, but he’s at least been disruptive as a pass rusher through the first two games. He’s totaled five pressures, but some of those have come as an off-ball Mike in those 3-3-5 looks where he’s asked to spy and immediately apply pressure when QB breaks containment. He’s been solid as an edge-setter too, especially when he was down on the goal line for that epic late stop against Arizona State. There was one occasion earlier in the game that he got turned out of the C-gap after initially winning inside against a tight end, but the tight end decided to bear hug him (a clear hold) to finally get him turned, allowing a crease for the RB to get through. I don’t put that on him. Once again, not a dynamic pass rusher who’s going to terrorize quarterbacks, but he’s been steady.
-We’re seeing Jennings in a true platoon with Texas A&M transfer Malick Sylla at the Jack position. Jennings is getting the starts, but each of them posted 26 snaps against Southern Miss. Then this past weekend, Sylla only came up a few short (43 vs. 46 for Jennings). Both have 10 tackles, no sacks or tackles for loss and five pressures, so the production has been as evenly split as the snaps. With that being said, Sylla has looked more explosive as a pass rusher while Jennings seems to have more power as a run defender.
-Isaac Smith is currently averaging 7.5 tackles per game. That number still leads the team and puts him on pace for 90 in the regular season, but that’s way down from the league-leading 11.6 he averaged in 2024. That’s a good thing though, as it shows plays are more evenly spread out amongst several defenders. Below are his splits on how he’s being used through two games, and then we also included how that percentage compares to his 2024 usage. Snaps per alignment:
- Defensive Line: 11 snaps (11.3%) – up 1.1%
- Box: 47 snaps (48.5%) – up 10.1%
- Slot: 19 snaps (19.6%) – down 8.1%
- Wide CB: 1 snap (1%) – same as 2024
- Free Safety: 19 snaps (19.6%) – down 3.7%
-Smith isn’t able to fly around as much now that he’s playing closer to the line of scrimmage, but he still has those moments where he’s given some runway to open things up — and he takes full advantage of those opportunities. He seems to be at his best as the Star in those three safety looks where he’s able to trigger downhill and pick up some momentum before arrival. Once again, it’s nice to see him not standing out as much. Not because he isn’t making plays, but he doesn’t seem head-and-shoulders better than everyone else on the defense. That tells you have far this defense has come after a rough 2024.
-Kelley Jones has taken the next step, folks. Being 6-foot-4, 195-pound with quality athleticism for a cornerback, his development isn’t all that surprising, but going into the season, State desperately needed him to become a surefire CB1. So far, he’s been able to do just that. On Saturday, Arizona State’s star wide receiver, Jordyn Tyson, was held to six catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. That might seem like a good stat-line, but the projected first-round pick averaged 91.8 in 2024 while posting 12 catches for 141 yards and two scores in the first game of 2025. Jones was covering him on three of his 11 targets, but only one was completed for 21 yards. Plus, Jones had a pass breakup. This was a war, but in the end, Jones came out victorious. He’s downright smothering at times.
-I’m actually impressed with DeAgo Brumfield. He’s been better than expected through the first two weeks. Would I classify him as an All-SEC cornerback? Absolutely not, but he’s been serviceable in coverage and solid in run support — or at least so far. Kennesaw State transfer Jayven Williams has been pretty good too. This has to make State fans feel somewhat better about the room, especially once Jett Jefferson is able to return.
