40 in 40: Why Mississippi State's new offensive line coach is important in 2025

The Bulldogs have to get better in the trenches and have put in the work to bring in new players. Now a former NFLer has to make it all work.

Minnesota Vikings tackle Phil Loadholt (71) reacts prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. | Kim Klement-Imagn Images

The post-mortem on Mississippi State’s 2024 football season wasn’t a pleasant one.

There were no shortage of areas in need of drastic improvement and that was before the transfer portal opened, which created a bunch more troublesome areas.

But to compete in the SEC, Mississippi State had to get bigger and better in the trenches. Immediately.

Coach Jeff Lebby recognized this and made what might be his best coaching hire in his two seasons at Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs’ gave up 38 sacks last season, which ranked 122nd in the nation, and blocking was a major reason why they won just two games last season.

So, Lebby hired Phil Loadholt away from Deion Sanders’ staff at Colorado to come and rebuild the Bulldogs’ offensive line. Lebby and Loadholt have a history of working together (see below) and have worked together to improve the Bulldogs’ offensive line.

After spring practices, the Bulldogs decided to dip into the transfer portal to get bigger on the offensive line and brought in five players:

• Jaekwon Bouldin (Purdue)
• Jayvin James (Akron)
• Zack Owens (Colorado)
• Brennan Smith (Ausitn Peay)
• Blake Steen (Virginia)

All five could be in the starting line up next season, but Mississippi State does return three players who saw significant playing time last season. They are:

• Jacoby Jackson (12 GP, 11 GS)
• Albert Reese (12 GS)
• Luke Work (11 GP, 7 GS)

All three of them could end up in the starting lineup. But there’s only five starting spots and deciding who those five players will be (and developing them into better players in a short time span) makes Loadholt one of the 40 most important Bulldogs in 2025.

Who is Phil Loadholt?

Loadholt began his football journey growing up in Colorado and entered the collegiate ranks at Garden City Community College in Kansas. He was a two-time All-American there and enrolled at Oklahoma in 2007 (one year after Lebby left Oklahoma to begin his coaching career at a high school that no longer exists [because it split into two]). He became an All-American with the Sooners and was blocking for Sam Bradford during his Heisman Trophy-winning season.

Loadholt was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round of the 2009 NFL Draft and played seven seasons, including Adrian Peterson’s 2012 season that ended with the former Sooner coming up just nine yards short of the NFL single-season rushing record.

After an Achilles tendon injury in 2015, Loadholt retired from the NFL and joined the UCF coaching staff in 2018 as an offensive assistant. That coaching staff also included Lebby. Loadholt was also an offensive analyst at Lebby’s next offensive coordinator jobs at Ole Miss and Oklahoma.

What happened in 2024?

After Lebby left the dusty planes of Oklahoma for the greener pastures of Starkville, Loadholt returned to his home state to become the offensive line coach at Colorado under Deion Sanders. Loadholt guided an offensive line, including Zack Owens who is now at Mississippi State, that provided protection for the No. 6 passing offense in the nation and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter.

He was announced as Mississippi State’s next offensive line on December 30, 2024.

Why will he be important in 2025?

Loadholt has an almost-impossible job of rebuilding the Bulldogs’ offensive line in four months, only one of which will include live practices. That’s an extremely short amount of time to make the drastic changes the Bulldogs needed to make.

To make all of this work, and make Mississippi State better in 2025, it’ll take a great offensive line coach which the Bulldogs are hoping is Loadholt.

We’ll find out in 26 days.