Everything Jeff Lebby said after Duke's Mayo Bowl loss

Mississippi State joined the exclusive 5-8 club with a 43-29 loss to Wake Forest in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Afterwards, coach Jeff Lebby met with reporters to talk about the game. Here's everything he said:

On Kamario Taylor's injury...

The initial reports have been good. Obviously, we will evaluate when we get more information tomorrow.

I won’t dive into the details. I feel good about getting in the locker room and talking to our medical staff and seeing Kamario. We will continue to evaluate him when we get back tomorrow.

On how Taylor played...

He played tough. There’s going to be a ton of things he wants back. When you look at it, our struggles on third down played a huge part in this football game. That is something when we watch that tape that there will be incredible growth for him and for us about those situations. A lot of negative plays where we ended up in some bad situations. Credit to those guys and the way they played, defensively, at times. But there’s going to be some incredible teaching moments and I don’t think there’s any doubt about that.

Again he played tough. There’s a ton of things to be excited about. I hate the fact our guys were incredibly excited to come play. We came to this game to go win. There’s a ton of disappointment inside that locker room right now and on the field. But for (Taylor) and what he was able to get out of this bowl experience with 15 extra practices and the ability to go play another game against a good opponent, for me it is huge for us as we continue to build this thing.

On Wake Forest's run defense...

(Wke Forest) didn’t stay blocked. We did not block people at the point of attack and that was the frustrating part of it. The way we ran the football, all the inconsistency, it was really frustrating in the moment. For us, being better at the point of attack and being able to finish off our man, it had to be better to have the ability to win. It showed up in a huge way in the red zone where we were having to kick field goals and after the first touchdown we give up, we played really good defense. But we don’t take advantage of it because we’re kicking field goals and not converting on 4th and 1.

On where Taylor suffered his injury...

I don’t but I do feel good about the initial report but won’t go any further than that.

On if he considered pulling Taylor?

No because we can score in a hurry and have the ability to kick it onside. So at that moment in the game, we still had a timeout and the two minute. Had the ability to go get seven points and then find a way to kick it onside and something we were trying to get done.

On offensive line play...

My message is pretty consistent. These next 10 days will be huge time for us inside the program and getting that fixed in the right way. As we get back in the building tomorrow, excited about some of the guys that will be on campus the next 4-5 days. There is no bigger emphasis for us as a program than that piece of it.

On the defensive line plan for the offseason...

I do think we’ve got more in the defensive line from a retention standpoint. I like where we are at and we got to finish on a couple of these guys that are important to us and make sure we keep them here. But that is going to be a big piece of it. The lines of scrimmage we will continue to talk about. We’ve got to find ways to get where we need to be competitive at a high level.

On culture of program...

As we are trying to portal the right guys, we’ve got to get the right people. They’ve got to be good enough to go play at a really high level and we’ve got to get guys that understand how to win. I do like our young players inside our roster. They are guys to be incredibly excited about at a lot of different spots that have great mentality. But as we continue to build and add pieces to the roster, I want guys that understand how to win. I think that is important as we move through this thing the next couple of weeks.

On offensive struggles after first play of game...

Frustrating moments. To be able to hit on an explosive right out of the gate and then not finishing the way we needed to on that drive and kick a field goal. Then we have a kick to their 2-3 yard line and it is a low liner and we don’t cover it when he catches it and don’t get the guy on the ground. That’s the reality of it. Frustrating there and then defensively, they go get a touchdown on the first drive. Then we play really good defense the rest of the half. I feel like we had the ability to take some control inside the first half. But we were kicking field goals and not finding ways to score touchdowns.

On future role for DL coach David Turner...

I will let (Turner) talk about that but it is going to be important for him to still be in the building with us. He will be one to talk about that at some point.

On mood of locker room after the game...

Disappointment. We came to have this incredible experience but we came to win. The disappointment of not being able to get it done is incredibly real for guys like Nic Mitchell, guys like (Jaron Manning), guys that have poured a lot into this thing. Guys like Brenen Thompson. Frustrating that they don’t get to experience a big win in this setting. That was the locker room, that was the end of it. I hated the way it ended, obviously. But for our guys (back), they understand it.

On January 14th all of the returners are back in that meeting room at 11 a.m. and the 2026 season will begin at that moment. For our guys that are returning, their attitude, their effort, their intensity, their attention to detail on January 14th is going to matter. So that’s the message and there is a ton to be excited about with (Taylor) and a lot of our young guys. We got to go add the right pieces over the next two weeks.

On signing QB in transfer portal...

We are going to sign a guy in the portal. Very hopeful that gets wrapped up here in the next 3-4 days and we feel really good about where we’re at with a specific guy and excited about that process.

On Brenen Thompson...

Just proud of him for playing the way he played. The toughness he played with being his size, I think that shows up non-stop. Everybody talks about how fast he is but the guy is a pro. He does everything right and from a transfer standpoint, he is a transfer dream. That guy sets the standard. He makes everybody around him better every single day. His production was through the roof because of who he is and he is incredibly talented. I wish we had some other opportunities for him because he had the opportunity to have an even bigger year than he did. I can not say enough great things about him. He is so deserving and now the single season record holder.