Everything Jeff Lebby said at Monday's press conference after loss to Florida

Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby held his regular Monday morning press conference with reporters after the Bulldogs' third-straight loss.

ICYMI: Overreaction Sunday in full swing for Mississippi State fans after loss to Florida

Lebby talked about some of the fallout from Saturday's 23-21 loss to Florida, as well as talked about this week's opponent, No. 22 Texas. Here's everything he said:

On what team needs to do to get over winning hump...

There's so many plays inside the game that create a different outcome. I talked about it a little bit post game, but one of the biggest frustrations that I had after the game was that we didn't take control of the game in the first three drives of the game. The zero to negative plays when we have the opportunity to score on first-and-10-plus territory or hand the ball off and gain two yards when it's blocked to score a touchdown. And then end up third and eight, sack, punt. That's the second drive of the game.

The third drive of the game, you have the ability to go pick up two first downs. We're first-and10 at the plus 39 yard line. And we have some real issues that we've got to take out of our game and we end up not converting on a fourth down. And we should have had a first down on first down and should have dang sure had a first down on second down. And again, we don't execute. That's the first three drives of the game to where on the third drive of the game, you're first-and-10 at the 18 yard line, worst case scenario. You have to be able to take advantage of those moments to take control of the football game.

Fourth drive, we end up going three and out. We're in a really good situation. Positive plays, first and second down. We go three and out on the fourth drive.

Fifth drive, we get a turnover. We go right down the field, and we're second and six, and we fumble the football. And then the next drive, we go right down the field. We're first-and-10 at the 17. We end up third-and-16, and we miss a 41 yard field goal. That's the first half.

All these opportunities to take control of the first half of the game because of how we play defensively, and we don't do it. The way the game ended is frustrating, to say the least. But there's so many moments to where, man, you take control and you never put yourself in that situation.

On quarterback Blake Shapen's performance...

He's frustrated. He's down because of the fact of the outcome wasn't what we wanted. There's a bunch of plays inside the game where he understands that if we do exactly what we need to go do, we take full control of the game. And so the ending of it is, again, it's got all the attention because of the outcome of the game. And he understands that. That's part of playing the position. That's part of being the head football coach. That comes with it. And there is, there's great frustration.

We're trying to build on all the positives and how tough this guy's playing and how we were able to create explosives and pitching catch and playing rhythm. But we gotta finish drives. And we've gotta score now. I've talked about that a ton. Talked to the defense about making the offense snap it again. We've gotta score when we have the ability so we don't have to snap it again. And that's huge for us moving forward.

On this team learning how to win...

There's without a doubt something to that. I know for me and for us in this building, there's been zero talk of last year. That's not this year's football team. You think about improvement, how much better, the way we're playing the game right now, it's not even the same spectrum. So that's the stress for our guys is there's a lot of noise from what I've been told and through text messages that I receive, they're incredibly supportive. I'm like, guys, we're four and three, we're two plays away from being six and one. We're not, we've lost those games, we've been on the wrong side of them. I'm focused on this team. What's happened has happened, all right? But the guy sitting in this meeting room every single day, it's night and day. And there's been an unbelievable amount of improvement. And now we do, we need to find a way to go win the game. And that's a very real thing. Finding ways to get better every week, that's what good football teams do. I do think that we've gotten better from week one to right now. We got a great football team coming in here Saturday. Man, all is gonna get right in the world if we'll find a way to go win one.

On trust in freshman QB Kamario Taylor...

I do trust him. I wanted him a couple of times to do that in that situation on Saturday. And I think for him, he's, because of being so young, right? And he knows what he can do with his legs. He wants to be able to go make the play with his feet right now. My effort is, man, you have the ability to have the right picture on the perimeter. Trust yourself right now, all right? And that's gonna help him and help us. And he knows that. He wants a couple of them back inside that series. That's a series I'm talking about. We're first-and-10 to plus 39 yard line. We go four downs and it should never happen when you sit down and you watch the tape, but it did. So there's great learning moments in that for us. Again, that's the third drive of the game that gives us the ability to have real control.

On Texas's special teams...

They're really aggressive and they've got great personnel. When you have great personnel, you got a real chance to be great on teams. And they've recruited in an incredible way. They've got great depth on their roster. And so they have posed some problems that way. And right now, they're a team that's really played to their identity. And they have played great defense. I think they're top three in the country in scoring, top five in total defense. They've been great situationally. They've created turnovers. But then they have, they've been really, really good on teams.

On Mississippi State's special teams...

We've played winning football on special teams. The two penalties from Saturday, you take that out, we're plus 55 and hitting yardage. But again, the two penalties happen. Duke's not on the line of scrimmage, which is a strange call, didn't get a warning, but that's part of it too. Where we pin the guys inside the ten yard line, instead have to punt it again. We do a great job. And we go down and end up getting a five and out, but they get the ball at the 28 yard line. And we lose right at 20 yards of hitting yardage. So I love how we're playing on teams. I think our guys are doing a great job, frustrated with the first kickoff of the game and the field goal, obviously, the other day. But outside of those two things, man, we've played really well. So it'll be a great matchup from that standpoint.

On Texas QB Arch Manning...

I think what they're doing right now, I kind of just mentioned that they're playing to who they are. And they're trying to protect the ball. They're trying to be incredibly high percentage, very timely when they're pushing the ball down the field and giving him a ton of freedom to go run the offense. I think Sark understands exactly who they are defensively, and they've been really, really good. And so for them, I think it's about running the football at a really high level, being able to have some play pass in it, and then taking great care of the ball.

On Kyle Ferrie's missed field goal not being reviewed...

What I was told is it went right over the upright. I think as I've watched the tape, it's pretty fair. And they did, they said that not reviewable, and as it goes right over the top of the upright, what I got told was no good.

On the missed field goal influencing late-game decisions...

Obviously, we want to put Kyle in the best situation possible. I got a lot of faith in Kyle, a lot of confidence. We miss a 41-yarder going that direction on the exact same hash, and I want to try to create a really good opportunity for him to go win the game. And we have a little bit of time to go do it, but we don't have a timeout. And so that's, all of those things factor in.

On RB Fluff Bothwell's injury status...

Fluff's gonna be day to day. I'm really thankful he's had a great, great week. He had a great week last week, just from a rehab standpoint. I think it's a real stretch that he's ready, and we'll let the Wednesday report and so on speak to that as we move through the week.

On DB Jahron Manning...

He's active. He got great instincts. He can diagnose. He plays fast. Guy loves to play the game, and proud of J-Man. He's done a really good job. He's been a great addition to our defense, and he'll continue to play that way.

On defensive secondary helping the defensive line...

I think it's huge. The way we're defending the throw game right now is really, really good. We've got our hands on the ball. We've made plays. We've created turnovers. That's a huge thing. The stress for us is continuing to find ways to tackle better, play cleaner and more detailed in the core, to not bleed as much as we've bled. In the run game, but again, we're playing really good red zone defense. We're creating turnovers. We've been really good against the throw. Got so much to build on, but I am, I'm proud of how we're playing with that unit.

On opportunities to win an SEC game...

Yeah, they're out there in front of us. Again, our guys understand that. As we got back in the building this morning and watched the tape, again, not to short anybody, but we've got all kinds of opportunities to come out on the right side, and again, we don't, it's time to take that step for us. But this team is this team, and it's got nothing to do with any years in the past, nothing like that. And so it's about finding a way to go 1-0 Saturday and get to 5-3. And we're gonna be good enough to do it, but we got to go play really well. And we got a great opponent coming in here with a great staff, and there's been great stability on both sides of the ball and special teams there for a long time since (Texas coach Steve Sarkisian) been there. He's had the same guys, and again, a credit to him because of how he's built it. But we're ready to go win a football game, and our guys are working towards it.

On different ways of helping Kamario Taylor...

I think for us, being able to give him the pictures during the week and then, man, go cut it loose and go play. If I'm giving you the ability to throw the ball around when we've got some of the run stuff called, and there's some answers in the throw game that you have the ability to get to, trust yourself and go do it. But that's a young guy having to go play and go live it and go learn. I wanna constantly put him in great positions so that he can create confidence for himself, our football team. And then everything goes from there. So it's constant because he hadn't played a ton of ball, but obviously excited about his growth and where he's headed.

On Zakari Tillman's targeting penalty and suspension...

I think that the only thing that is fortunate for there is that we've had two other Dimes play a ton of football with Tyler (Lockhart) and (Derion Gullette). And so having those two guys who were in a great spot at that position, there's depth, we do, we have athletic, talented players at that spot. And so those two guys gotta have a great week as we get ready to get Zakari back in the second half.

There's great frustration in that moment because we're off the field, they never kick the field goal. And it is, it's critical, it brings me back to there's a huge drive against Tennessee where we give them 30 yards and penalties. And give them points and it comes down to the last possession of the game. Like we're playing good enough, we gotta get out of our own way in those moments. Because I think we're fully aware those three points mattered. And that affects the game in a great way. So, a great learning lesson, the hope was that we saw that with Nic Mitchell, two, three weeks ago, and we learned from that. But again, it's those guys, man, learning from it, taking it completely out of our game, and understanding the impact that it truly has on being on the right side and the wrong side.