Everything Mississippi State CB Kelley Jones said after Friday's practice

Mississippi State football held its seventh preseason practice ahead of the 2025 season on Friday. Afterwards, three players met with reporters to talk about the team's progress in the early portion of preseason practices, including sophomore cornerback Kelley Jones. Here's everything he had to say:

What have you learned from some of these new guys?

To be intentional with the small details, you know what I'm saying? By just doing simple better, slowing the game down for us, making us play faster, stacking days, taking advantage of the opportunity. So, I learned a lot from those guys and still continue to learn.

Coach Bell had mentioned that you have some things that he can't teach. You got the speed and the size and all that, and he just wants you to stack those days. Have you felt like you've done that from the spring into the training camp now?

I feel like he stays on me too as well. I just try to use the things to my advantage, the best of my ability. You know what I'm saying? Because me having it is one thing, but me doing it is another. I try my best to use those in what he’s coaching us to do — just go out there and play my best ball.

You got kind of down the stretch last year. You had a good Egg Bowl. How has that maybe carried over to this year? How do you feel about where you are in your development?

Honestly, after the Egg Bowl, I was ready to play again. I couldn't believe that was the end of the game. But I feel very confident. From that day forward, I just felt like I went through what I went through for a reason — to make me become the person I am today. I'm highly confident. I feel I can play with anybody. That’s how I feel going into the season.

The corners as a whole — there’s just not a lot of proven production here for a lot of those guys. What have you seen from your group that you feel like is going to shock fans and shock other teams this year?

What I’ve seen in my group is that we’re very together. I feel like all those guys can play — guys like Jett Jefferson, Diego Broomfield, Eliza Kennet, Dwight Lewis. Everybody that's in the corner room really can play. They push me as well, because I can't slack up myself. I feel like we’re going to go out there and give people a problem.

How’s Dwight Lewis been adjusting?

Dwight’s very good. He reminds me of myself actually, just one inch shorter. I try to help him on things that I do well, and I try to learn from him as well — things that he is great at. I watch him everywhere he goes, and he watches me. We give feedback to each other. He’s very good. He’s long, he can run, and he finds the ball very well. I try to learn that from him — when the ball is in the air, go find it, go get it.

Thompson said that you were the guy he liked competing against the most because you were the fastest guy on defense and he was the fastest guy on offense. But he also said that he would beat you in a foot race.

It’s definitely important to know who you’re going up against. Every receiver is different. So when I line up against him, as I’m walking out, they break the huddle and I see Zero coming out, I take a deep breath and get ready to go. I know what type of guy I am now. He’ll be ready to run, so I’ll be ready to run too. But I don’t think he’ll leave me.

That being said, how much are you looking forward to the scrimmage?

I’m just stacking days. I’m ready — trying to take advantage of every opportunity. Never get too high, never get too low, just being thankful for my opportunity and stacking days.

We saw Brio last year work some with the cornerbacks. Is there anybody that’s shadowing over with a corner some that might move over from safety?

I’ll say no. I feel like all my guys have been stacking days. As a corner group as a whole, we don’t even want to let that happen. We’re standing on business, for real.

How about just the defense as a whole? Where have you seen some improvements from a year ago across the whole unit?

We’re very confident. Up front, the D-line is very confident. They buy us time. We tell them, “Just give us three seconds to cover, and everything will be locked up.” I’m very confident in our defense as a whole. I feel like we can play with anybody, run with anybody, and we have depth. I’m very confident going into this season.