Jefferson, Reese still listed as starters despite injuries on Bulldogs' latest depth chart

Mississippi State released its depth chart for this week's game against Northern Illinois.

As a sign of how much we value your time, if you’re familiar with last week’s depth chart, you already know what this week’s depth chart looks like.

There are, literally, no changes.

That includes two players we know are injured, or whose availability for Saturday against Northern Illinois is questionable at best, listed in starting positions.

One (Jett Jefferson) hasn’t even put on a uniform this season and the other, Albert Reese IV, was a surprise to everyone when he didn’t suit up against Alcorn State.

A third player we also know is injured, Stonka Burnside, only shows up on the depth chart as the fourth safety. He’s also used offensively, but isn’t listed on that side of the depth chart.

Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby was asked about Jefferson’s and Reese’s availability for this week’s game at his Monday press conference.

“Right now, I do feel better about Albert. I feel good about Stonka,” Lebby said. “Neither one of those guys were cut loose today. Jett is getting back, but again, out of those three guys, none of them went all out day today. It's going to have to be the evaluation piece of it as we get later in the week. They need to be able to practice tomorrow and Wednesday for them to go play the high level.”

Lebby will have an appearance on the weekly SEC teleconference call and his weekly radio show appearance, but this writer will be surprised if any injury updates are provided. (Feel free to prove me wrong.)

It’ll be interesting to see how Mississippi State handles its injuries next week when it has to provide Student-Athlete Availability Reports (i.e., an injury report).

Yes, there is a strategic advantage to this ambiguity. Opponents aren’t sure who to prepare for at certain positions, forcing them to spend more time on that instead of the big picture game plan.

On that point, keeping Reese as the starting RT (without an “or" designation) makes sense. But Jefferson?

No offense to Jefferson, he may be a better cornerback than Kelley Jones. We haven’t seen him play, though.

So, why is he still listed ahead of DeAgo Brumfield, the cornerback who has actually put on a uniform this season, let alone start?

Yes, there’s that “or” tag, so, technically Brumfield is a starter too. So why list him behind Jefferson? It’s clearly not an alphabetical choice.

Is there really a strategic advantage to keeping a player listed as a starter when the only time anyone has seen them play as a Bulldog was in a spring game?

Maybe, but I don’t see it.

What I do see is a future, potential problem with listing a player in a starting role for four weeks and that player not line up for a single snap.

Sports betting isn’t going away. It’s a billion dollar industry.

The NFL issues injury reports for a reason and, no, it’s not to satisfy the media’s curiosity.

People bet on college football, too. They read depth charts. The rest of the dots are pretty easy to connect as to what'll happen when the wrong bettor makes a bet based on false information.

Maybe that bet is on Mississippi State? Maybe its on one of the other 136 FBS teams? None of us know.

Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. Here’s Mississippi State’s Week 4 Depth Chart that is the exact same as last week’s: