Let the Battles Begin: Who will anchor the Bulldogs’ defensive front?

As Mississippi State prepares for the 2025 season, the defensive line position battle will be key. Who wins a starting job on the D-line?

Mississippi State Bulldogs defensive lineman Trevion Williams (23) defends Toledo Rockets quarterback Tucker Gleason (4) during the second quarter at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. | Matt Bush-Imagn Images

Just in case you haven’t heard, Mississippi State will start its preseason practices on Thursday.

That’s when we’ll finally get an idea about some of the biggest questions around the Bulldogs headed into the 2025 season. Specifically, we’ll get to see how some of the position battles pan out.

Mississippi State, like every single other football team at any level, has questions about who will be starting at certain positions. Some positions have obvious starters. For Mississippi State, Blake Shapen will be the starting quarterback, Isaac Smith will be roaming around the secondary like Troy Polamalu, and the duo of Davon Booth and Fluff Bothwell will be lining up in the backfield.

ICYMI: Using a quarter approach to projecting Mississippi State's season

But questions surround who will be starting at several other positions and since we’re three days away from the start of these position battles, let’s take a look at three most intriguing position battles that’ll happen between Thursday and August 30 when Mississippi State plays Southern Miss.

We’ll look at one position group Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ahead of the start of preseason practices. To start, we’ll begin with what I think is the position/unit that needs to have improved the most if the Bulldogs want to win more than two games.

Defensive Line

Apologies in advance if it feels like we’re beating a dead horse with this, but Mississippi State’s defense wasn’t good last season. I’ll skip the specific rankings and jump ahead to the next part, which is…I’m optimistic the defense will be much better.

The Bulldogs’ defensive line last season was outsized every week and that shouldn’t be the case based on the influx of defensive linemen brought in. Here’s a full list of new and returning defensive linemen (along with their listed height and weight):

Returning Players

Deonte Anderson (6-3, 280)
Kedrick Bingley-Jones (6-4, 320)
Trevion Williams (6-4, 295)
Kalvin Dinkins (6-2, 320)
Joseph Head Jr. (6-4, 255)
Corey Clark (6-4, 310)
Ashun Shepphard (6-3, 295)
Kai McClendon (6-2, 315)
Terrance Hibbler Jr. (6-3, 310)

New Players

Raishein Thomas (6-4, 300 – Northern Illinois)
Red Hibbler (6-2, 275 – NC State)
Darron Reed Jr. (6-4, 285 – Auburn)
Will Whitson (6-5, 295 – Coastal Carolina)
Colin Coates (6-2, 320 – Charlotte)
Jamil Burroughs (6-3, 330 – Miami)
Jaray Bledsoe (6-4, 315 – Texas)
Diesel Moye (6-5, 345 – Tyler JC)

Mississippi State needed to get bigger, especially if the Bulldogs will run a three-man defensive line front again (it’s the default playbook for Mississippi State in EA College Football 26, for whatever that’s worth), and that’s what happened.

The Bulldogs will certainly be a bigger opponent for opposing offensive lines. The question remains, though, who will be starting against Southern Miss?

Williams (11 games played), Anderson (11 games played) and McClendon (12 games played) are the returning players with the most experience and best stats. Bingley-Jones and Dinkins were limited because of injuries, but are assumed to be healthy now. Head also played in 12 games, but with less playing time and the others played in only a couple of games.

However, considering how successful the Bulldogs’ were last year on defense, the new players will likely get their chances at earning starting jobs.

And those chances will starting coming Thursday.