Isaac Smith knows what drew him to Mississippi State and why he has remained there.
“There’s no distractions in Starkville,” the junior safety told reporters during Southeastern Conference media days. “Small town. Real pretty community. The people are awesome. I fell in love with it and I’m still in love with it and will forever always be in love with it.”
Smith’s 127 tackles last season led the Southeastern Conference and tied him for seventh place among all Football Bowl Subdivision players, production that hasn’t translated to team success. Mississippi State has gone 7-17 overall and 1-15 in SEC competition during Smith’s two seasons.
That makes Smith a natural candidate to head our list of good players on teams that figure to struggle this season, even though he believes Mississippi State has what it takes to turn things around. He considers Mississippi State a blue-collar program that values hard work.
“I love the fact that’s Mississippi State’s been all about that, just working hard and going to prove something that maybe people don’t think you can do,” Smith said.
Mississippi State’s chances of being more competitive this season depend on whether Smith can help upgrade a defense that allowed 34.1 points per game last season. Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Purdue were the only Power Four teams to give up more points per game.
“We lacked execution the whole season really – missed tackles, missed assignments,” Smith said. “Quite frankly, that’s why we lost a lot of games. I think we were last at about everything.”
Smith believes that defense will be better this year. In Smith, that unit has an ideal leader
“To me, there’s no greater spokesperson for our locker room or our defense than Isaac Smith,” Mississippi State…
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Publish date : 2025-08-14 15:52:00
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