While All-SEC defense end Pernell McPhee is busy climbing the depth chart as a Baltimore Raven this season, his former teammates and coaches will be trying to figure out a way to replace his size and strength here in Starkville.
“We’re not as strong as Pernell McPhee,” senior end Sean Ferguson said. “We probably will never be as strong and big as he is, so we’ll use what we got.”
What they do have is speed.
No one on the depth chart up front weighs in at more than 300 lbs. Most ends hover around the 250-mark.
But you won’t hear anyone on the squad complaining about being overmatched in the trenches.
“Last year, we used the same thing,” Ferguson said. “I’ve been the same size, and we make do with it. We just make do with what we have. We don’t have any 270 defensive ends, we just do it with what we have.”
And while other coaches may see lack of size as a weakness, it’s actually by design.
Especially at end.
“We want guys who can do two things: they can move and run,” new defensive coordinator Chris Wilson said. “That’s kind of how we base our defensive end position. They’ve got to be athletic. They’ve got to be able to change directions, and they’ve got to be able to play in space. So when we look for guys, that’s exactly what we’re trying to get to.”
But getting there and being ready for early tests like Auburn and LSU are two different things.
Head coach Dan Mullen likes where his guys are headed, but says he hasn’t seen anyone with McPhee’s ability level stand out yet.
“You look at what you have and you have to tweak some things around their strengths,” Mullen said. “We’ll find a way to do that.”
The strength of the line will be on the interior with juniors Fletcher Cox and Josh Boyd. Both are returning starters, and both have proven apt at disrupting the line of scrimmage.
Last season they combined for 53 tackles, 14 for loss.
“Me and Josh talk all the time,” Cox said. “We always compete against each other. We’re never satisfied. We just set a standard and try to reach that standard.”
The questions come at the end positions.
Ferguson will start at one end position, and juniors Trevor Stigers and Shane McCardell will most likely be splitting time at the other, but none have McPhee’s explosion.
Or job security.
“It will go every week,” Wilson said. “What I like to do is I like to judge guys how they play that week. I always believe that complacency is your enemy. You know, a guy comes in, he’s had a great camp, he says, ‘I’m starting with the season starting out, I’m the guy,’ so he coasts through. I don’t see how you can build a championship program that way. I know coach Mullen doesn’t. So every day we’re pushing competition. You gotta win every day and that’s how you’re measured.”
Ferguson, the lone senior in the mix up front, is the guy Mullen and defensive coordinator Chris Wilson have tabbed to fill McPhee’s cleets.
 But even after Ferguson started seven games last year and recording 23 tackles, Wilson is not ready to call him a leader.
“I think Sean’s at a place right where he’s gotta be the best Sean he can be,” Wilson said. “Before he can ever be the leader of this group, he’s gotta be the best football player he can be for the guys just to follow him. So when he’s there, maybe he can take that role on.”
Ferguson said he knows there is more pressure on him to produce this season, and he’s stepped up his work ethic over the summer.
“I don’t try to be a leader,” Ferguson said. “I just go hard, and if somebody else chooses to follow, I mean, I just lead by example.”
But the Miami, Fla. native has no problem stepping up as a senior and motivating his younger teammates, if the situation arises.
“If that needs to be my role, then I’ll do it,” Ferguson said.