One year ago, Arizona State’s football team was projected to finish dead last in the Big 12. Instead, the Sun Devils became one of the biggest surprises in college football. Behind breakout stars quarterback Sam Leavitt and running back Cameron Skattebo, they surged to the top of the conference, earned a College Football Playoff berth, and nearly toppled Texas in the quarterfinals.

It was a storybook turnaround for second-year head coach Kenny Dillingham, who just a season earlier had endured a brutal 2–10 campaign. The leap from bottom feeder to playoff contender seemed improbable until it happened. Now, in Starkville, Jeff Lebby faces a similar challenge.

Mississippi State is searching for its own version of that story. Jeff Lebby enters his second season in Starkville fresh off the same record Dillingham had, 2-10. The similarities are hard to ignore. A young offensive coach. A transfer quarterback in the room. A roster in need of reshaping. And just like Dillingham in 2024, Lebby is trying to build belief in a program that was left searching for answers. 

The connection between the two programs goes even deeper. Mississippi State will face Arizona State this fall, a matchup that will not only test the Bulldogs on the field but also serve as a measuring stick for what they are trying to become.

Arizona State’s rise was not magic. It was the product of choices. Dillingham hit the portal hard, added immediate contributors and simplified the offense to fit his quarterback. Skattebo gave them a physical identity on the ground, while the defense tightened up in coverage and delivered stops when it mattered most. They did not dominate every snap, but they won the important ones.

Lebby is attempting to follow that same plan. More than forty new players have joined the roster, including Florida State transfer Luke Kromenhoek and On3 Elite 11 recruit Kamario Taylor at quarterback. Lebby moved on from offensive line coach Cody Kennedy and brought in Phil Loadholt, a trusted colleague who brings discipline and toughness to the trenches. On defense, the emphasis has been simple: tackle better, cover better and close out drives that extended far too often in 2024.

The SEC, however, is a different animal. The gauntlet Mississippi State faces in 2025 is far more daunting than Arizona State’s Big 12 slate. The Bulldogs will see the likes of Tennessee, Georgia and Texas, programs with far deeper rosters and far less margin for error. That makes a straight-line comparison tricky, but it does not make the goal impossible. What Arizona State did last season was exceptional, but it was not magic. It was the product of smart roster construction, disciplined coaching adjustments and player development that maximized the talent on hand.

The blueprint exists, and Lebby has begun drawing from it. Whether Mississippi State can shock the SEC the way Arizona State shocked the Big 12 will depend on how quickly this new roster can work together, how well the defense can hold up under fire and whether the offense can find an identity that fits its personnel. The climb is steep, but as Arizona State proved, it only takes one season for a program to rewrite its story.