STARKVILLE — Willie Gay’s rude awakening to college football came before he even set foot on the practice field.
Mississippi State’s freshman linebacker got a copy of the playbook before his first preseason with MSU; when he saw it, he was certain of one thing.
“‘Oh yeah, I’m redshirting.’ When I first met (MSU defensive coordinator Todd) Grantham he used to talk to me about it and I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to get this.'”
Five weeks later he was on the field when MSU’s kickoff team officially opened the season. The rapid growth out of the Starkville native has made him a noticeable part of MSU’s linebacker rotation beyond even his own expectations. His role seems to continue growing as MSU exits its bye week and moves on to hosting BYU next Saturday.
“Willie did a good job. He went in, understood the calls, could communicate coming off the sidelines after a series,” Grantham said. “He can run, his ability to run and accelerate showed up. He’s a talented guy that’s going to continue to improve, so we have to keep getting him in the game because that’s how he’s going to get better, by playing.”
MSU head coach Dan Mullen said something similar about getting freshmen on the field to boost their development, and so far, MSU has stuck to it. Gay’s seen enough time at linebacker over five games to tally 10 tackles, one for a loss, ranking top 15 on the team.
It’s jarring to think this started with a player that was simply excited to see himself as a starter on the kickoff coverage team. He knew MSU liked to deploy defensive players on that unit and decided, “if I showed I can run a little bit I had a chance.”
Earning that role guaranteed him playing time; it didn’t make him a better linebacker. For that, he turned to sophomore Leo Lewis, whose 18 tackles on the year have him eighth on the team.
“I look up to him every day. Still, to this day, I still do,” Gay said. “I try to learn from everything he does, so hopefully one day we get to play by each other’s side once or twice.”
Over time, spending time with Lewis meant spending a lot of time in the complex watching film. Gay credited that for taking him from bound for a redshirt year to feeling comfortable all within the first two months of his career — all of it coming after Gay said he would feel comfortable after a full season.
“I feel like I’ve really adapted to it now,” Gay said. He feels like practice got easier for him after the LSU game. “I’m at that point now where it’s finally coming along.”
Now that his role is cemented, he can turn his focus to more lofty goals: “Continue to get as many reps as I can get, and true freshman All-American.”
Those that have coached against him think this is just the beginning of something special.
“I love Willie, excellent player,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said. “I think at one point in time he wanted to come to LSU, but it’s hard to go into Starkville, Mississippi, and Starkville High School and get a player out of there, and we were very close. He has a tremendous family, I have all the respect for Willie.
“He can have a great career and be an NFL player.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter, @Brett_Hudson
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