STARKVILLE — The first signing class of the Joe Moorhead era in Mississippi State football was widely hailed as the one that brought the school the future of its wide receiver position. Four-star recruits Stephen Guidry, Devonta “Whop” Jason and Malik Heath, all of them 6-foot-2 or taller, were supposed to be exactly what the incoming coach needed for his first four years on the job.
That presumption conveniently ignored a crew of returning wide receivers, bringing with them with 96 receptions and eight touchdowns. Bringing the forces together has given new wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy quite the job.
As MSU nears the halfway point of its spring practice schedule, it does so with a raging battle for playing time at wide receiver. Having seen it up close and personal for the first time, the MSU coaching staff doesn’t doubt the talent level, but only what it can do to manage the rotation as the playing time decides itself.
“Very carefully,” Moorhead said of how MSU will handle the rotation. “I think that’s one of those, I don’t want to say question marks, but that’s a position where we’re going to need to sort some things out through evaluations. We have a lot of bodies and a lot of guys that capable of playing in the new system we’re putting in place from a pass game perspective, we just need to see those guys in it.”
The first half of spring practice has given no indication of favorites for the position, and that’s just how Getsy wanted it.
“I was completely open-minded about the whole thing. I didn’t want to have much of an opinion other than coaching these guys as hard as I can and giving them an opportunity to present themselves to me on a fresh slate,” Getsy said. “I took it as I have 11 to 12 guys that are all ready to rock and roll, get equal reps and how they perform and execute will dictate who went in first, second and third, and I’ve been able to mix that up to give everybody an opportunity.”
In practice, Jesse Jackson has consistently been among those getting the first reps after he rose to the top of last year’s injured receiving corps with 27 catches for 276 yards. Yet, he is far from the lone returner. Deddrick Thomas led last year’s team with four receiving touchdowns on 22 catches for 227 yards, while Keith Mixon’s 18 catches took him for 275 yards and a score. Reggie Todd, Jamal Couch and Osirus Mitchell caught 14, 10 and five passes, respectively with Todd and Mitchell doing so as redshirt freshmen and Couch as a sophomore.
They are joined by Austin Williams, who redshirted last season, a healthy once more Malik Dear plus Jason and Guidry, who enrolled early to participate in spring practice.
The great equalizer for them all is the new system. Jackson said everyone in the position group is taking on learning positions other than their natural ones, as they did in previous years, so they could be interchangeable. Some of those positions come with far different demands than what preceded them.
“(Former MSU coach Dan) Mullen’s slot is more option routes, quick game stuff, but Moorhead it’s more about going deep and stretching the field,” Thomas said.
The trick from here on out, Jackson said, is for each player to learn more than the position originally assigned to them, so they can be interchangeable and help the team out in a myriad of roles: Jackson did just that last season and it made him the team leader in receiving categories.
One thing is for sure: given the structure of a Moorhead practice, all of them will be given opportunity to test their knowledge and add to it.
“We’re getting a lot of reps out there,” Getsy said. “With as many team reps as we’re getting, if somebody was playing more than the other guy they’d be playing a full game every day. They’re all getting their 25 to 30 reps in team and everyone’s getting fair share of their opportunity to go take the reins of this thing.”
Getsy and Moorhead agree no wide receiver will take over the position group in the spring, even by the end of it in April 21’s Maroon & White Game. A long summer of workouts and a crucial preseason camp to follow will give players even more opportunity to do that, but they all understand their case for the starting job begins now.
“It’s how they present themselves in the meeting room, how they present themselves as leaders of this football team and how they execute their alignment and assignment,” Getsy said. “When there’s opportunities to catch the football or block, how well are they executing their fundamentals?
“There’s a bunch of different things and each guy has to be able to check each box. The ones that can do that the most consistently are going to be the ones that play.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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