STARKVILLE — With spring commencement at Mississippi State now officially passed, summer has arrived in Starkville.
And while the MSU football team has yet to endure its usual regimen of spring practices due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there remains a growing optimism a 2020 football season will be played — though an exact start date and the logistics behind such an occurrence remain unknown.
Over the next week-plus, we’re going to dive into the Bulldogs’ depth chart heading into the summer and what it might look like once competition is allowed to begin.
Following last week’s three-part look at the defense and Sunday’s foray into the running back room, let’s stick with offense and the MSU wide receiving corps.
Sans the quarterback, no position will be more crucial to success in Mike Leach’s first year at the helm than the Bulldogs’ wide receivers. On the surface, the group is rebuilding in 2020 given the graduations of Stephen Guidry, Deddrick Thomas, Malik Dear and Isaiah Zuber — a group that combined for three of MSU’s top six pass catchers a year ago.
That said, the cupboard isn’t completely bare for assistant coaches Dave Nichol and Steve Spurrier Jr. Senior JaVonta Payton, a one-time Ole Miss commit before a two-year stint at Northwest Mississippi Community College, has shown flashes of track-level speed on the outside and in the slot. Entering his final year of competition, Payton should emerge as a go-to guy in some capacity in 2020.
Classmate Osirus Mitchell should also be a ringleader of the 2020 receiving corps, though inconsistency has plagued him throughout his career. The final addition to MSU’s 2016 class, Mitchell led the team with 430 yards and six touchdowns on 29 receptions last season but the bigger problem for Mitchell is that he faded down the stretch — recording just five catches over the Bulldogs’ final four games.
At 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, the Sarasota, Florida native has the ability to be a dynamic threat in Leach’s wide-open air raid offense, but he’ll have to find some semblance of consistency in 2020.
Beyond Payton and Mitchell, Copiah-Lincoln Community College product Malik Heath should see the field immediately during his first season in Starkville. A former top-200 prospect who committed to MSU out of Callaway High School, Heath blossomed into the No. 2 junior college wide receiver in the class of 2020. Re-pledging to the Bulldogs on July 27, he’ll give MSU another college-ready receiver to thrive in Leach’s offense.
“The biggest thing about him is he’s a guy that’s been a lot of places and camps and he’s worked on being a receiver that runs good routes,” Co-Lin coach Glenn Davis told The Dispatch in August. “(He’s) worked on releases. He’s a very polished guy. When he doesn’t think too much, things come naturally to him.”
Other names to watch in 2020 include Holmes Community College signee Caleb Ducking and Under Armour All-American Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin.
Griffin comes to MSU as one of three top-300 prospects in MSU’s 2020 signing class after a standout two-way career at Philadelphia High School. As a senior he caught 23 passes for 413 yards and three touchdowns while adding another eight scores on 41 rushing attempts.
As for Ducking, he’s the less heralded of MSU’s pair of junior college receivers, but was an impact performer during his two years at Holmes C.C. in Goodman — finishing his sophomore campaign with nine catches for 207 yards and three touchdowns.
Starkville High School native Rufus Harvey could also have an impact as a slot receiver. Harvey, who led the Yellow Jackets to the MHSAA 6A semifinals, was among the final adds to MSU’s 2020 class after finishing his senior year with 75 receptions for 1,066 yards and 16 touchdowns.
“He’s really good with the ball in his hands — I think that’d be the quickest way to describe it,” Leach said of Harvey in February. “He’s a pretty complete player as far as being productive on special teams and on offense. It’s kind of like, in some place, it’d be kind of inexplicable how it happened, but he’s very productive with the ball in his hands.”
The 2020 season will see a complete restock of the underachieving MSU receiving corps from a season ago as they welcome a new pass-heavy offense to Starkville. But with experienced options in place, the Bulldog passing attack stands to flourish whenever the season may come.
“I know the last two years of Washington State, I think we had 10 or more receivers with 20 or more receptions,” Spurrier said in February. “So guys are excited about their possibilities and their opportunity.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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