If you want a good and telling look at the state of college football in 2024, take an in-depth gander at this Saturday night’s game that pits the Mississippi State Bulldogs against the Arizona State Sun Devils at Tempe, Arizona.
The effects of NIL, the transfer portal and conference movement will be fully on display.
The Sun Devils, who have spent the last 45 years playing in the Pacific 12 Conference, now play in the Big 12, which actually has 16 teams, including such natural Arizona State rivals as West Virginia and Central Florida. The Big 12 now spans all four U.S. time zones, which makes as much sense as the new two-minute timeout in college football. (Side note: The NCAA prefers “two-minute timeout” to the NFL’s “two-minute warning.” That’s interesting because two more timeouts of any kind are just what college football did not need. Teams already had three timeouts per half, plus 14 mandated “media timeouts.” So now, we have 28 timeouts total, not counting the stoppages for video replays of close officiating calls. And you wonder why games sometimes last four hours and longer, which means that Saturday night’s game in Tempe could end well after 1 a.m. central time.)
Arizona State’s quarterback is Sam Leavitt, who hails from Oregon, but played last season at Michigan State. Transferring is nothing new for Leavitt, who played at three Oregon high schools before signing with Michigan State, where he played in four games as a freshman. Leavitt won the battle with Jaden Rashada to be the Sun Devils’ starter. As soon as Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham named Leavitt the starter, Rashada did what seemingly any college quarterback not named Arch Manning would do in that situation. That is, he put his name in the transfer portal. He now resides in Athens, Georgia, and will play – or ride the bench – for you know who.
Mississippi State starting quarterback Blake Shapen also comes directly from the transfer portal. Shapen, a senior, has played the last three years at Baylor, where he was consistently good and often outstanding. If State’s dismantling of overmatched Eastern Kentucky was any indication, Shapen fits nicely into new head coach Jeff Lebby’s high-speed offensive scheme.
It certainly would have helped Shapen if, on occasion, he could turn and hand the ball to Woody Marks, the Bulldogs’ leading rusher last year. But no, Marks now plays at Southern Cal, where he rushed for two touchdowns, including the game-winner in the Trojans’ opening week victory over LSU in Las Vegas. Will Rogers, State’s leading passer last season, now throws his touchdowns for Washington. Zavion Thomas, one of State’s leading receivers last year, now plays for LSU. Teammates last year, Marks and Thomas played against one another for different teams last week. Crazy, no? Fruit basket turnover doesn’t even begin to describe it.
As is the case all over college football, State and Arizona State fans will need to purchase a game program in these early season games. So many of the players on both sides are new, including eight of the Bulldogs’ 11 offensive starters. State’s defense features six new starters. State’s new players include transfers from all over the land. One sample: Kevin Coleman Jr., who caught five passes for 88 yards and a touchdown last week, began his college career at Jackson State where he was the SWAC freshman of the year in 2022, before heading to Louisville where he was an 11-game starter last year. Playing for his third team in three seasons, Coleman also returned five punts for 117 yards against Eastern Kentucky. He is one of only eight Division I players to record over 200 all-purpose yards last week.
State also will feature new starters from Memphis, Texas Tech, North Texas, LSU, North Carolina, Purdue, Hinds Community College, South Carolina and Alabama. No, I wasn’t kidding when I said you need a program.
Branden Jennings, a Bulldogs starter at outside linebacker, is as well-travelled as any. The Jacksonville, Florida, native was a part-time starter as a freshman at Maryland, then transferred from there to Central Florida and from there to Hinds. Presumably, Jennings has found a more permanent home in Starkville, although nothing is certain in college football these days. At his fourth college in four years, he still has a year of eligibility remaining after this one.
Arizona State’s roster is just as nomadic. The Sun Devils’ projected starters included eight players new to the roster. What’s more, 13 of the 22 back-ups are new players. These days in college football, it’s entirely possible to give it the “old college try” at five different colleges.
After Arizona State’s 49-7 unexpected trouncing of Wyoming Saturday night, Dillingham was asked if he thought his team had been overlooked and underranked by preseason prognosticators. “Nope,” he answered. “We’ve won three games the past two years and recruited a bunch of players nobody else wanted. We’re right where we should be.”
That could be. We’ll learn more late, late Saturday night. What we know for sure: In 2024, Mississippi State and Arizona State are college football in a nutshell. It reminds me of a game we played inside at Vacation Bible School when we would have rather been outside playing football. The game was called musical chairs. There were no two-minute warnings.
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