Assessing Mississippi State’s 2016 recruiting class entering January

National Signing Day is 33 days away, and Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen and his staff are still working to fill the Class of 2016.

On the plus side, with only seven seniors listed on the two-deep for today’s Belk Bowl (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), the coaching staff isn’t really facing any critical needs on the roster during this recruiting cycle.

A pair of three-star recruits, CB Lashard Durr and DT Tre Brown, have already signed out of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and will enroll in January. Thirteen other players, including four-star DEs Emmit Gooden and Marquiss Spencer, are committed to sign with the Bulldogs.

Mississippi State is locked in a battle with Alabama and Ole Miss for one of the nation’s best DE prospects, Macon, Miss., native Jeffrey Simmons. The Bulldogs also have a good shot of landing four-star receiver and Starkville native A.J. Brown.

Mullen and company are still very much in play on a handful of four-star prospects on Signing Day, and if they’re able to land a few of them, the overall quality of this class would take a big-time jump.

ASSESSING MISSISSIPPI STATE’S 2016 CLASS

Current commits or enrollees: 15 (avg. rating .864; last year: .8769)

Current big-name targets: DE Jeffrey Simmons, T Scott Lashley, DT Kobe Jones and ATH Jamal Couch

Biggest positions of need: QB, DL and CB

National/SEC rank: 41/12

NOTABLE COMMITS

SEC RECRUITING RANKINGS

(Updated Dec. 30)

Randy Capps

Randy Capps is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, South Carolina and Georgia.