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Mississippi State has not had a good start under first-year head coach Jeff Lebby. The Bulldogs entered Saturday’s game at Georgia with a 0-2 record in league play and just 1 win in 5 tries.
The Bulldogs went into the halftime break against Georgia trailing 27-10. Georgia needed just 72 seconds to add to its margin at the start of the third quarter. Carson Beck hit Arian Smith for a 42-yard strike, but Mississippi State may have been able to prevent it from turning into a touchdown.
Safety Brylan Lanier, for whatever reason, just chose not to tackle Smith.
♂️ Don’t mind if we do.
SEC Network #GoDawgs pic.twitter.com/n2g1Elj3K4
— Georgia Football (@GeorgiaFootball) October 12, 2024
Lanier may have thought the ball had fallen incomplete. That would be generous, though. It looked as though he started to tackle Smith and then just bailed.
On the surface, it’s a bad look. We see missed tackles every week in college football, but rarely do we see that kind of effort.
That Mississippi State DB showed maybe, just maybe, the worst effort I've ever seen on an attempted tackle.
Yiiiiiiikes.
— Wes Rucker (@wesrucker247) October 12, 2024
Fans were not happy about the effort on social media.
You have to cut Lanier right now after that effort. TERRIBLE. Loser Mentality.
— #HailState #GoApp (@HailStateCoachB) October 12, 2024
Lanier wouldn’t play another down of football for me again.
— Andy Sparks (@andysparks78) October 12, 2024
Get Lanier out of the damn game man he’s absolute burnt toast out there and now not even trying to tackle
— Carson Clark (@CarsonClark1728) October 12, 2024
Lanier should not play another down
— Gil Maneclang (@gil_maneclang) October 12, 2024
Never seen a defender quit like Lanier did there. Pitiful effort.
— Rusty Whitten (@buckets_BCM) October 12, 2024
Mississippi State had lost 4 straight entering Saturday’s game against Georgia. The Bulldogs have not beaten an FBS opponent yet this season, and suffered a stunning loss to Toledo at home in Week 3.
It would seem Lebby has quite a bit of work to do in his rebuild.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
