(Photo from Mississippi State | HailStateFB on X)
- As the road to the 2025 season arrives, the Bulldogs’ quarterback room has changed in personnel but at the top remains the same.
Blake Shapen has seen more of the Mississippi State football building than anybody else, his coach says.
That’s nice, but as spring football gets rolling, there are a lot of players on the Bulldogs’ roster who have seen the game-day field at Davis Wade Stadium more than Shapen.
The Bulldogs’ quarterback hopes to change that soon.
A 27-game starter through three seasons at Baylor, Shapen and Jeff Lebby got together in Starkville last season, a Big 12 bromance, as Lebby arrived from Oklahoma to rebuild the Bulldogs.
State needed help behind center, and Shapen had that key ingredient that coaches crave – experience.
He was 11-16 in 27 starts with the Bears, throwing for 5,574 yards, 36 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
He wasn’t All-Big12 and didn’t win a championship. Those guys don’t often transfer, and when they do it’s not to a rebuilding program with a head coach on his maiden voyage.
Numbers you can work with
Statistically, Shapen, a rising senior, wasn’t bad before a fourth-quarter shoulder injury against Florida in Week 4 ended his 2024 season. In his three starts against FBS teams he was sacked 10 times. While remaining upright he completed 68.5% of his passes with eight touchdowns and one interception.
Statistics, however, are of little consolation when the team isn’t winning.
The Bulldogs lost all three of Shapen’s FBS starts – Arizona State, Toledo and Florida – after he piloted an Opening Day win against Eastern Kentucky.
As the road to the 2025 season arrives, the Bulldogs’ quarterback room has changed in personnel but at the top remains the same.
Lebby appears ready to hitch his wagon to Shapen for a second-straight season, a very important season for Lebby who’s debut performance was 2-10 and winless against the SEC.
Shapen’s injury pressed freshman Michael Van Buren into action. Van Buren showed promise then transferred to LSU. The portal giveth, and the portal taketh away.
It seemed Van Buren’s play, before his departure, would lead to a spring QB competition at State.
Now the quarterbacks behind Shapen are Florida State transfer Luke Kromenhoek, a sophomore with two starts in six games last year, and freshman Kamario Taylor, a four-star signee from Noxubee County.
Kromenhoek was the No. 5-rated quarterback in the Class of 2024 on the 247 Sports composite list of recruiting prospects.
Like Shapen, he had less than stellar pass protection last year, but when you’re sacked 25 times in half a season of play, some of that’s on you.
The other guys are 6-foot-4, a nice quarterback height in the SEC. They’ll get a chance to impress this spring. Never say never and all that, but they cannot achieve in 15 practices the experience that Shapen, who has upped his playing weight to 210, has earned at Baylor and to a lesser extent in Starkville last year.
“Blake is light years ahead of where the other guys are at because of the reps that he’s gotten and the work that he’s had, the experience that he has. He’s a guy that has great command of what we want,” Lebby said.
So it would appear the job is Shapen’s to lose.
And the shoulder has responded to treatment.
“It felt good. It was definitely different. This is the longest I’ve been out. It was weird at first, but it felt good, and I’m just excited to be back,” Shapen said after his first practice, a helmets and shorts affair.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Shapen and Lebby need one another.
Shapen’s football window is nearing the end. It’s going to be hard for him to overcome his 6-foot-1 height and earn an opportunity at the next level.
Though he contributed to Baylor’s 12-win Sugar Bowl season in 2021, the Bears were 6-7 in 2022, 3-9 in 2023. Shapen hasn’t been a season-long starter for a winning football team.
If he becomes that this season that would be welcome news for Lebby, who has to be better than 2-10.
These aren’t the days of lengthy rebuilds for new coaches. The transfer portal that brought Shapen to Starkville has created a different set of expectations among athletics directors and fans.
How MSU athletics director Zac Selmon, an Oklahoma guy who looked to Norman and hired Lebby, might respond to a season of similar struggle is unclear.
For Lebby, it’s best not to put those optics before Selmon.
If Shapen becomes the quarterback who engineers a turnaround season for the Bulldogs, he’ll be remembered by State fans not as Dak Prescott is remembered but with great appreciation.
Maybe Shapen’s time in the building is the first step.
“I’ve always loved the game of football. I feel like my work ethic has always been pretty good. I continue to base my play off of how much I’m in the building, how much I’m studying, whether it’s the playbook or the other side of the ball,” he said. “I take pride in that, and I take pride in getting better and being knowledgeable about the game.”
