Mississippi State defensive back Isaac Smith (2) signals a play during a game last season.
Jason Cleveland
The preseason media poll was released on Friday afternoon and the Bulldogs were projected to finish last in the SEC standings. Ahead of MSU was Kentucky, Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
Texas was the relatively strong first place pick in the conference with 96 votes to win the league in its second season. Georgia earned 44 votes for first place and Vanderbilt got its annual two votes.
The Bulldogs also had just one player selected to earn All-SEC honors as junior safety Isaac Smith was third team defensive back. As a freshman, Smith had 15 tackles in 12 games playing mostly special teams. Smith emerged as one of the top tacklers in the country in year two as he racked up 127 tackles in 11 games and added three pass deflections, 1.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble.
Smith comes back for year three as one of the team leaders for the Bulldogs and is expected to play more of a role in the box as a linebacker in addition to his safety position. He’s part of a defense that has been revamped with transfer portal players as defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler tries to get the MSU defense on track after a rough season.
The Fulton native had tremendous opportunities elsewhere had he entered the transfer portal, but he’s seeing it through in Starkville.
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