Earned And Not Given – Mississippi State

Football
March 09, 2023

Joel Coleman, Senior Writer

Zach Arnett using spring to make sure Bulldogs know nothing will be handed to them.

(Click the image above to watch full post-practice interviews with head coach Zach Arnett, offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay and defensive coordinator Matt Brock.)

STARKVILLE – If you click on the Mississippi State football roster on this very website at the time of this writing, you might notice something unusual.

More than 20 Bulldog newcomers don’t have a jersey number beside their name. That’s no accident.

This spring, head coach Zach Arnett is teaching a valuable lesson to those wearing the Maroon and White for the first time.

“You hear this said a lot in football, but everything is earned and nothing is given,” Arnett said after Thursday’s practice. “It would seem to me that would apply to number policy, too. Most guys come in thinking they’re going to get the single digits or the 21s or all the so-called sexy numbers. You try everything you can [to teach them] the player makes the number and not the other way around.”

Now it bears noting that the guys with no official number do have digits on their uniforms while out on the practice fields. It just isn’t ones that they picked.

“We thought it would be a good idea as a staff to have every newcomer to the program as angry as possible on day one because they’re in the worst-looking…