The Mississippi State Bulldogs have dealt with a great deal of adversity to start the 2024 college football season. Mississippi State lost its starting quarterback for the season and is having to start a true freshman.

Quarterback Michael Van Buren and the Bulldogs played well in a 41-31 loss on the road to the Georgia Bulldogs. Mississippi State head coach Jeff Lebby is proud of how his players played against Georgia.

"Our guys responded. Man, they did, they answered the challenge, they answered the bell," said Lebby after the game. "I hate that we're sitting here disappointed, frustrated, that we're not on the right side of it. But our guys are continuing to fight like heck for each other. And I'm proud of them."

Georgia held a 34-10 lead at one point in the third quarter, but Mississippi State battled back thanks in part to some of Georgia's costly third-down turnovers. Mississippi State was able to cut Georgia's lead to 10 points in the second half, but they never got any closer.

Georgia notched its 28th consecutive home win. Lebby gave the Georgia crowd some credit for disrupting his offense.

"The crowd was a huge part of it," said Lebby. "As we're trying to change tempos, the things that we're trying to do at the line of scrimmage, the communication piece of it, yes, it's a huge home-field advantage."

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Mississippi State had eight penalties for 65 yards including several false starts against Georgia, but they looked much better following their bye week. Mississippi State did a good job of using motion to confuse the Georgia secondary.

This article originally appeared on Bulldogs Wire: What Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby said after losing to Georgia