Replacing departed talent from last year’s 10-win team remains a top priority for the Mississippi State Bulldogs as they progress through their spring practice season.

Among the team’s biggest losses from last season are its three top offensive linemen — left tackle Blaine Clausell, right guard Ben Beckwith and center Dillon Day — and MSU’s depth up front has already been put to the test during the first handful of practices this spring.

Mississippi State returns starters Justin Malone at left guard and Justin Senior right tackle, providing the line with at least one experienced returning starter on each side of the ball. Rufus Warren will battle with four-star junior college transfer Martinas Rankin for the left tackle job, and that competition should elevate the play of both linemen. Devon Desper is expected to fill in at right guard, a position he’s familiar playing.

But easily the most important replacement on the offensive line and perhaps the entire offense as a whole is Jamaal Clayborn, a guard moving inside to center to replace Day this fall.

Not only did Day graduate after last season, but so did backup center Archie Muniz, leaving virtually no depth at the position entering 2015. For now, the Bulldogs are making their own depth in converting other interior linemen to the center position, but there’s a learning curve that may put the development of the entire offensive line on hold.

According to Mullen and Clayborn, the Bulldogs are using repetition as a method by which to teach Clayborn the nuances of the position at an accelerated rate to get him ready for the season-opener in September.

“(Mississippi State Head) Coach (Dan) Mullen asked me to come out here and snap every day,” Clayborn told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “He said, ‘If you want to be great, it’s something you have to do every day.'”

So Clayborn has done it every day. He’s snapped football after football after football and participated in rep after rep in team drills, aiming to build chemistry with his fellow linemen that will lean on him so heavily this season.

“They do a great job in communicating,” Clayborn said of his fellow linemen. “We’re buddies so we just communicate. They make everything run a lot smoother.”

The coaching staff has been pleased with Clayborn during the first two weeks of MSU’s spring season, and Clayborn has been pleased with his own development this spring as he makes his transition to center. Although he’s never played the center position before, he said his experience as a guard for two years in the Bulldogs’ offense allowed him to learn the ins-and-outs of the MSU offense and a number of opposing defenses.

That experience, albeit at another position, has apparently helped Clayborn as he learns to make calls at the line.

The new center reportedly asked the old center for advice as he makes the move to a new position, and the former Bulldogs great simply told Clayborn to keep putting in the work on a daily basis.

“(Day) just told me it’s something I have to work on every day,” Clayborn told the Clarion-Ledger. “It’s muscle memory. He just told me to keep doing it over and over and over.”

Mississippi State faithful will get their first chance to watch Clayborn play center in a live game situation at the Bulldogs’ annual spring game, to be held this year on Saturday, April 18.