Mississippi State kicks off football the 2021 season at Davis Wade Stadium against Louisiana Tech on Saturday 4 at 4 p.m.

What a sentence. It’s here.

Year 2 of Mike Leach in the SEC will come with talk of long-term culture and patience,  which is perfectly fine.

But while we wait for this thing to take root, there are a few storylines to watch in Week 1.

The biggest question remains the quarterback position. Saturday Down South reported on the Mississippi State’s depth chart, which was released Monday. Notably, there were 2 names in the QB slot, indicating that there is still a competition. (Or was Leach simply not wanting to tip his hand?) However, there is more to football than the quarterback. Here are two other storylines I’ll be watching in Mississippi State’s opener.

1. The fans

Sports broadcasters cannot stop mentioning how horrible various seasons were without fans or with sparsely populated stadiums or even in a bubble as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

I felt this most in college football. The student sections, the band and campus camera shots are one of the biggest reasons I love college football on TV.

For the Bulldogs, this will be one of the largest gatherings since the MSU baseball team won the College World Series and I expect that the hype for all things MSU will be on level 10. My question: Will the return of full stadiums actually impact the game?

In the NFL, quarterbacks were able to draw offsides penalties using the hard count on the road rather than needing a silent count.

Will this be noticeable in college football? Some stadiums allowed partial capacity, though no one would confuse those places with a full house.

Look for things like procedural penalties such false starts, motions, and delays of game; stops on 3rd-and-short. And, of course, everybody’s favorite conspiracy theory: refs favoring the home team.

Whether crowds impact MSU games will be more prevalent later this month when LSU comes to town. However, if crowds are indeed more impactful in 2021, I suspect there will be some evidence against La. Tech.

2. The run game

MSU and La. Tech struggled in the run game in 2020 — on both sides of the ball.

They both averaged fewer than 3 yards per attempt while giving up more than 4.5 yards per attempt.

La. Tech allowed opponents to rush for about 200 yards and 2.6 touchdowns per game while MSU allowed 126 yards and 1 touchdown per game on the ground.

The biggest difference is how often they run the ball. La. Tech averaged more than 34 rushing attempts per game. Obviously, running isn’t a priority for Leach. Mississippi State attempted an average of 18.5 attempts per game.

Regardless of how often a team runs the bull, 2.4 yards per carry is not enough. That was MSU’s average last season, by far the worst in the SEC.

How will Leach adjust in Year 2? Will he adjust? Last season, SEC defenses essentially stopped worrying about the run and dropped 8 defenders into coverage, which impacted the passing game.

Stopping the run is a major pillar for success in the SEC, but for Mississippi State, running the ball is more interesting in this game.

State’s best player, arguably, is redshirt sophomore, Charles Cross, a massive offensive lineman who shows up in some mock drafts as a possible first-round pick.

While one player does not a run-game make, it should be easy enough for Woody Marks and Dillon Johnson to rush behind a left tackle who’s headed for Sunday football against a defense, returning 10 starters, that allowed 4.9 yards per attempt and 200 yards per game in 2020.