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Mississippi State player who didn’t take kindly to Mike Leach tweet enters transfer portal

When he’s not lighting up Twitter, Mike Leach has been busy adding transfers to his Mississippi State football roster. This week, Leach has lost one to Ye Olde Portal. Possibly because of the Twitter machine.

Thursday, the Mississippi State football head coach sent out a tweet in which he apologized for anyone he offended in a previous tweet. In the tweet in question, the caption read “After 2 weeks of quarantine with her husband, Gertrude decided to knit him a scarf..” The picture attached to it? An elderly woman knitting a noose.

A handful of Leach’s followers were offended by the tweet. In response to Leach’s original tweet, Mississippi State football player Fabien Lovett wrote simply, “Wtf.”

Coincidentally or not, Lovett used his personal Twitter account a day later to announce that he has entered the NCAA transfer database. The defensive lineman didn’t specifically cite Leach’s tweet as the trigger for his decision to leave the Mississippi State football team.

Lovett was a three-star 2018 signee. He was rated as the No. 7 player regardless of position in the state of Mississippi.

The past two seasons, Lovett appeared in 15 games. 13 of those appearances came in 2019. A year ago, the defensive end was credited with 19 tackles, 2½ tackles for loss and a sack.

Because he appeared in four or fewer games in 2018, Lovett was able to take a redshirt for that season. That will leave the lineman with three years of eligibility. However, he will likely have to sit out the 2020 campaign if he transfers to another FBS school.

Jan. 9, Leach was named the new head coach of the Mississippi State football team. Since then, the Pirate has added at least four transfers. All of which, incidentally, will come in from Power Five programs:


  • Stanford quarterback KJ Costello (HERE)
  • Vanderbilt quarterback Allan Walters (HERE)
  • Alabama offensive lineman Scott Lashley (HERE)
  • Arizona State kicker Brandon Ruiz (HERE)