diff --git a/llmfoundry/models/mpt/modeling_mpt.py b/llmfoundry/models/mpt/modeling_mpt.py
index f6b36a3f94..d51558f04d 100644
--- a/llmfoundry/models/mpt/modeling_mpt.py
+++ b/llmfoundry/models/mpt/modeling_mpt.py
@@ -369,14 +369,7 @@ def __init__(self, config: MPTConfig):
         self.mb_args = None
         self.shift_labels = True
 
-        block_args = self.extract_block_args(config.to_dict())
-
-        self.blocks = nn.ModuleList([
-            MPTBlock(
-                device=config.init_device,
-                **block_args,
-            ) for _ in range(config.n_layers)
-        ])
+        self.blocks = self.construct_blocks(config=config,)
 
         # Tag all modules in the transformer blocks with the corresponding block_idx and max_block_idx
         for i, block in enumerate(self.blocks):
@@ -438,6 +431,24 @@ def __init__(self, config: MPTConfig):
         log.debug(self)
         log.debug(f'Using {self.config.init_config["name"]} initialization.')
 
+    def construct_blocks(self, config: MPTConfig) -> nn.ModuleList:
+        """Construct the nn.ModuleList with the Transformer blocks.
+
+        Args:
+            config (MPTConfig): The configuration object.
+
+        Returns:
+            nn.ModuleList: The list of Transformer blocks.
+        """
+        block_args = self.extract_block_args(config.to_dict())
+
+        return nn.ModuleList([
+            MPTBlock(
+                device=config.init_device,
+                **block_args,
+            ) for _ in range(config.n_layers)
+        ])
+
     def extract_block_args(self, block_args: Dict[str, Any]) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         """Sets the block args."""
         if block_args['ffn_config']['ffn_type'] in ffns_with_megablocks:
@@ -788,7 +799,7 @@ def __init__(self, config: MPTConfig):
         super().__init__(config)
         log.info(f'Instantiating an MPTForCausalLM model from {__file__}')
 
-        self.transformer: MPTModel = MPTModel(config)
+        self.transformer: MPTModel = self.backbone_model_class(config)
 
         self.lm_head = None
         if not config.tie_word_embeddings:
@@ -820,6 +831,10 @@ def __init__(self, config: MPTConfig):
                     )
             self.logit_scale = logit_scale
 
+    @property
+    def backbone_model_class(self) -> Type[MPTModel]:
+        return MPTModel
+
     def get_input_embeddings(self) -> Union[SharedEmbedding, nn.Embedding]:
         return self.transformer.get_input_embeddings()