South Bound & Down
Fansided

Mississippi State Football: Contender or Pretender in 2016

By John Richardson

Nov 28, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen walks through player warm ups before the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2015; Starkville, MS, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen walks through player warm ups before the game against the Mississippi Rebels at Davis Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Even though March Madness has captivated the attention of the country, this is still a conference obsessed with SEC Football. We’ll be breaking down the pretenders and contenders, beginning with Mississippi State football.

Before we begin, I need to give a shout out to Justin Strawn of maroonandwhitenation.com.  He has been doing solid work predicting how the SEC teams will fare this season and recently published his take on the Mississippi State football team. Before I spoil his article, give him a follow @JustinStrawnMWN.

You can jump to the site and read his article, and I encourage you to do so. For the purposes of this article, though, I’ll summarize it here. Strawn believes the Mississippi State Football team will boast an 8-4 record and finish 4th in the stacked SEC West.

Before we can continue, we need to establish if 8-4 and 4th in the West would make the Bulldogs a contender or pretender. While 8 wins is solid and a bowl berth is nice for most teams in the SEC, that is pretender status. In order to be classified as a contender, the team must have a reasonable shot at contending for their division crown.

Let’s begin:

Mississippi State Football (contender):

Dec 30, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott (15) accepts the Belk Bowl MVP trophy after defeating the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the 2015 Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated the Wolfpack 51-28. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 30, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Dak Prescott (15) accepts the Belk Bowl MVP trophy after defeating the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the 2015 Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. The Bulldogs defeated the Wolfpack 51-28. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports /

The Bulldogs have at least gone bowling every year since 2010 (Mullen’s second with the program), which is an unprecedented run in school history. They’ve also won 19 games the last two seasons and reached the #1 ranking in 2014.

The Bulldogs return 13 starters, with many of them being juniors or seniors. Experienced and fully developed players has become a staple under Mullen, which has allowed his Mississippi State Football teams to knock off some teams with higher ranked recruits from time to time. Since this is March Madness seaaon, think experienced mid-majors knocking off tradional powers loaded with freshman talent.

With wide receivers Fred Ross and Fred Brown leading the offense and linebacker Richie Brown leading the defense (all seniors), the floor for this team is quite high.

Mississippi State Football (pretender):

While the Bulldogs do return 13 starters, they’re going to be missing a LOT of production.

Dak Prescott (arguably the best player in school history) has used all of his eligibility. De’Runnya “Bear” Wilson has taken his talents to the NFL. Replacing the production of just those two will take Herculean efforts by a multitude of players.

The defense will be missing Beniquez Brown and Chris Jones, who both bolted early for the NFL. The Bulldogs will also be under their third defensive coordinator in as many seasons, which negates some of the advantages of experience.

Mississippi State Football Final Verdict:

Dec 30, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack wide receiver Nyheim Hines (7) gets tackled by the Mississippi State Bulldogs defense in the first quarter in the 2015 Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 30, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; North Carolina State Wolfpack wide receiver Nyheim Hines (7) gets tackled by the Mississippi State Bulldogs defense in the first quarter in the 2015 Belk Bowl at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports /

The Bulldogs return a fair amount of experience and continuity as far as coaching on the offensive side of the ball. The defense will be missing key contributors and learning a new system.

Mullen’s teams have hit a cyclical pattern with last year being an exception. Dak Prescott kept MSU as a fringe top 25 team. Otherwise the dropoff would have been similar to their previous peak post experience, which came in 2010.

The Mississippi State Football team won’t need an Egg Bowl victory to go bowling. It’s a good thing, though, because they also won’t be a contender in 2016.

Home/SEC Football