Today’s question: How can the Mississippi State Bulldogs become this year’s breakout SEC team?
When I talked last summer with Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, he bemoaned the lack of veteran leadership on his team. He spent about 10 or 15 seconds going through the roster in his mind, trying to think of scholarship seniors who would actually play in 2013. He came up with six, and a list that included at least one specialist.
“It’s something we are missing,” Mullen told me then, referring to the team's lack of an experienced leader.
Things have changed since then. I view Mississippi State as the SEC’s most viable sleeper in 2014. If there is an Auburn or Missouri story in the SEC in 2014, I think it's the Bulldogs.
Here's why they can make a leap this season:
Dak attack
If you haven’t noticed, there aren't many returning QBs in the SEC this year.
Dak Prescott, a name only now becoming familiar to the region (let alone to the country), could very well be the second-team SEC QB behind the Auburn Tigers' Nick Marshall. (Bo Wallace could receive votes, as well, as the signal-caller for the Ole Miss Rebels.)
Prescott went for five total TDs in the Bulldogs' bowl win against Rice as a redshirt junior, demonstrating that he could be due for a big year in 2014.
With apologies to the other dual-threat QBs listed above, they are not built like running backs, like the 6-foot-2, 235-pound Prescott is. Which reminds me ...
The Bulldogs look the part
An SEC assistant told me late last season that Mississippi State passed the eye test as much as anyone in the league, including Alabama.
“They have some monsters,” he said. “I thought they were the strongest [defensive] front we saw all year.”
The Bulldogs were so physically stacked on both lines that he wondered why they weren’t winning more games.
Going back to Mullen’s point from a year ago, the team could start as many as four seniors on the offensive line and three seniors -- plus junior All-America candidate Benardrick McKinney at MLB -- in the front seven on defense.
The schedule ... is what it is
You’re never going to have an ideal schedule in the SEC West, but it’s no help to the Bulldogs that they have to go to LSU (Sept. 20) and Alabama (Nov. 15). On the bright side, at least those games are split in different parts of the season; that worked in Auburn's favor last season, even though the Tigers ended up losing to LSU.
This year, it's beneficial for the Bulldogs to catch LSU and its young offense early in the season rather than in October or November.
There are also absolutely no nonconference threats on the schedule in 2014. Some schools in other conferences might find that upsetting, but it’s something that stands to benefit a dark-horse playoff contender. If MSU ends up winning two of three against Bama, Auburn and LSU, the committee will certainly take notice.
