Vick Ballard had 166 yards in the season opener against Memphis. He followed that up with 135 yards at Auburn. He scratched and clawed the rest of the year to get over 1,000 yards after the Egg Bowl. But back on fresh legs, Ballard goes for a career-high 180 yards vs. Wake Forest in only 14 carries and walks away with the MVP award. He did fumble in the 1st half, but quickly redeemed himself with a 60 yard touchdown run on the next series. The best run, though, was the electrifying 72 yard touchdown early in the 4th quarter. Both of the runs were the longest in MSU bowl history.

After shaking off the cobwebs in the first couple of series, the Dawgs showed they were clearly the better team. Four turnovers compared to Wake’s zero (although Wade Bonner missed two opportunities for an INT) cost MSU field position, a Demon Deacon’s touchdown, and a missed opportunity for an easy field goal attempt just before halftime. But the defense collected six sacks – the most since tallying seven vs. Florida in 2000, and was in Tanner Price’s face all night.

Before Ballard’s amazing run, Fletcher Cox’s blocked field goal in the 2nd quarter was the play of the game. He destroyed the left guard to block the 5th kick of his career, in what might be his statement play to NFL scouts. It was a huge momentum shift as State scored a touchdown two plays later.

The announced attendance was 55,208…and an estimated 40,000 were in maroon. The game was as close as Vegas thought, but perhaps closer than it should have been. Derek DePasquale missed his first extra point of the year which could have been costly as Wake Forest had the ball with 2 minutes to play. But only the gamblers lost out because on that. Great win for State. A winning season at 7-6, and two trophies in one year again!

#14 Mississippi State will take on #7 Baylor at American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX tonight at 8:00 CST. The game will be televised by ESPN2. MSU is ranked #15 in the AP, and Baylor is ranked #6. But either way you dice it, both numbers add up to 21. State hasn’t played in a game where the combined rankings were that low since a #11 Bulldog team hosted #7 Florida in 2003 (74-66 loss).

Baylor is 12-0 so far this season. They are coming off an overtime win over West Virginia at a neutral site. MSU took care of WVU at the Hump in the SEC/Big East Challenge 72-65 on December 3rd.

The Bears are led by 6′-11″ power forward Perry Jones. He was the Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, and will be the toughest test year for MSU’s breakout player Arnett Moultrie, who is 6′-11″ himself.

Baylor uses a lot of players. They rotate 12 men who all play at least 13 minutes per game. 11 of the 12 average at least two points per game, and they have five players with at least 10 points per game. They have scored 80+ in five games this year, and have held opponents to under 60 eight times.

If MSU wants to be an elite team, tonight is their chance to prove it. A win here would likely vault the Dawgs into the Top 10 and seat MSU among Kentucky and Florida as the favorites in the SEC. Baylor is an 8 point favorite.

Sept 1:   vs. Jackson State
Sept 8:   vs. Auburn
Sept 15: at Troy
Sept 22: vs. South Alabama
Sept 29: Bye
Oct 6:    at Kentucky
Oct 13:  vs. Tennessee
Oct 20:  vs. Middle Tennessee State
Oct 27:  at Alabama
Nov 3:    vs. Texas A&M
Nov 10:  at LSU
Nov 17:  vs. Arkansas
Nov 24:  at Ole Miss

As we sit right now, this is a much more manageable schedule than the one State played in 2011. 7-0 going into the Alabama game on October 27th is a real possibility. The main reason: the top two teams from the East, Georgia and South Carolina, drop off the schedule. Those two were 20-5 this year combined, 13-4 in the SEC. Georgia is expected to be a Top 5 team in 2012, and South Carolina is expected to have another solid year.

Tennessee should be better next year. They experienced some key injuries this season, and were still very young. It will be a make or break season for Derek Dooley as he will be on the hot seat all year. MSU has lost six straight to the Vols, last beating them in Payton Manning’s freshman season of 1994.

Texas A&M has a new head coach, Kevin Sumlin, and a lot of optimism joining the SEC and what is likely to be a Top 5 recruiting class. They lose their QB, RB, and second best WR, but return everyone else on offense. On defense, they return six starters including all four linebackers from the 3-4 they ran in 2011.

We all know about Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Ole Miss. Troy and MTSU were the only non-conference opponents to play in the FBS this year, they were 3-9 and 2-10 respectively.

This past June the 2012 schedule was looking like this:

vs. Jackson State
vs. Louisiana Tech
at  Troy
vs. South Alabama
vs. Auburn
at   LSU
at   South Carolina
vs. Tennessee
vs. Kentucky
at   Alabama
vs. Arkansas
at  Ole Miss

But, in late June it was confirmed that LA Tech paid MSU $300,000 to get out of this game (which would have been the final game in a 2 for 1 – ’08 at LA Tech, ’11 at MSU, ’12 at MSU). So Scott Stricklin searched for six months until he found Middle Tennessee State, who will receive $900,000 for a one time appearance at Davis-Wade.

In September and October Texas A&M and Missouri joined the SEC respectively. A&M goes to the West and Missouri to the East. That meant dropping a cross-divisional game in order to keep an 8-game conference schedule. So, MSU dropped a road trip to South Carolina in favor of a home game with A&M…and the Dawgs will visit Kentucky for the second year in a row.

Don’t expect the 2013 schedule to continue along the path of this one though.  For one, the SEC could add more teams to reach 16.  Also, there were a lot of variables in making this schedule and the SEC stated this is for 2012 only, and it’s back to the drawing board for future years.

Mississippi State is now 12-1, winning 11 straight games. That has earned them a #14 ranking, as they are one of only eleven teams (out of 345) in Division 1 with 12 wins. This is the best start since the legendary 2004 team went 13-0. Could this team be on par with that great team that went 25-2 in the regular season and reached as high as #4 in the country?

In 2003-04, State played 11 non-conference games, with Xavier (the team that did body swaps with Reggie Miller and Larry Bird before the game to beat MSU in the NCAA Tournament that year) being the only team of significance. The next two games, which brought the Dawgs to 13-0, were Ole Miss and Arkansas. And then the first loss came to Kentucky in a heartbreaking buzzer-beater at one of the first “white-outs” on the MSU campus.

So far this season MSU has beaten Texas A&M, Arizona, and West Virginia. All of whom are projected to be in the field of 68. Throw in the loss to Akron and perhaps this season and the ’04 team are equal. And that close victory at Detroit on Saturday…the ’04 squad went to Santa Clara and it took overtime and a buzzer-beater to win. We’ll find out on Wednesday whether or not this team will be able to match Lawrence Roberts and Co. when they play #7 Baylor (some irony there) in Dallas.

The two teams are both pretty similar.  The ’04 team was lead by a very good, and experienced senior point guard in Timmy Bowers.  This team has senior Dee Bost.  Arnett Moultrie is playing great, reminiscent of the aforementioned Lawrence Roberts, who was a 1st team All-American that year.  From there, there are some differences.  Shane Power was a great defensive player, and this team relies more on offensive production from the small forward position with Rodney Hood.  Jalen Steele or Brian Bryant have a ways to go to equal what Winsome Frazier brought, and Renardo Sidney will have to step up his game to equal the level of Brandon Vincent.

If this does turn into a great run, hopefully the students are prepared to enjoy the ride. We were in school for the 2004 team, getting to the Hump extra early, traveling to road games (Road Warriors, 8-0), waiting with anticipation for the 5pm SportCenter to reveal the latest national rankings….it was a lot of fun. Of course, that was back when the football team was horrible and all our hopes and dreams rested on Rick Stansbury’s shoulders. The Hump is a great place for college basketball when everyone is loud and excited about the team. Hopefully, this team can make a run.

Mississippi State will make back-to-back years with a bowl game appearance in this year’s Music City Bowl vs. Wake Forest.  It will be the 3rd bowl in 5 years for State and the 4th bowl in 6 years for Wake.

Tyler Russell sprained his MCL in practice on December 13th, and Dylan Favre announced his intentions to transfer to Pearl River Community College just three days prior to that. Although Russell will be available to play, Chris Relf should take nearly all the snaps at quarterback in his final game at MSU.

Here are the matchups:

Wake Forest offense vs. Mississippi State defense

Rushing, 118.9 (96th) vs. 161 (65th)
Passing, 255.6 (36th) vs. 194.9 (25th)
Total, 374.5 (76th) vs. 355.9 (42nd)
Scoring, 26.8 (62nd) vs. 19.9 (20th)

Mississippi State offense vs. Wake Forest defense

Rushing, 168.8 (45th) vs. 162.9 (70th)
Passing, 186.2 (94th) vs. 236.2 (72nd)
Total, 355.1 (87th) vs. 399.1 (75th)
Scoring, 25.5 (72nd) vs. 27.8 (70th)

One thing you can definitely conclude from those statistics is that Wake’s D is 70-75th best in the nation for sure. MSU’s defense is undoubtedly better, and should be the best the Demon Deacons have faced all year with the slight possibility of Florida State.

Wake Forest has an undersized offensive line, and Fletcher Cox should be able to get the showing he wants for NFL scouts. MSU should be able to pressure their QB enough to possibly cause a turnover or two.

Look for both teams to come out firing. State has fared well early in games against weaker competition (except UAB), and Wake has gotten off to some pretty quick starts. Wake Forest has also blown some pretty sizable leads, but hopefully it won’t come to that. MSU is the better team here, and should have the vast majority of the fans attending the game.

MSU 31 Wake 17

Today is Junior College Signing Day. Mississippi State has signed the following players….

1. Denico Autry – Transfers from East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, MS; originally from Ablemarle, NC. He is a 6′-5″ 250 pound defensive end, rated a 5-star by Scout and a 4-star by Rivals.  Autry turned down offers from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Oregon, Florida State and the list goes on. 2011 season: National Championship with EMCC, NJCAA 1st team All-American, 81 tackles (13 for loss), 11 sacks, and two forced fumbles.

2. Charles Siddoway – Transfers from Butte Junior College in Orroville, CA; originally from Eugene, OR (attended Cal his freshman, and RS freshman year).  He is a 6′-6″ 300 pound offensive tackle, rated a 3-star by Scout and Rivals.  Siddoway turned down offers from Arkansas State, Iowa State, Louisiana Tech, Pitt, Rutgers, West Virginia, Texas Tech, and San Diego State.  2011 season: 1st team All-Conference, All-Region, and All-American by the California Commission on Athletics.

3. Dylan Holley – Transfers from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, MS; originally from Biloxi, MS.  He is a 6′-3″ 305 pound offensive guard, rated a 2-star by Scout and Rivals.  Holley turned down offers from East Carolina, South Florida, UAB, and South Alabama.  2011 season: 10-2 season at MGCCC, NJCAA 2nd team All-American.

All three of these players will enroll at MSU next month and participate in spring practice.

Scoring (PPG)

Dee Bost, 18.0 (He has moved into 15th place in MSU history with 1,336 in his career)
Arnett Moultrie, 17.1
Rodney Hood, 12.5

Rebounding (RPG)

Arnett Moultrie, 11.4
Brian Bryant, 5.7
Rodney Hood, 5.2

Assists (APG)

Dee Bost, 4.5 (He is 11 assist shy of breaking Derek Zimmerman’s school record of 514)
Deville Smith, 2.5
Brian Bryant, 2.1

Steals (SPG)

Dee Bost, 2.3
Deville Smith, 1.3
Arnett Moultrie, 1.1

Blocks (BPG)

Wendell Lewis, 1.0
Renardo Sidney, 1.0
Brian Bryant, 0.8

3-pointers (%/Made)

Rodney Hood, 43%/18
Jalen Steele, 35%/18
Dee Bost, 34%/31

Minutes (MPG)

Dee Bost, 33.9
Rodney Hood, 33.2
Arnett Moultrie, 32.9
Brian Bryant, 30.2
Wendell Lewis, 23.2
Renardo Sidney, 21.8
Jalen Steele, 21.6
Deville Smith, 17.7
Shaun Smith, 12.0

Next up: Northwestern State (6-5) on Thursday night. The game will be played at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, MS at 7:00.

I have a Mississippi State Baseball tag on the front of my pickup truck. It has the inter-locking ‘MS’ logo on it and all the time people ask me, “Did you play baseball for the Mississippi Bulldogs?”. I have to bite my tongue. It’s nice they think that I actually could play collegiate baseball, so I try to maintain some dignity when I say, “no, I did not play baseball for Mississippi State”.

Outside the state of Mississippi, if you say you went to Mississippi State people almost always respond with this question: “is that the same thing as Ole Miss?”. It’s amazing, you’d think other states around the southeast would know the difference, you know, since we’re all in the SEC. I blame the school up north for that really, they confuse people by calling themselves Ole Miss, so folks think MSU is the university of Mississippi.

I can remember back in 1996 I was watching some coverage of the Final Four. Fox Sports put the Ole Miss logo on a quartered television screen in the background showing the Final Four participants. They didn’t botch Kentucky’s logo, or Syracuse. Even the Atlantic 10′s UMass got their logo on the screen correctly. But not State.

During this year’s Conference USA Championship Game, ESPN broadcaster Mike Patrick said Southern Miss was Mississippi State at one point. And he didn’t correct himself. So after a week of preparing for the game, interviewing the players, and reviewing stats, he couldn’t remember which team from Mississippi he was broadcasting?

After beating Florida Atlantic last week, ESPN put the ‘number 17 Rebels’ on their headline to recap the game. Really? I could name all 120 Division 1-A programs and their mascots correctly in under 5 minutes. Why can’t sports writers and reporters recognize the difference between the Ole Miss Rebels and the Mississippi State Bulldogs?

I don’t mind when people ask where Mississippi State is located. But it is a little bothersome when they people who think they know say “Starksville”. What’s even worse is when an actual MSU fan calls it Starksville. And then the worse thing is when an MSU fan says “Dan Mullins”. For real? You can’t be serious.

These are just a few examples that came to the top of my head.  I’m sure everyone could think of a few more they can remember.

None of this is any reflection on MSU, it’s just other people’s ignorance. One of the great things going on at State right now is Scott Stricklin and Company’s marketing abilities which promote MSU in a positive way. The endzones now say ‘Mississippi State’ instead of ‘Miss. State’ and the basketball court says ‘Mississippi State’ instead of ‘M State’. They are doing a good job of promoting the name of the school, and that will help to distinguish ourselves above and beyond TSUN, or Southern.

Fletcher Cox’s draft stock is skyrocketing. He has been listed no lower than a 2nd round pick on most mock drafts, and a first round pick on a lot of them.

For the 2011 season Fletcher had 49 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4 sacks, 3 QB hurries, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, and a blocked kick in 11 games. He was selected to the 1st team All-SEC and 3rd team All-American.

On Monday Pro Football Weekly selected Cox as a 1st team All-American. That’s big. The point of Pro Football Weekly’s list is to select the “most talented players in college football based on considerable feedback from NFL evaluators taking into consideration a player’s pure talent and contribution to his team, and placing an extra premium on draft value in the selection process”.

Cox has already said that if he is projected to be a first round pick than it’s a “no-brainer”. And you can’t blame him for that. Anyone who was offered a multi-million dollar contract after their junior year in college would take it.

If he decides to go to the NFL, he will be sorely missed. What looked like a vaunted 2012 defense will surely take a hit. But is this a good thing for MSU? Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, etc. have players leaving early all the time. Then they hit the recruiting trails and replace them with another top tier athlete. Fletcher Cox leaving early could be a great recruiting tool for State. ‘Hey, Fletcher left early….we’ve got the kind of program that elite athletes want to attend’. And that makes two years in a row State would have a first round draft choice (Derek Sherrod).

Sure, it would be nice for every player to stay all four years and then move on to the NFL. But top recruits want to go where they are around the best, and if MSU can produce players who leave early it is a sign that MSU is school who produces NFL players. If you can do that you don’t have to worry about them leaving, because there will be some really talented players waiting to fill their shoes.

Mississippi State will be playing Wake Forest out of the ACC in the Music City Bowl on December 30th at 5:40 PM CST. These two teams have never met.

Wake Forest is 6-6 (5-3) in 2011. They are currently experiencing their best stretch of football in school history. Since 2006, the Demon Deacons are 42-34 including an ACC Championship and this will be their 4th bowl game during that stretch. This is Jim Grobe’s 11th season as head coach.

The preseason prognostications had Wake Forest last in their division of the ACC. Mississippi State was ranked in the preseason. But by Wake over-achieving and MSU under-achieving, they meet here, at the Music City Bowl with identical 6-6 records.

After losing their season opener in overtime to Syracuse, Wake Forest rallied to win their next four games including a win over preseason favorite Florida State. From there it was a downhill slide losing four of five, only beating Duke, and giving up a two touchdown 4th quarter lead at Clemson. A victory over Maryland got them bowl-eligible, but they were beaten severely by Vanderbilt, 41-7, in the last game of the season.

Although they play against ACC defenses, Wake’s passing attack is more prolific than MSU’s. Their quarterback, Tanner Price, has thrown for 2,803 yards and 20 touchdowns on the year, completing 60.9 percent of his passes. Wide receiver Chris Givens has been Price’s main target, as he has caught 74 passes for 1,276 yards and 9 touchdowns this season. They have a couple of good backs, Brandon Pendergrass and Josh Harris, but nothing the caliber of Vick Ballard. The offensive line has given up 29 sacks this year.

Wake Forest has a mediocre defense. They’ve been able to hold it together in most games, but they’ve been split open a couple times for 500+ yards (UNC, Clemson). They’ve allowed 200+ yards rushing three times. Senior safety Cyhl Quarles is leading the team with 96 total tackles.

Mississippi State is a 6.5 point favorite in the game.