Winning the Egg Bowl and Getting to a Bowl is not Enough
Jul 15, 2014; Hoover, AL, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen talks to the media during the SEC Football Media Days at the Wynfrey Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports
We started previewing the schedule for each game on the Mississippi State schedule today. There has been a lot of talk about raised expectations in Starkville, and I think most fans believe that the Bulldogs can have a special season this year. There is one thing that worries me though. The history of our football program leads our fans to settle for less than excellence. When we get to the end of the season, if we have won 6 or 7 games and one of them is the Egg Bowl, then there are going to be a lot of fans who will be perfectly happy with our football team’s performance.
I won’t be one of them.
The program is at a different point than it has been since the end of the 2000 season. We are coming off a fourth winning season and bowl appearance. We have the opportunity with so much production returning to our team to have a breakthrough season, and unless we as fans hold our players and coaches to higher standards, then it is much less likely that our team will ever make that step. Getting to a bowl is great. Winning the Egg Bowl is great. But I think it is possible we could win 9 games this year and one of those games not be the Egg Bowl. So I ask this question: is winning 9 games without winning the Egg Bowl more important to you as a Mississippi State fan than winning 6 or 7 games and one of those wins coming in the Egg Bowl? If it isn’t, it needs to be.
One of the criticisms that Mississippi State gets from Ole Miss fans is that the only game we care about is winning the Egg Bowl. That criticism is mostly wrong because of the lack of understanding of what the Mississippi State program has been. Winning seasons have not always been an expectation, and a win over our arch rival was not always seen as an attainable goal. So when Mississippi State was able to beat the Rebels during a bad season, it was a nice way to finish the year and have something to celebrate. That doesn’t mean we don’t care about the rest of the schedule. There is no question that beating Ole Miss is more important to us than it is to Ole Miss. Having won 4 of the past 5 has been a lot of fun the past five years because we haven’t had that type of success against the Rebels since the 1940s. The times have changed and I believe that our fan base is beginning to understand how important winning 9 games or more is this year. It won’t matter who those games are against.
The counter argument for anyone who believes that winning the Egg Bowl with just 6 or 7 wins this year would be that you give up momentum for the recruiting push and to your in state rival. That is correct, but to place that much more importance on winning against your rival versus having a great season with a loss to your rival is misguided.
Why does this concern me so much? Easy. If we can’t get to at least 8 wins, and preferably 9, then we have a serious issue on our hands as a program at Mississippi State. A 6 or 7 win season means we probably won’t accomplish much more under Dan Mullen, but because of the history of our program, if he is getting to bowls and beating Ole Miss, then we will be more than happy to let the program sit in neutral for a number of years to come. This is the year that Dan Mullen has been hoping for. An experienced team that was recruited to the style and personality to fit Mullen’s system.
It’s not hard to make the argument that the program has been stuck in neutral for the prior three seasons. The 2013 season is seen more fondly than it normally would be because of injuries to the quarterbacks and the amount of inexperience we were having to deal with. As the season went on, the improvement was very evident to all who watched the games, so a 7-6 season gave us the hope we have for this upcoming season. Factoring all of those things, the season was viewed positively instead of as a mediocre one. Mississippi State is capable of winning consistently and at least becoming a competitive team in the SEC West, but we won’t get there if we settle for less than the best from our team.
The obvious answer would be to win 9 or more games and beat Ole Miss. If we get to 9, the likelihood of a win over Ole Miss would be pretty high, but as you go through the schedule, there is an argument to be made that we may get to 9 without the Egg Bowl. Should that scenario play out, I just hope you aren’t disappointed.