Are We in the Golden Era of Mississippi State Football?

Are we currently is the midst of the greatest football ever played at Mississippi State University? Five straight winning seasons with five straight bowl game appearances – is this the best it’s ever been? A #1 ranking achieved, attendance records shattered; a case could certainly be made.

Mississippi State’s football history isn’t the caliber of Alabama or Texas or USC….we all get that. But could a five year stretch that includes two 6-loss seasons really be the best ever? Let’s look back at previous five year stretches (for an accurate comparison)…

1996-2000

The last time MSU had a comparable five year stretch was during Jackie Sherrill’s tenure when the Bulldogs went 5-6, 7-4, 8-5, 10-2 and 8-4 from 1996-2000.

While those teams only went to three bowl games from 1998-2000, they most likely would have gone to five using today’s bowl standards. The ’96 season would have included another non-conference game that should’ve have made State 6-6, and the 7-4 team in 1997 would have undoubtedly gone bowling. So in terms of bowl games, they are equal, especially considering 2010-2014 included two 6-6 regular season teams.

State’s lone SEC West championship occurred during this span (1998), but of course State’s lone venture into the top five let alone the #1 ranking was in 2014.

It’s hard to say which is better – it may depend on how much you value that SEC West championship.

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1974-1978

This stretch of time does include a losing season like 1996-2000, but it was a 5-6 year in 1977 which could have been a 6-6 season if there were 12 games like there are today, yada yada yada.

This stretch of time included two 9-win seasons under Bob Tyler – that equals Mullen’s total and accounts for 29% of all 9-win seasons in MSU history.

The black mark, of course, is that 18 wins were forfeited due to the Larry Gillard “discount”, which by today’s standards of punishment would’ve never happened.

If this were to be stretched into an eight year run to include the 1980 and 1981 seasons, you could certainly make a significant case for it being the best brand of football ever played at MSU. Those two teams both went to bowl games, won at least eight games and featured several wins over ranked teams including #1 Alabama.

1939-1944

This is technically a six “year” period, but only a five season span as the 1943 season was not played due to World War II. If I were to omit the 1944 season, however, these years would have an even stronger résumé as they won two fewer games that year than 1939-42.

These, of course, where the Allyn McKeen years. He started his career on fire: 8-2, 10-0-1, 8-1-1, 8-2 and 6-2. He went on to have another three more winning seasons at 6-3, 8-2 and 7-3 making that the best eight year run in MSU history without question. But alas, we are discussing five year runs to compare with 2010-2014.

The 1940 season featured one of Mississippi State’s three 10-win seasons (only undefeated year), the program’s only top 10 final ranking and an Orange Bowl victory. State’s only SEC championship occurred in 1941 – the year many believe we were indeed worthy of a national championship crown. 

Here’s a table of stats to compare each era…

*prior to 1989, the AP poll only ranked 20 teams so all numbers in the table are based on teams being ranked in the top 20 only. From 1996-2000 MSU was 6-8 vs. top 25 teams and spent 32 weeks in the top 25. From 2010-2014 MSU was 4-20 against top 25 teams and spent 34 weeks in the top 25.

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