Stock Watch: Mississippi State’s bowl chances
Let’s take a look at Mississippi State’s stock for a college football bowl game this December or January.
Will Mississippi State be able to extend their bowl streak to seven in a row? Right now, only Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Texas A&M have longer streaks than the Bulldogs.
As impressive as that is, we have to deal in the reality that State is currently in a rebuilding year so it may or may not happen. As much as we wanted to believe there were talented players to fill the voids left by Dak Prescott, De’Runnya Wilson, Chris Jones, Beniquez Brown, Will Redmond and Taveze Calhoun – it’s been harder than we anticipated.
More from Mississippi State Football
- Meeting the Opponent: Week 4 – South Carolina Gamecocks
- Mississippi State football vs LSU: The good, bad, and ugly
- The Wednesday Wrap: Maybe Mississippi State Football Coach Zach Arnett shouldn’t do it his way
- Mississippi State football history vs. South Carolina: Records, streaks, and more
- Mississippi State football bowl projections after Bulldogs crushed by LSU
The 2016 team is still finding its way from a leadership standpoint. And that’s part of rebuilding – you have to develop leaders out of guys who in recent years yielded to the dominate personalities that propelled the Dawgs, namely Dak Prescott.
The most important thing the Bulldogs can do in the 2016 season is develop players to succeed for subsequent seasons. This year is not a lost cause, but it is clearly a rebuild so you can’t expect to contend against top tier teams. A bowl game would primarily be important for the additional practice time (rather than a trip for State fans). So that’s the goal, but it won’t be the end of the world if we don’t make it – so don’t get all bent out of shape about it if that’s what happens.
Now – on to the Stock Watch!
Preseason: Good stock (B+)
After Week 1: Bad stock (D)
After Week 2: Average stock (C)
After Week 3: Average stock (C)
After Week 4: Mediocre stock (C-)
MSU gets a slight downgrade after Week 4 mostly due to Auburn’s performance vs. LSU, but also because of a “meh” game vs. UMass.
The Auburn game will be huge for the Bulldogs’ bowl chances. It’s not a “must win” game but it’s pretty close. If State loses the game, the subsequent BYU, Kentucky and Samford games all becomes must-wins, and the Dawgs will have to pick up a win vs. A&M, Arkansas or Ole Miss.
The most likely path to a bowl game appears to be winning the next four games: vs. Auburn, at BYU, at Kentucky and vs. Samford. That would put State at 6-2 heading into November when things get really tough vs. A&M, at Alabama, vs. Arkansas and at Ole Miss.
Next: Re-living the 2014 Auburn game
A&M looks like a really difficult game from six weeks away as does Ole Miss. Alabama is a given loss, leaving Arkansas as the most winnable in that stretch.
MSU has its work cut out for it if we want to be watching them play in the Birmingham Bowl, Independence Bowl or the like. It’ll be fun to watch what happens. As for this weekend – we can just relax and watch other team’s duke it out before hitting this critical October stretch of games.