Mississippi State Football Ranked In Mark Schlabach’s 2018 Post Spring Rankings
By Ethan Lee
Mississippi State football gets some respect from ESPN’s Mark Schlabach
Mississippi State football has everything it needs to have a pretty good 2018 season. The Bulldogs are returning one of the best quarterbacks in the Southeastern Conference with Nick Fitzgerald. Mississippi State has a dominant defensive line headlined by Montez Sweat and Jeffery Simmons. MSU’s offensive line is returning four starters. And, well, new head coach Joe Moorhead has a pretty solid resume.
Now, because of all of that, and some other unmentioned aspects of this team, Mississippi State is being acknowledged this offseason. The most recent case being from ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.
The college football offseason is currently at the point in which pundits, talking heads, bloggers, and others continue to release rankings that are “way-too-early.” They’re not preseason rankings, they’re pre-preseason rankings.
In Schlabach’s list, the Mississippi State football team finds itself fairly highly ranked. Right now, Schlabach has MSU as the 16th best team in the nation, up from the previous ranking of number 20 on his list.
Where are the Bulldogs amongst other teams in the SEC?
Currently, that puts MSU as the third highest ranked team in the SEC. Alabama comes in at number 1, Georgia at number 4, MSU at 16, Auburn at 19, Texas A&M at 23, and South Carolina rounds out the conference at 25.
At one point, LSU was on the list but eventually dropped out.
Spring Football is over. The latest Top 25 ⤵️
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) May 2, 2018
1) Alabama
4) Georgia
16) Mississippi State
19) Auburn
23) Texas A&M
25) South Carolina https://t.co/jQEvkEBJHl
Mississippi State could very well be the third best team in the Southeastern Conference. But, right now, as that ranking shows, there’s a pretty big gap between the two best teams and the third best team in the SEC.
Next: Can MSU Have Three First Round Picks In 2019?
Mississippi State struggled a season ago against the best of the conference. Joe Moorhead is aiming to change that in this next season. Should he be able to do that, and MSU wins at a higher than expected level, then the Bulldogs will end the season ranked higher than 16.