Mississippi State football: 5 positives from Joe Moorhead’s first season in Starkville

The Mississippi State football team handled the Auburn Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies.

Yes, the Bulldogs lost in embarrassing ways at various different points throughout the 2018 Mississippi State football season. 28-7 to Kentucky wasn’t fun. 13-6 versus Florida at home felt even worse, for some reason. 19-3 in Death Valley was infuriating. 24-0 against Alabama burned my eyes as I tried to watch.

But the Mississippi State Bulldogs did get some notable wins against a couple of pretty good teams this season. And those two wins should get more recognition from MSU fans.

First, Joe Moorhead’s offense found life against the Auburn Tigers. The Bulldogs ran the ball right through Auburn’s defensive front and put the Tigers away in satisfying fashion. Winning 23-9 against a then No. 8 ranked Auburn team that had been favored by a field goal prior to the game helped redeem the season quite a bit.

Auburn finished the year at 8-5 (just like MSU), but the Tigers were able to cap their season off with a huge bowl win over an upstart Purdue team.

The second huge win of Joe Moorhead’s first season as the head coach of the Mississippi State football team came against the Texas A&M Aggies. In this game, the Bulldogs came alive offensively yet again, this time through the air, and an unranked MSU team won by 15 points against the No. 16 team in the country.

If the Bulldogs can find ways to build off of wins like that moving forward, as well as winning other high profile games, then the Joe Moorhead era in Starkville might turn out to be one that everyone can be proud of.