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Mississippi State Football: The good, the bad, and the ugly vs. Auburn

By William Mitchell

Nov 5, 2022; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Lideatrick Griffin (5) runs the ball while defended by Auburn Tigers linebacker Owen Pappoe (0) during the first quarter at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 5, 2022; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Mississippi State Bulldogs wide receiver Lideatrick Griffin (5) runs the ball while defended by Auburn Tigers linebacker Owen Pappoe (0) during the first quarter at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Mississippi State football team pulled out another victory this past Saturday night while also becoming bowl eligible for the 2022 season. Mississippi State has now qualified for a Bowl game in eleven straight seasons dating back to 2013. Prior to the 2013 bowl appearance, the Bulldogs had only been invited to a bowl game 16 times in the program’s entire history, dating back to 1912 when Mississippi State defeated Havana A-C, 12 to 0 in the Bacardi Bowl.

This coming Saturday the Bulldogs will face the Georgia Bulldogs who are currently ranked number 1 in the Nation and the peach state Bulldogs are coming off a dominant victory over Tennessee. I must be honest Georgia had little trouble in this game and controlled every aspect from start to finish, so Mississippi State will have their hands full this weekend in Stark Vegas, so I hope Davis wade is packed and rocking at Kick off. So, let’s jump right into the Good the Bad, and the Ugly against Auburn

The Good – Will Rogers breaks both career passing and touchdown records while the kicking team comes through.

Will Rogers cemented his legacy in Starkville by breaking legendary and former Bulldog quarterback Dak Prescott’s records of most passing yards and total touchdowns in a career for the Bulldogs. Rogers moved ahead of Prescott with his 72 and 73 passing touchdowns against Auburn while also becoming the all-time leader in passing yards with 9,627. I’m pretty sure these numbers will increase a bit more throughout the 2022 season.

How about the Kicking game, Mississippi state would have lost this past Saturday if it had not been for Bacardi’s ability to not get flustered by Auburn’s interim head coach on multiple 44-yard attempts. Twice Cadillac Williams tried the ice the Mississippi state Kicker called a timeout just before the snap and twice Biscardi split the uprights. On the third and final attempt, the pressure was as high as it could be, but it was nearly a perfect kick. If someone would have bet me 100 dollars that Mississippi state would have to kick three 44-yard field goals to win this past Saturday, I would have picked a solid loss but here we are 6-3 on the season and going bowling.

I would like to address the overtime effort by this team. I did not want to go into overtime in this game I felt that Auburn had the momentum at that point and our defense was tired after a very messy second half. But the Bulldogs came together and pulled out a tough-fought victory which ended with a five-yard run by Jo’quavious Marks. If there was one thing to take away from this game, it was the overtime performance by the Bulldogs

The Bad – About 28 minutes of the second half and the lack of consistency.

Mississippi State has to stop with these second-half collapses. How many times does this have to happen before someone finds the solution to these breakdowns? So far this season we have totally lost all momentum in the second half and up until this game always on the road. Against LSU the Bulldogs take a 13 to 7 lead into the locker room and the score really did not show how well State was playing that day. But in the second half, it was a totally different team. This also happened at Kentucky and now at home in Starkville. Mississippi State must become more consistent on both sides of the ball but much more on the offensive side to ever be a championship-caliber team in the SEC.

The Ugly Mike Leaches press conferences

Does Mississippi State have a team doctor or at least a respirator on hand? I haven’t been able to watch an entire press conference of Mike Leach because of the coughing and grunting that is going on. It’s terrible. I would tell you to just go and watch one but that would not be nice and when he is speaking where you can listen, he makes very poor judgment calls with his statements about fat girlfriends and all sorts of stuff which is just wrong and out of line. Somebody takes his seat away at the next presser or at least cut the mic cord.

Prediction vs. Georgia

Well, this could get ugly and fast. I really do think that Mississippi State has a team that if everything came together could win this game, but I don’t see it happening, and here is why. It would take two things for the Bulldogs to have a chance in this game and the first is being able to reduce the pressure on Will Rogers. As we all know Rogers was under attack the entire third and fourth quarter against Auburn last week, and Georgia will be much more physical. The second aspect to win would be to get pressure on Georgia quarterback, Stetson Bennett, which I believe the Bulldogs will do but to what extent? Georgia wins by at least 21 in Starkville.

Mississippi State 17

Georgia 42

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