CFB expert projects Mississippi State football bowl matchup with UCF

It’s very early in the college football season, but one expert believes the Mississippi State football team will be playing the UCF Knights once we get to bowl games.

Look, we’ve already gone over a few projected and possible bowl destinations for the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but we’ve got one more intriguing (and one that is potentially going to upset members of both fanbases involved) projection to discuss.

Let’s chat about where Brett McMurphy thinks the Mississippi State football team will play once bowl season rolls around.

Go ahead and lump McMurphy in with the others who think the Bulldogs won’t make it to more than just the Birmingham Bowl (he’s joined by CBS’ Jerry Palm and USA Today’s Erick Smith, for what that’s worth).

But it’s the possible opponent for MSU that makes this projection interesting. McMurphy has the Bulldogs meeting up with the UCF Knights in Birmingham. That would get us a rematch of the 2007 Liberty Bowl, which is something I’m sure very few people involved would actually want but would still be interesting.

CFB expert projects Mississippi State football to Birmingham Bowl match up with UCF Knights

The Mississippi State Bulldogs heading to the Birmingham Bowl (a less-than-ideal destination, but not exactly the worst bowl ever, despite how some would react) to take on the UCF Knights would absolutely be interesting because of how the Knights operate.

The Knights are led by head coach Gus Malzahn, who is pretty familiar with Mississippi State from his time as the head coach of the Auburn Tigers. And John Rhys Plumlee, the former quarterback for the Ole Miss Rebels, is operating Malzahn’s offense as the Knights get adjusted to their new home in the Big 12.

So, familiar faces all around for MSU fans.

If this matchup were to actually come to fruition, Malzahn and Plumlee would be looking to lead UCF to their first ever win over the Bulldogs. UCF, in two tries, hasn’t found a way to win against MSU.

And I, for one, would like to see the Bulldogs’ winning streak over the Knights continue.

That said, as intriguing as this possible matchup would be, it’s not exactly something that would make many MSU fans happy given the venue. And it seems likely that UCF fans wouldn’t want this contest to happen there either.

Now, a meeting in the Texas Bowl down in Houston? That’s probably more appealing to everyone involved.