Mississippi State football needs win vs. Arkansas to reignite dwindling bowl hopes

As the 2023 Mississippi State football season has reached its halfway point, the Bulldogs need to find a way to get some wins in a hurry.

It’s pretty safe to say this isn’t how Zach Arnett and the Mississippi State Bulldogs wanted the 2023 Mississippi State football season to look like as MSU is coming off of a bye week. There’s no way that, prior to the season, State wanted to be 3-3 overall and 0-3 in SEC play and to have looked absolutely miserable on multiple occasions.

But that’s where the Bulldogs find themselves. Now, with the bye week behind the Bulldogs and the remainder of the Mississippi State football season up ahead, MSU needs to find a way to preserve its bowl streak.

And for that to happen, the Bulldogs are going to have to pull off some unlikely wins here and there.

Including this weekend.

Mississippi State football: Zach Arnett’s Bulldogs seeking to keep bowl hopes alive vs. Arkansas Razorbacks

At 3-3, Mississippi State needs three more wins to secure a bowl invitation. Here’s who the Bulldogs have remaining on their schedule and the corresponding ESPN FPI chances for MSU to get a win:

• MSU at Arkansas – 32.7 percent
• MSU at Auburn – 35 percent
• MSU vs. Kentucky – 51.8 percent
• MSU at Texas A&M – 15.2 percent
• MSU vs. Southern Miss – 93.5 percent
• MSU vs. Ole Miss – 18.2 percent

If you’ll notice, there aren’t many games in which ESPN’s FPI favors this Mississippi State football team. And one of the games in which MSU is favored is as much of a toss up as the Bulldogs could possibly get.

So, getting a win here really helps MSU’s chances of a bowl game. And given that Arkansas has lost five consecutive games? Well, this is as good a time as any for Miss. State to get an unlikely SEC win.

Believe it or not, the Mississippi State Bulldogs still have plenty to play for as this college football season starts wrapping up.

Sure, MSU has looked pretty bad in wins against the Arizona Wildcats and Western Michigan Broncos, but getting an unlikely win in SEC play and keeping the Bulldogs’ bowl chances from evaporating is important for MSU.

State has a chance to go to its 27th bowl game and to extend a program best streak of consecutive bowl appearances. How long is that bowl streak? 13 seasons. If you’re doing the math at home, you’ll find that literally half of the 26 bowl games in the history of the Mississippi State football team have come during this stretch.

So yeah, that bowl streak is something to be proud of. And even if it’s something like Birmingham or Memphis, it’s important for Arnett to keep that bowl streak alive.