The first half of the 2025 season was a clear success for Mississippi State football. The Bulldogs already managed to double their 2024 win total and picked up a ranked win in thrilling fashion over Arizona State. The program looks to be moving in the proper direction.
But there's still the elephant in the room to address...
Now is the time for Mississippi State to snap their SEC losing streak
Mississippi State has lost 14-straight SEC games. That's the longest conference losing streak in all of FBS football. Obviously not all of those losses happened under Jeff Lebby, but he personally is off to an 0-10 start in league play as the Bulldogs' head coach.
Now none of the SEC losses Lebby has taken were games State was "supposed" to win. They were touchdown-plus underdogs in every single one of them. Their opponents have simply been much better teams.
But 0-10 is still 0-10. Plenty of awful football teams still manage to not go winless in conference play and pull off upsets as significant underdogs just by happenstance. At some point, you can't just pass it off as losing to better teams. You've got to find a way to win one of these games.
The longer State goes without winning an SEC game, the longer it's going to be a question as to whether or not that's a hurdle this program simply can't get over. Which keep in mind, to achieve their seemingly realistic goal of making a bowl, they're going to need SEC wins, and it's not like there are any games remaining on the 2025 schedule that you can confidently say will be wins for the Bulldogs. They'll need to pull off some upsets.
You can't confidently say MSU is winning in Gainesville either, as it would also be an upset win by the odds. But the circumstances surrounding the Gator program makes this one of, if not the, best chances the Bulldogs will have at getting a conference win.
Florida is a struggling team with an incompetent offense and a coach that is likely to be without a job by Sunday. State is playing them off a bye with optimism that key pieces will be back in the lineup. Yes, the Gators play good defense, have good offensive talent despite their incompetency, and the Swamp is a crazy road environment. And perhaps Billy Napier's team rallies around him one final time.
But they are a team Mississippi State can beat. If the Bulldogs have a complete effort on Saturday with good play on both sides of the ball, they can leave Gainesville with a win. It needs to happen. If not now, when?