MISSISSIPPI STATE BULLDOGS O:8 D:8
The Bulldogs have posted back-to-back 3-8 campaigns since the beginning of the Sylvester Croom era, but they improved in a few areas last season. For one, they knocked off their first SEC West opponent in 19 tries, and improved its DEF PPG average by a FG. However, classifying the offense as anemic is being very kind. Averaging 13.9 PPG in the SEC just won’t get the job done unless your stop unit is as good as Alabama’s was in 2005. For the offense to better its numbers up, the O-Line and talented WR corps will be called upon to help ease the transition of their young staple of RB’s. The defense looks to be an SEC worthy unit with tons of experience in all three facets. The secondary is clearly the best it’s been in year’s with the return of all four starters, and the front seven should build off of last year’s fine effort and help improve on the respectable 23.5 PPG they gave up in 2005 (best mark since ’99). The defense should rank among the better units in all of the SEC.
With the 16 starters returning for the Bulldogs this year, one would expect some significant improvement. However, the outlook doesn’t look to be peachy. Their schedule is tough, and there’s only so much a defense can do when the offense can’t score. Until the bulldogs show the ability to put points up on the board, they’ll continue to lose in the rugged SEC. They should better their record from a year ago, and possibly snap its 21-game SEC road-losing streak.
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