It has always been a challenge for the Bulldogs to rise beyond mediocrity in the killer SEC West division, but, now in his third season, head coach Dan Mullen is doing an excellent job making this program relevant. <\/p>\n
SEC 2011-12 Football Previews: Mississippi State Bulldogs<\/strong> Mullen and his coaching staff has built a strong running game and defense in Starkville; enough that MSU finished with nine wins in 2010 and with returning vets in the crucial skill positions, the Bulldogs are looking for more this season. <\/p>\n Now that State has found a niche of success with less talent than LSU or Alabama and lapped Ole Miss in the battle for state supremacy, the next task will be to build on 2010\u2019s admirable campaign.<\/p>\n The effective running game can thank everyone in the MSU backfield. Senior QB Chris Relf leads the attack; he registered 713 rush yards and five TDs last year to go with nearly 1,800 pass yards and a 13-6 ratio. The Bulldogs\u2019 run-heavy attack also needs Vick Ballard, sophomore LaDarius Perkins (who had 566 rush yards as a frosh!) and senior Robert Elliott. <\/p>\n Considering there is three returning starters and an outstanding JUCO newcomer on the O-line, the pieces are in place for another fantastic veteran rushing attack.<\/p>\n Defensively, MSU\u2019s linebacker corps was decimated, but the defensive line and secondary returns many veterans and have ample skill to play in the SEC.<\/p>\n Relf did a great job managing the game and focusing the Bulldogs offense on its strengths in \u201910, but this season he must become a better passer. Although the run game yielded positive results, Mississippi State is too one-dimensional. <\/p>\n All the starting wideouts are upperclassmen and started last year, so we should see improvement.<\/p>\n As mentioned, the LB corps must totally rebuild. They do bring in transfer Brandon Maye from Clemson, who should start right away. One of the projected starters at linebacker is a newcomer who switched positions from QB (junior Cameron Lawrence). [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Say no more, right?<\/p>\n 2011-12 Mississippi State Football Prediction: 8-5<\/strong><\/p>\n Mississippi State returns several players that can match up well against anyone in the conference \u2013 Relf, Ballard, WR Chad Bumphis, DT Fletcher Cox, CB Corey Broomfield to name a few. However, the Bulldogs won\u2019t sneak up on anybody in 2011. <\/p>\n This team impressed the nation with how well they performed in 2010, and the more talented teams with stronger recruiting bases should be ready for MSU this time around.<\/p>\n Can MSU win some tough games, and maybe pull an upset or two? Absolutely. But everyone in the SEC West wants to put MSU back in the latter half of the division, and it will be a fight to stay prominent. <\/p>\n Mullen has taken a great first step in asserting this football program, now he needs the continuity and the recruiting success (doable in the talented Deep South region) to stay there.<\/p>\n 2011 Mississippi State Bulldogs Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n 9\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @MEM NCAA football preview guide for the 2011 Mississippi State Bulldogs NCAAF betting season. NCAA football gambling guru James Hayes weighs in with his college football picks, and BCS National champion cappers analysis\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":24141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50296,44530,49957,50307,19775,1986,6898,50405,50406,50407,31311,1121,15668],"class_list":["post-40346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2011-sec-football-previews","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-bulldogs-bcs-futures","tag-bulldogs-predictions","tag-mississippi-st","tag-mississippi-st-bulldogs","tag-mississippi-st-football-predictions","tag-mississippi-st-gambling-odds","tag-mississippi-st-schedule","tag-sec-football-predictions","tag-sec-odds","tag-sec-picks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40346"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40381,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40346\/revisions\/40381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCoach: <\/strong>Dan Mullen
\n2010 Record: <\/strong>9-4
\nMississippi State Gambling Odds from Bodog.eu to win BCS: +10000<\/strong>
\n Mississippi St Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nTeam Strengths<\/h3>\n
Team Weaknesses<\/h3>\n
\n9\/10\/11\t 12:21 PM ET\t @AUB
\n9\/15\/11\t 8:00 PM ET\tLSU
\n9\/24\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tLTECH
\n10\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @GEO
\n10\/8\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @UAB
\n10\/15\/11 12:00 PM ET\tSOCAR
\n10\/29\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @KENTY
\n11\/5\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t TENMA
\n11\/12\/11 12:00 PM ET\tALAB
\n11\/19\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @ARK
\n11\/26\/11 12:00 PM ET\tMISS<\/p>\nClick here to check out MORE 2011 college football previews for the 2011-2012 NCAA Football Season!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"