Will Mississippi State salvage its season or not in this game? Mississippi State was supposed to be on the rise this season. <\/p>\n
Mississippi State Bulldogs (6-6) vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (6-6)<\/strong> Coach Dan Mullen was mentioned for the job opening at Florida once his mentor, Urban Meyer, stepped down for health-related reasons. Mullen was a rising star in the business; when he decided to remain at Mississippi State for the 2011 season, many observers reacted by saying, quite understandably, that the MSU program had increased its odds of doing well in the near future.<\/p>\n Instead, a coach\u2019s career lost momentum and a program watched its winning edge disappear into thin air. Mullen could never solve an unsettled quarterback situation over the past several weeks. MSU\u2019s offense performed up to standards in a week two game against Auburn, but that was a day when the Bulldogs\u2019 defense buckled, allowing Auburn to nab a 41-34 triumph. <\/p>\n Over the rest of the season, MSU didn\u2019t find answers on the offensive side of the ball. This development was a source of frustration to Bulldog fans because quarterback development was Mullen\u2019s signature at Utah and Florida, where he served as Urban Meyer\u2019s offensive coordinator. Mullen oversaw the development of Alex Smith (at Utah) into a top NFL draft selection. Mullen molded Chris Leak into a national championship-winning quarterback. <\/p>\n Mullen also taught a fellow you might have heard of: Tim Tebow. Mississippi State was supposed to benefit from Mullen\u2019s excellence, but when the Bulldogs\u2019 offense went into hiding against SEC foes such as Alabama, LSU, Georgia, and South Carolina, all was lost. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s harder to see how Mullen will make Mississippi State as prominent as it was a year ago at this time.<\/p>\n For Wake Forest, reality is decidedly different, even though the Deacs\u2019 record is the same as that of Mississippi State. Coach Jim Grobe has notched his fifth bowl bid at the North Carolina-based school, the most in the program\u2019s generally undistinguished football history. <\/p>\n Wake actually had a chance to take down Clemson and win the ACC Atlantic Division on Nov. 12, but a missed field goal (a 32-yard shortie) by kicker Jimmy Newman prevented the Demon Deacons from gaining a two-score lead on the Tigers. <\/p>\n Clemson came back to pull out a 31-28 win in overtime, but the point remained that Wake Forest had done far better in the Atlantic than anyone had a right to expect before the start of the season. Wake has achieved well, relative to its abilities. The same can\u2019t quite be said for Mississippi State.<\/p>\n The question in this game is as follows: Will Mississippi State play with a chip on its shoulder or a lump of coal in its heart? If the Bulldogs care, they should win, but if they\u2019re not interested in competing, you can be sure that Wake Forest will approach the Music City Bowl with unrestrained passion.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what we\u2019re betting on here: Take Wake not because it has more athletes, but because it is likely to play with more fire in the belly.<\/p>\n Pick: Wake Forest<\/strong><\/p>\n Welcome to the CappersPicks.com Bowl Game College football predictions! We KNOW you will find our FREE weekly Bowl Game football picks<\/strong><\/a>, tips, betting advice, strategies, College Football gambling articles and more to help you become the best CFB football bettor on your block!!<\/p>\n Point spread, ATS odds, and moneyline betting and preview article for the 2011 CFB Music City Bowl clash between the Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Wake Forest Demon Deacons…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":31288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[28750,53161,53160,6898,53159,7636,7608,7610,7612,53162,3549],"class_list":["post-46351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-28750","tag-bulldogs-vs-demon-deacons","tag-free-music-city-bowl-predictions","tag-mississippi-st-bulldogs","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs-vs-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-music-city-bowl","tag-music-city-bowl-betting","tag-music-city-bowl-lines","tag-music-city-bowl-picks","tag-music-city-bowl-spread","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46351","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\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46351"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46525,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46351\/revisions\/46525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTime\/Date: 6:40 p.m. Eastern, December 30<\/strong>
\nVenue\/Stadium: LP Field<\/strong>
\nBetting Lines from Bodog<\/strong>
\nMoneyLine: Mississippi State -280<\/strong>
\nSpread:Mississippi State -7<\/strong>
\nOver\/Under: 47.5<\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR PREMIUM EXPERT SELECTIONS FOR ALL NCAA BOWL GAMES AND BCS GAMES —–><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"