Bulldogs not ready for SEC West battle

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This is the ninth team in the SEC football preview series:
Mississippi State fans should be thankful for the Ole Miss struggles as it will keep the Bulldogs out of the SEC West cellar.
MSU should win its first two games against Charleston Southern (96.7 percent chance of winning) and Louisiana Tech (80).But the Bulldogs open the SEC 0-3 with losses to LSU (29.8), Georgia (21.2) and Auburn (11.8).
MSU will rebound with wins over Brigham Young (71.9) and Kentucky (55.4) before a road loss at Texas A&M (29.4).
A victory over Massachusetts (94.7) puts the Bulldogs at five wins before the clash with Alabama (12.8).
A loss to Arkansas (47.1) puts the spotlight on the Egg Bowl against rival Ole Miss.
A win over the Rebels (60) will be the highlight of the season but a loss would make the year a disaster.
An upset over one of the other SEC West teams earlier in the season will help make the Bulldogs bowl eligible.
Or maybe the Bulldogs beat Louisiana Tech and LSU, split against Georgia and Auburn.
They also split games against Texas A&M and Arkansas before winning over Ole Miss to finish 9-3.
I think the first scenerio is more likely and the Bulldogs are stuck near the bottom of the SEC West again.
MSU head coach Dan Mullen has dual-threat quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to lead the offense.
There’s no replacing Dak Prescott, but Fitzgerald is on the verge of coming a great quarterback.
He threw for 2,423 yards and 21 scores, while rushing for a team-high 1,375 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Considering he accounted for 3,798 of the team’s 5,723 yards, and the top backup option is a true freshman (Keytaon Thompson), if Fitzgerald goes down, there goes 2017.
Running back Aeris Williams has plenty of talent to help take the pressure off Fitzgerald.
Donald Gray and Keith Mixon are good receivers along with tight ends Farrod Green and Justin Johnson.
The offensive line has to develop quickly to protect the quarterback and open holes for the running game.
New defensive coordinator Todd Grantham took over a sqaud that finished 110th in the nation, hurt mostly by a miserable pass defense.
Defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons and linebacker Leo Lewis should lead the Bulldog defense.
Montez Sweat and Chauncey Rivers will also make their presence felt as linebackers.
Brandon Bryant, J.T. Gray, Johnathan Abram and Tolando Cleveland will play havoc in the secondary.
Last year, MSU needed the break of getting into a bowl game on good grades – but this time around, if it can beat Charleston Southern, BYU, Kentucky and UMass, all it’ll take is three more wins to get to seven.
Look at the schedule and you try and figure out where the other three wins will happen.

Mississippi State
Schedule
Sept. 2 Char. Southern
Sept. 9 at Louisiana Tech
Sept. 16 LSU
Sept. 23 at Georgia
Sept. 30 at Auburn
Oct. 14 BYU
Oct. 21 Kentucky
Oct. 28 at Texas A&M
Nov. 4 Massachusetts
Nov. 11 Alabama
Nov. 18 at Arkansas
Nov. 23 Mississippi