How to watch: Mississippi State football at Southern Miss

The 2025 season is officially upon us and the Bulldogs will be taking a short trip south to Hattiesburg for its first game of the season.

Mississippi State Mascot Bully during the game between the Missouri Tigers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field in Starkville, MS. | Mississippi State Athletics

Good news everyone, talking season is officially over.

Now, we get to what we’ve all been waiting for: the start of the college football season. No longer do we scribes have to invent new ways to talk about the same things, or make predictions, rankings, lists, and all of that stuff. I mean, we’ll still do that stuff, but now we’ll have some actual data to help with those things.

OK, technically, the season started this weekend with a few games being played including the annual game in Ireland. But the real start, when nearly every FBS team will be playing, is this coming weekend.

That, of course, includes Mississippi State who will finally start to learn if the work done this offseason is going to pay off or not. It certainly can’t get much worse than last season’s 2-10 campaign, or at least that’s the thought until you realize the Bulldogs’ first opponent of 2025 had a worse season.

Southern Miss won just one game last season, which prompted a coaching change and roster overhaul that rivals what Mississippi State did this offseason.

Based on the additions and changes both teams made in the last nine months, there are a lot of unanswered questions. For Mississippi State, the biggest questions are in the trenches.

A big reason for the Bulldogs’ struggles in 2024 was the play of its offensive and defensive lines. The offensive line was simply outmatched, whereas the defensive line was outmatched, undersized and dealing with lots of injuries.

Mississippi State made getting bigger at those positions a priority and it worked. The offensive line has the fourth-highest average size and weight at 6-foot-4.6, 325.2 lbs.

But will all of those changes translate into wins on the field for Mississippi State or Southern Miss?

We’re about to find out and here’s everything to know to watch the start of that process next Saturday:

How to Watch: Mississippi State at Southern Miss

Who: Mississippi State Bulldogs (0-0) at Southern Miss Golden Eagles (0-0)

When: 11 a.m., Saturday

Where: M.M. Roberts Stadium, Hattiesburg, Miss.

TV: ESPN

Radio: Live Radio

Stats: TBD

Series History: Mississippi State leads 16-14-1

Last Meeting: Mississippi State 41, Southern Miss 20

Last time out, Bulldogs: In Jeff Lebby’s first season in Starkville, the Bulldogs went 2-10 overall with wins against Eastern Kentucky and UMass. The Bulldogs also went 0-8 in SEC play for the first time in more than 20 years. Lebby and the entire program has spent the offseason trying to improve the roster, with roughly 60 new players on the roster.

Last time out, Golden Eagles: Southern Miss went 1-11 last season and, like Mississippi State, was 0-8 in conference play. That led to a coaching change and the Golden Eagles brought in Charles Huff from Marshall. He also has a roster that is made up almost entirely of new players, meaning predictions about this game won’t be easy.