Something to Learn From Alabama: Mike Leach, Mississippi State Maintaining Simple Mindset Ahead of Georgia

Mississippi State isn't overthinking Saturday's matchup as No. 1 Georgia comes to town.

Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach is no stranger to huge upset wins, defeating No. 1-ranked Texas as the head coach of the No. 7 Texas Tech Red Raiders back in 2008.

That serves as just one of many victories Leach has engineered his team to as they can into the game as major underdogs.

Take the 31-10 road win from back in 2009 over the Nebraska Cornhuskers when they held one of the best defenses in the nation and the 34-27 home win over the No. 3-ranked Oklahoma Sooners that eliminated them from the national title hunt in 2007 as just a couple of additional examples.

And he's got the chance to pull off another one as No. 1-ranked Georgia travels to Starkville on Saturday.

While the Bulldogs from Athens head in as heavy favorites, the approach is simple and is one that Leach and his team maintain every game.

"Don’t get too caught up in it," Leach said earlier this week.

"Focus on what you do. Have the discipline. The hardest thing is to get the message to everyone. It’s easy to say it, but everyone has to buy it and believe it. Just worry about what you do, worry about your job. Be the best football player you can be. The other guy is going to do whatever it is he does, which you don’t have control over that. But you do have control over yourself. You want to control all the variables you can to put yourself in the best position to win."

MSU's ability to truly not make this game bigger than it is in the heads of the players will be put to the test in this game as the Bulldogs look to show progression from their 30-6 loss to Alabama, the last time they faced a team with an intimidating helmet sticker.

Leach said his players got "shoved around" during that game, seemingly at will in a dismal offensive effort.

“I’ll tell you one thing they do that gives us trouble,” Leach said after the loss to the Crimson Tide. “We’ve got some guys that are afraid of the jersey that says Alabama on it. We spent a lot of time frightened of their jerseys. You want to scare some of the guys on our team, put an Alabama jersey on, it’ll scare the hell out of them.”

He's hoping that his team took something away from that, which will show itself in the way the Bulldogs in Maroon and White show up on Saturday evening.

 "I hope we learned something (from Alabama). We’ll find out."

The Bulldogs, who struggled with inconsistency in last week's 39-33 overtime victory over Auburn, will need keep steady and put on their most solid performance in all three phases of the game to tarnish Georgia's perfect season on Saturday night.