ESPN FPI Predicts How Mississippi State Will Finish Each Game For the 2021 Season

Mississippi State football finished out the 2020 football season with a combined record of 4-7, with three wins in the regular season while playing a conference-only schedule and one victory in the Armed Forces Bowl.

This year, the Bulldogs have a full offseason intact in their second year under head coach Mike Leach. That helps a lot, considering the team had to learn a new system of both sides of the ball over Zoom in last year's COVID offseason.

ESPN's Football Power Index sees that playing massive dividends, with a turnaround in store for State.

Here's a look at the game-by-game predictions from that, which have the Bulldogs starting the year off at 4-0 and finishing out the season with an 8-4 overall record:

Sept. 4 vs. Louisiana Tech (92.6 percent chance to win)
Sept. 11 vs. NC State (66.4 percent chance to win)
Sept. 18 at Memphis (57.1 percent chance to win)
Sept. 25 vs. LSU (50.9 percent chance to win)
Oct. 2 at Texas A&M (17.0 percent chance to win)
Oct. 16 vs. Alabama (14. 5 percent chance to win)
Oct. 23 at Vanderbilt (85.8 percent chance to win)
Oct. 30 vs. Kentucky (63.0 percent chance to win)
Nov. 6 at Arkansas (44.1 percent chance to win)
Nov. 13 at Auburn (31.6 percent chance to win)
Nov. 20 vs. Tennessee State (99.5 percent chance to win)
Nov. 25 vs. Ole Miss (53.7 percent chance to win)

MSU opened the 2020 season in a big way, with graduate transfer quarterback KJ Costello passing for 623 yards en route to a 44-34 upset win over the LSU Tigers.

The Bulldogs seemed to lose some momentum after that, but did finish the season out with two consecutive wins. Expect them to keep a good thing going as they open the season in less than a month against LA Tech in Davis Wade Stadium.