Late Kick Host Optimistic About Mississippi State in 2021
If you're looking at nothing but an overall record from the previous year to predict how a team is going to perform in 2021, a 3-7 regular-season record doesn't exactly generate optimism.
But when you consider the circumstances Mississippi State was under last year and the momentum that the team finished the season with -- things that matter much more -- the Bulldogs are actually an intriguing team to watch.
247Sports Late Kick host Josh Pate is one person who has not counted the Bulldogs out early, unlike some others who have made predictions this offseason.
“They’re not going to be rated high in anyone’s preseason power ratings or actual rankings, but I think it needs to be stated as much as possible; they played their best football in their worst roster situation last year,” Pate said on Monday’s College Football Daily podcast. “They dipped below 50 scholarship players and almost beat Georgia. They ended the season with a double-digit win over Missouri as a pick ‘em game. And still, they started to surge at the end of the year so what that leads you to believe — because remember, they beat Tulsa in the bowl game, a really good fight after that.
“But what it leads you to believe potentially is, maybe at the very end of the year, Mike Leach got that filtering, weed things out and buy-in from what’s remaining on the roster. And maybe we saw, like, a preview of 2021 at the very end 2020. At the very least, how far have we come in the state of Mississippi from the Matt Luke, Joe Morehead days, just two years ago?”
Pate makes some fine points here.
MSU also transitioned from a system with a lot of RPOs that was led by a running quarterback to the Air Raid, which couldn't be any more different, in the midst of a COVID offseason in which players on both sides of the ball had to essentially learn a new system over Zoom calls and still managed to put on some impressive performances against college football's toughest competition.
The Bulldogs will get their first chance to prove they're a team that can contend in the upcoming season when they kick things off against a visiting Louisiana Tech on Sept. 4.
