State stands at 3-3, but could have been better

It may not exactly be how people thought they would get there, but a 3-3 overall record at this point of the football season is about where most believed the Mississippi State Bulldogs would be.

Prior to the season beginning, I thought MSU would have a good chance to start 4-2 out of the gate with wins over Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State, Memphis and LSU before losing to Texas A&M and Alabama.

The Bulldogs were able to defeat Louisiana Tech 3534 and North Carolina State 24-10 as predicted, but they slipped up, in a controversial result, against Memphis 31-29, and lost at home in the Southeastern Conference opener to LSU 28-25.

After upsetting Texas A&M 26-22 on the road, MSU took a tough 49-9 loss to Alabama and that has really been the only game to this point of the season that the Bulldogs were totally outplayed by an opponent. State has been in all of the other outings.

It’s amazing to think that the Bulldogs could be 5-1 if just a few plays had gone in their favor.

MSU has practiced better and played harder in the mind of head coach Mike Leach, but he didn’t have an expectation of where his team should be record-wise right now.

“I just do them one at a time, figure it out the week I am preparing for it,” Leach said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “I think we have improved. I’m pleased we have improved at times, but we have to accelerate that process and do it more.”

With six games played and six more to go, MSU still stands in striking distance of making a postseason bowl game for the 12th straight season.

The search begins for the most winnable games on the schedule so the Bulldogs can get to that magical six-victory mark and become bowl eligible.

It will be important to get the second half of the season started with success this Saturday at Vanderbilt.

The Commodores have struggled to records of 2-5 overall and 0-3 in the SEC. They almost pulled off their first league win against South Carolina last week before dropping a 21-20 decision.

MSU must not take playing Vanderbilt lightly. Remember, the Bulldogs were only able to pull out a 24-17 win on homecoming last season against the Commodores.

With the next games being against surprising Kentucky, then Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee State and Ole Miss, beating Vanderbilt will be key before beginning the stretch run of the season.