Time set for final regular season game for MSU
With game postponements popping up throughout the season, the Southeastern Conference opened up a final week of games on December 19 and Mississippi State’s final regular season performance against Missouri has been set.
The conference announced on Thursday that the game in Starkville next week against the Tigers will take place at 2:30 p.m. The network has yet to be determined as ESPN, SEC Network and SEC Network Alternate are the choices. The SEC Championship game with Florida and Alabama is scheduled for CBS at 7 p.m. that night.
Also on tap for next Saturday is Texas A&M at Tennessee, Vanderbilt at Georgia and Ole Miss at LSU.
This matchup between Bulldogs and Tigers of Missouri is the most rare in SEC games for State. The two teams have met just three times with the Tigers winning two of those, but this will be only the second meeting between the two since Missouri entered the SEC in 2012.
MSU went to Columbia in 2015 with Dak Prescott and company and won a 3113 game in the driving rain. Prescott went head-to-head with another future National Football League quarterback in Drew Lock and won the battle. Despite the weather, the legendary Bulldog signal caller was 27-of-40 for 303 yards and four touchdowns and added 14 carries for 47 yards.
Fred Ross hauled in 11 catches for 115 yards and a touchdown and De’runnya Wilson had another four catches for 102 yards and two scores. State picked off Lock twice in the game with Kivon
Coman and Gerri Green intercepting the ball.
MSU (2-6) hopes to enter that game searching for its fourth win for the season as it takes on Auburn this weekend in a 6:30 p.m. kickoff. The Bulldogs have lost the last two games 31-24 to Georgia and Ole Miss on the
road but continues to progress on the offensive side of the ball despite having less than 50 scholarship players
available due to transfers, opt outs, injuries and a few COVID-19 related issues.
MSU’S top two leading rushers are true freshmen as is the leading passer and receiver. Jo’quavious Marks has 45 rushes for the season for 157
yards and one touchdown while Dillon Johnson has 28 carries for 91 yards and four scores. Will Rogers has taken over as the starting quarterback in the last three games and is 169-for-229 (74%) for 1,312 yards, six touchdowns
and four interceptions.
Rogers hasn’t thrown an interception in three games and his production has gone up each week from 226 yards against Vanderbilt and one touchdown to 336 yards against Georgia and
a score and 440 against Ole Miss with three touchdowns. Marks leads the team with 50 catches for 211 yards but fellow freshman Jaden Walley is making a push with his 35 catches and team-leading 462 yards with a score.
Missouri (5-3) is on a three-game winning streak going into this weekend’s game against Georgia and is a win away from a winning record in Eli Drinkwitz’s first year.