Mississippi State's Mullen on upset alert

Surprises have been commonplace in recent Egg Bowls.

Mississippi’s football season hasn’t gone as planned, and the Rebels will enter today’s Egg Bowl as at least two-touchdown underdogs.

Even so, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen knows this is no time to get overconfident.

“When you play rivalry games, records, last year’s game, what happened the year before or two years before, none of that really holds a lot of weight for this one,” Mullen said.

No. 14 Mississippi State (8-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) will be trying to win its second straight Egg Bowl when it hosts Ole Miss (5-6, 2-5) tonight. The Bulldogs have plenty of momentum — winning fifive of their past six games — and will enjoy a raucous home crowd on senior night.

But some of the biggest upsets in the series have come in the past decade.

In 2009, Mullen’s fifirst Mississippi State team was 4-7 heading into the Egg Bowl. But the Bulldogs won 41-27 over a 20th-ranked Ole Miss team that was 8-3.

In 2014, Ole Miss returned the favor. Mississippi State was ranked No. 4 in the College Football Playoff, but No. 18 Ole Miss won 31-17.

Ole Miss coach interim coach Matt Luke said if the Rebels want a happy outcome this season, they must fifind a way to contain Mississippi State’s running game. Quarterback Nick Fitzgerald and running back Aeris Williams combine for nearly 175 yards rushing per game.

“They do a great job of running the football,” Luke said. “That’s something we’ve struggled with, so we have our work cut out going there and stopping the run and forcing them to throw it.

The Ole Miss i s built around the SEC’s leading passing offense. Backup quarterback Jordan Ta’amu — who took over for the injured Shea Patterson in October — has managed to keep the Rebels rolling in most of his

starts.

“He throws the ball, understands their offffffffffffense, makes the reads but is also very dangerous,” Mullen said. “He can beat you, not just with quarterback runs, but the ones that are more dangerous are the extending of plays and scrambling.”

Here’s are some other things to watch tonight:

An even series: The Egg Bowl has been a close rivalry over the past three decades with both teams winning 15 games. Neither school has won more than three in a row during that span. Mullen is 5-3 record in Egg Bowls since arriving in 2009, but Ole Miss has won three of the past fifive.

More on Mullen: The Mississippi State coach is trying to lead the program to a nine-win season for the fourth time during his tenure. The other three years were 2010, ’14 and ’15. The only other nine-win seasons before Mullen arrived were in 1940, 1980 and 1999.

Need Fitz to run: Mississippi State QB Nick Fitzgerald has run for 968 yards and 14 touchdowns this season. When the 6-foot-5, 230pound junior runs for at least 100 yards, the Bulldogs are 6-0. Otherwise, they’re 2-3.

A. J. in Starkville: Ole Miss sophomore WR A. J. Brown leads the SEC with 1,085 yards receiving and 10 touchdowns. He’ll be making his fifirst trip back to his hometown of Starkville since he made the rare move of leaving the Bulldogs’ backyard to go to Ole Miss.

Rising Wilkins: Ole Miss running back Jordan Wilkins ran for a season- high 147 yards on 19 carries against Texas A&Mlast weekend. It’s been a good bounce-back season for the senior, who missed all of last year because of an academic issue. The 6-foot-1, 217-pounder has run 901 yards and seven touchdowns and is averaging more than 6 yards per carry.