Not many Mississippi State fans have been lucky enough to see the Bulldogs from Starkville ranked in an AP preseason poll to take them through an end of summer Monday. Well it happened. Ranked 18th overall the Bulldogs edged out LSU (25), Oregon (24), Texas (23), and Florida State (19) in the rankings to name a few. Also receiving votes include SEC teams South Carolina (96), Florida (68), and Texas A&M (21).

Surprisingly there ended up being a few teams up in front of the boys from Starkville including Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and Wisconsin being the top four teams. The other SEC team besides Alabama and Georgia up in front of Mississippi State is Auburn (9) who we will see in Starkville in early October, which will be an important game for both teams for different reasons. Because this is a Mississippi State blog thankfully we won’t break down why Auburn needs this win. But to simplify it Auburn practically will have three weeks to prepare for us because they have two cupcakes before by playing Southern Miss and Arkansas at home.

On the other hand, for State it will be tough because we are coming off a predicted emotional game against the Florida Snakes and one lesson that we know is that it is hard for teenagers to play in back to back high impact games while both staying mentally sound and healthy.

All in all, everything’s adding up for it to be an exciting year for the bulldogs. And make sure to check out our season preview which the first part dropped here.