basedog
10-15-2016, 01:50 PM
Early History (1895?1938)
Mississippi State (then known as Mississippi A&M; its mascot was the Aggies) first fielded a football team in 1895.[4] The team was coached by W. M. Matthews.[4] During his one-season tenure, Matthews posted an overall record of zero wins and two losses (0?2).[5] He is also credited with the selection of what became the official school colors, maroon and white, prior to the Aggies first game ever played at Union University.[6][7]
Daniel S. Martin left rival Ole Miss and served as the Aggies' head football coach from 1903?1906.[8] His final record in Starkville was 10?11?3.[9]
W. D. Chadwick led the Aggies from 1909?1913.[10] His final record was 29?12?2.[10] During his five-season tenure, Mississippi A&M appeared in and won its first bowl game, the 1911 Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba.[10] Fullback Dutch Reule was selected All-Southern. The 1911 team was also referred to as 'The Bull Dogs'.[11]
Earle C. Hayes replaced Chadwick and led Mississippi A&M to 15?8?2 record from 1914?1916.[12] Hunter Kimball received the most votes of any All-Southern halfback in 1914.[13][14]
The Mississippi Legislature renamed Mississippi A&M as "Mississippi State College" in 1925 and the mascot was changed from Aggies to Maroons in 1932.[15]
Ralph Sasse enjoyed success as Mississippi State's head football coach. After leading Mississippi State to a 20?10?2 record in three years and an appearance in the 1937 Orange Bowl,[16] a loss,[16] Sasse stunned the students and players by resigning from his head coach's duties, following a doctor's orders after a sudden nervous breakdown.[17]
Allyn McKeen era (1939?1948)
Allyn McKeen left Memphis to become head football coach at Mississippi State,[18] where he compiled a 65?19?3 record in ten seasons.[19] In 1940, he was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after leading Mississippi State to its only undefeated season in school history and its second Orange Bowl appearance, a victory.[18][19]
The following year, 1941, his Maroons squad captured the first and only Southeastern Conference championship in program history. McKeen retired from coaching in 1948 after being fired by Athletic Director Dudy Noble because of a 4?4?1 season.[20] He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1991.
Mississippi State did not field a football team in 1943.[21]
Arthur Morton era (1949?1951)
Arthur Morton left VMI to become MSU's head football coach after McKeen's retirement.[22] Morton's Maroons posted struggling records of 0?8?1, 4?5 and 4?5 for a grand total of 8?18?1[23] before Morton's firing.[24]
Murray Warmath era (1952?1953)
Murray Warmath came to Mississippi State from his post as line coach at Army[25] and posted records of 5?4 and 5?2?3 for a grand total of 10?6?3 leaving the Bulldogs.[26] Warmath went on to have a very successful stint as the head football coach at Minnesota after his tenure at MSU.[25]
Darrell Royal era (1954?1955)
Darrell Royal came to Mississippi State from the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos[27] and put up back-to-back 6?4 records in his two seasons as the Maroons head football coach.[28] Royal resigned after just two seasons to accept the head football coach position at Washington.[27] Royal would go on to achieve great successes and solidify his place among the all-time greatest college football coaches at Texas.[27]
Wade Walker era (1956?1961)
Wade Walker was promoted from line coach to head coach following Royal's departure. Walker compiled a 22?32?2 record over his 6-season tenure.[29][30] In 1958 the Legislature renamed the university as Mississippi State University. The Mississippi State Maroons posted a lackluster 2?7?1 record in 1959.[31] The following year, Walker's Maroons improved to 5?5,[31] but students, fans and alumni demanded his ouster.[32] University president Dean W. Colvard relented and fired Walker as football coach, but kept him on as athletic director, a post he kept until 1966.[32][33]
MSST changed its mascot from Maroons to Bulldogs in 1960.[15]
Paul Davis era (1962?1966)
Paul Davis was promoted from assistant coach to head coach following Walker's firing.[34] His teams went 20?38?2 overall and 9?22?2 in the Southeastern Conference in Davis' five seasons.[35] The Bulldogs had a 7?2?2 record in 1963, earning its first postseason bowl game since 1939.[36] The team finished the season with a 16?12 victory over North Carolina State in front of 8,309 fans at the 1963 Liberty Bowl played in a bitter cold Philadelphia.[37] Mississippi State was able to convert two botched North Carolina State punts into touchdowns, and a 13?0 lead at the first quarter.[38] United Press International named Davis the SEC Coach of the Year for the 1963 season.[36] After a lackluster 2?8 record in 1966, MSU terminated Davis, as well as athletic director Wade Walker.[39]
Charles Shira era (1967?1972)
Charles Shira, who had been defensive coordinator for the University of Texas, was named to fill the head coaching position as well as the vacant post of Athletic Director.[40]
In his first season, his team won two games, followed by none the following year. Mississippi State improved to 3?7 in 1969. That year, Shira served as the coach for the Gray squad in the Blue-Gray Classic.[41]
Mississippi State posted a surprising six-win season in 1970, including a victory over rival #10 Ole Miss.[42] For the accomplishment, the SEC named Shira its Coach of the Year.[43] In 1972, having compiled a record of 16?45?2,[42] Shira resigned as head coach to focus on his duties as athletic director.[44]
Bob Tyler era (1973?1978)
Bob Tyler was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach of the Bulldogs football team after Shira's resignation.[45] Tyler led State to a 9?3 season and a victory in the 1974 Sun Bowl over North Carolina.[46] During that season, his team beat perennial powerhouses Georgia and LSU.[47] The Bulldogs' record was 6?4?1 in 1975, and it was an impressive 9?2 in 1976, ending the season ranked #20 in the AP Poll.[46] His team compiled a 5?6 record in 1977, and he went 6?5 in his final season with the Bulldogs.[46]
Mississippi State was placed on probation by the NCAA prior to the 1975 season due to alleged improper benefits to student athletes.[48] The school sought and won court approval to play in an adverse legal opinion to the NCAA.[48] Although the alleged infraction was trivial,[49] the NCAA forced the school to forfeit most games it won in 1975, 1976, and 1977.[50]
Emory Bellard era (1979?1985)
Emory Bellard, who had resigned as head coach of Texas A&M during the 1978 season after only six games, was hired to serve as head football coach at Mississippi State beginning with the next (1979) season.[51] He was head coach from 1979 until 1985.[52]
He was considered to have had one of the most innovative offensive minds in football and is credited for inventing the wishbone formation.[51] Bellard spent seven seasons as head coach at MSU.[52] His best years as the Bulldogs head coach were in 1980 and 1981, when his team finished 9?3 and 8?4, respectively.[52] Also, Bellard was the coach when Mississippi State defeated number 1, undefeated Alabama 6?3 in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1980.[53] Bellard left coaching after the 1985 season[52] but would return in 1988 to coach at the high school level in Texas.
Rockey Felker era (1986?1990)
Rockey Felker returned to his alma mater, which was coming off four consecutive losing seasons, from his post as a position coach at Alabama.[54] At 33, Felker was the youngest coach in the country and the first Mississippi State coach in 30 years to start his career as MSU head football coach with a winning record (6?5).[54][55]
However, the Bulldogs never recovered from four consecutive blowout losses at the end of the 1986 season, during which they scored a total of nine points, including a 24-3 loss to Ole Miss. Felker suffered through four losing seasons (4?7, 1?10, 5?6, 5?6) between 1987 and 1990, and only won a total of five games in SEC play. He was only 1-4 vs. Ole Miss.[55] He resigned under pressure at the end of the 1990 season,[56] but would be brought back by his successor, Jackie Sherrill, as running backs coach for two seasons and in a non-coaching position in the football program, where he serves to this day.[54]
Jackie Sherrill era (1991?2003)
After three years away from the game, former Washington State, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M head football coach Jackie Sherrill was hired as head football coach at Mississippi State in 1991.[57] He took over a program that hadn't had a winning season since 1986 (and had won a total of 14 games in that stretch) and hadn't had a winning record in Southeastern Conference play since 1981. Sherrill began his Mississippi State career with an upset victory over a familiar foe from his A&M days, the Texas Longhorns (who were the defending Southwest Conference champions).[58]
In thirteen seasons in Starkville, Sherrill coached the Bulldogs to a record of 75?75?2.[59] His 75 wins are the most in school history. He led the team to an SEC West title in 1998, and a berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic.[59] A year later, he notched a 10?2 record and #12 final ranking.[59] That #12 ranking was the highest final ranking achieved by any NCAA Division I-A school in Mississippi in over 30 years. Sherrill, along with Bill Snyder of Kansas State, were among the first to use the rich JUCO systems of their respective states to help their programs progress.
Although Sherrill won only eight games in his last three seasons, he built Mississippi State into a consistent winner despite playing in the same division as powerhouses like Alabama, Auburn and LSU. He also finished with a winning record against in-state rival Ole Miss (7?6). Under Sherrill, the Bulldogs went to six bowl games;[59] before his arrival they'd only been to seven bowls in 96 years of play.
Sherrill also achieved notoriety by having his team observe the castration of a bull as a motivational technique prior to a game versus Texas. Unranked Mississippi State subsequently beat the #13 ranked Longhorns.[60]
Sherrill retired after the 2003 season,[61] which was followed by the NCAA levying probation for four years on the program.[62] Despite a prolonged 3-year investigation by the NCAA, Mississippi State was [63] not found guilty of any major violations, and Sherrill was never personally found guilty of any NCAA rules violations at either Mississippi State or Texas A&M.[61]
Sylvester Croom era (2004?2008)
Sylvester Croom, a longtime assistant in the NFL, was hired to replace the retiring Sherrill.[64] Croom is a significant figure, because he is not only the first African American head football coach in Mississippi State history, but also in SEC football history.[64] When Croom was hired at Mississippi State, he inherited a program that was riddled with NCAA sanctions and had not won consistently since the 1990s.[64]
After the 2007 season, during which his team won eight games, including the Liberty Bowl,[65] Croom garnered Coach of the Year awards from three organizations.[65] On December 4, 2007, Croom was named coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association for region two.[65] The AFCA has five regional coaches of the year and announces a national coach of the year each January.[66] That same year, on December 5, Croom was named SEC Coach of the Year twice, once as voted by the other SEC coaches and once as voted by The Associated Press. It was the first time a Mississippi State coach received the AP honor since Charley Shira in 1970 and the first time a Mississippi State coach received the coaches award since Wade Walker in 1957.[67]
After a 4?8 record in 2008,[65] culminating with a 45?0 loss to rival #25 Ole Miss, Croom was asked by school officials to resign as the coach of the Bulldogs.[68]
Dan Mullen era (2009?present)
Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen was hired as Mississippi State's head coach in late 2008.[69] In Mullen's first season, the Bulldogs finished 5?7, ending upbeat with a 41?27 victory over #20 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.[70]
In 2010, they started 1?2, and then they had a 6-game winning streak to make their record 7?2 before losing to Alabama and Arkansas, but defeated Ole Miss.[71] The team participated in a bowl game for the first time since 2007, soundly defeating Michigan in the Gator Bowl 52?14.[71][72]
In 2011, the Bulldogs entered the season ranked #19 in the country, and they started 1?0, before losing to the defending national champion Auburn 41?34.[73] Mississippi State entered the Ole Miss game in Starkville needing a win to qualify for a bowl bid for a second straight season.[73] The Bulldogs won 31?3, earning Mullen the distinction as the first coach to beat Ole Miss in his first three tries since Allyn McKeen in 1941. The Bulldogs capped off the season with a Music City Bowl win over Wake Forest in Nashville, Tennessee.[73][74]
In 2012, Mississippi State defeated Tennessee 41?31 in their sixth game of the season to become bowl eligible.[75] After a 7?0 start the team won only one of its remaining five games to finish 8-5, including a 41-24 loss at Ole Miss and a 34-20 loss to the #21 Northwestern in the Gator Bowl.[75][76] This was the first time Mississippi State appeared in a bowl three straight years since 2000.
In 2013, MSST under Mullen became bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive year following a 17-10 overtime win over Ole Miss.[77] MSST defeatedRice in the Liberty Bowl December 31, 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, by a score of 44?7.[77][78] It was MSST's third bowl win in the last four years.[79]
2014 turned out to be the most historic run for the team, as the Bulldogs reached a #1 ranking for the first time ever, doing so in both the Amway Coaches Poll and the AP Poll, after beating 3 consecutive top-10 teams (#7 LSU Tigers, #6 Texas A&M Aggies, and #2 Auburn Tigers). As a result, the Bulldogs became the fastest team in AP Poll's history to reach the #1 ranking, from being unranked, in only 5 weeks. However, at the end of the season, only one of the three teams remained ranked. Auburn finished 8-5 (4-4 SEC) and ranked #22, and lost to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl, Texas A&M finished 7-5 (3-5 SEC) and beat West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl, and LSU finished 8-4 (4-4 SEC) and lost to Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl.[80][81]
The Bulldogs couldn't sustain that momentum, and lost two of their last three regular season games, first to #5 Alabama 25?20 and then two weeks later to #18 Ole Miss 31?17. That loss knocked the Bulldogs out of playoff contention, leaving them 10?2 and ranked #7 by the College Football Playoff Committee in their final rankings. As a result, they were awarded a trip to the Orange Bowl against #10 Georgia Tech on December 31, 2014. The Bulldogs lost that contest 49-34 and finished 10?3 and were ranked #11 in the final AP Poll.[82]
In 2015, little was expected of the Bulldogs. It was believed they would do well, but still finish near or at the bottom of the SEC West...and this is exactly what happened. The Bulldogs went 4-4 in the SEC and finished the regular season with an 8-4 record. State was 0-4 versus ranked teams. Once again they fell to #18 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, this time by a score of 38-27. It was their third loss to the rival Rebels in four years. Still, they reached the 2015 Belk Bowl and crushed the NC State Wolfpack by a score of 51-28. It was Dak Prescott's last game as a Bulldog, and he was named the game MVP after throwing 4 touchdowns.
Mississippi State (then known as Mississippi A&M; its mascot was the Aggies) first fielded a football team in 1895.[4] The team was coached by W. M. Matthews.[4] During his one-season tenure, Matthews posted an overall record of zero wins and two losses (0?2).[5] He is also credited with the selection of what became the official school colors, maroon and white, prior to the Aggies first game ever played at Union University.[6][7]
Daniel S. Martin left rival Ole Miss and served as the Aggies' head football coach from 1903?1906.[8] His final record in Starkville was 10?11?3.[9]
W. D. Chadwick led the Aggies from 1909?1913.[10] His final record was 29?12?2.[10] During his five-season tenure, Mississippi A&M appeared in and won its first bowl game, the 1911 Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba.[10] Fullback Dutch Reule was selected All-Southern. The 1911 team was also referred to as 'The Bull Dogs'.[11]
Earle C. Hayes replaced Chadwick and led Mississippi A&M to 15?8?2 record from 1914?1916.[12] Hunter Kimball received the most votes of any All-Southern halfback in 1914.[13][14]
The Mississippi Legislature renamed Mississippi A&M as "Mississippi State College" in 1925 and the mascot was changed from Aggies to Maroons in 1932.[15]
Ralph Sasse enjoyed success as Mississippi State's head football coach. After leading Mississippi State to a 20?10?2 record in three years and an appearance in the 1937 Orange Bowl,[16] a loss,[16] Sasse stunned the students and players by resigning from his head coach's duties, following a doctor's orders after a sudden nervous breakdown.[17]
Allyn McKeen era (1939?1948)
Allyn McKeen left Memphis to become head football coach at Mississippi State,[18] where he compiled a 65?19?3 record in ten seasons.[19] In 1940, he was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after leading Mississippi State to its only undefeated season in school history and its second Orange Bowl appearance, a victory.[18][19]
The following year, 1941, his Maroons squad captured the first and only Southeastern Conference championship in program history. McKeen retired from coaching in 1948 after being fired by Athletic Director Dudy Noble because of a 4?4?1 season.[20] He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1991.
Mississippi State did not field a football team in 1943.[21]
Arthur Morton era (1949?1951)
Arthur Morton left VMI to become MSU's head football coach after McKeen's retirement.[22] Morton's Maroons posted struggling records of 0?8?1, 4?5 and 4?5 for a grand total of 8?18?1[23] before Morton's firing.[24]
Murray Warmath era (1952?1953)
Murray Warmath came to Mississippi State from his post as line coach at Army[25] and posted records of 5?4 and 5?2?3 for a grand total of 10?6?3 leaving the Bulldogs.[26] Warmath went on to have a very successful stint as the head football coach at Minnesota after his tenure at MSU.[25]
Darrell Royal era (1954?1955)
Darrell Royal came to Mississippi State from the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos[27] and put up back-to-back 6?4 records in his two seasons as the Maroons head football coach.[28] Royal resigned after just two seasons to accept the head football coach position at Washington.[27] Royal would go on to achieve great successes and solidify his place among the all-time greatest college football coaches at Texas.[27]
Wade Walker era (1956?1961)
Wade Walker was promoted from line coach to head coach following Royal's departure. Walker compiled a 22?32?2 record over his 6-season tenure.[29][30] In 1958 the Legislature renamed the university as Mississippi State University. The Mississippi State Maroons posted a lackluster 2?7?1 record in 1959.[31] The following year, Walker's Maroons improved to 5?5,[31] but students, fans and alumni demanded his ouster.[32] University president Dean W. Colvard relented and fired Walker as football coach, but kept him on as athletic director, a post he kept until 1966.[32][33]
MSST changed its mascot from Maroons to Bulldogs in 1960.[15]
Paul Davis era (1962?1966)
Paul Davis was promoted from assistant coach to head coach following Walker's firing.[34] His teams went 20?38?2 overall and 9?22?2 in the Southeastern Conference in Davis' five seasons.[35] The Bulldogs had a 7?2?2 record in 1963, earning its first postseason bowl game since 1939.[36] The team finished the season with a 16?12 victory over North Carolina State in front of 8,309 fans at the 1963 Liberty Bowl played in a bitter cold Philadelphia.[37] Mississippi State was able to convert two botched North Carolina State punts into touchdowns, and a 13?0 lead at the first quarter.[38] United Press International named Davis the SEC Coach of the Year for the 1963 season.[36] After a lackluster 2?8 record in 1966, MSU terminated Davis, as well as athletic director Wade Walker.[39]
Charles Shira era (1967?1972)
Charles Shira, who had been defensive coordinator for the University of Texas, was named to fill the head coaching position as well as the vacant post of Athletic Director.[40]
In his first season, his team won two games, followed by none the following year. Mississippi State improved to 3?7 in 1969. That year, Shira served as the coach for the Gray squad in the Blue-Gray Classic.[41]
Mississippi State posted a surprising six-win season in 1970, including a victory over rival #10 Ole Miss.[42] For the accomplishment, the SEC named Shira its Coach of the Year.[43] In 1972, having compiled a record of 16?45?2,[42] Shira resigned as head coach to focus on his duties as athletic director.[44]
Bob Tyler era (1973?1978)
Bob Tyler was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach of the Bulldogs football team after Shira's resignation.[45] Tyler led State to a 9?3 season and a victory in the 1974 Sun Bowl over North Carolina.[46] During that season, his team beat perennial powerhouses Georgia and LSU.[47] The Bulldogs' record was 6?4?1 in 1975, and it was an impressive 9?2 in 1976, ending the season ranked #20 in the AP Poll.[46] His team compiled a 5?6 record in 1977, and he went 6?5 in his final season with the Bulldogs.[46]
Mississippi State was placed on probation by the NCAA prior to the 1975 season due to alleged improper benefits to student athletes.[48] The school sought and won court approval to play in an adverse legal opinion to the NCAA.[48] Although the alleged infraction was trivial,[49] the NCAA forced the school to forfeit most games it won in 1975, 1976, and 1977.[50]
Emory Bellard era (1979?1985)
Emory Bellard, who had resigned as head coach of Texas A&M during the 1978 season after only six games, was hired to serve as head football coach at Mississippi State beginning with the next (1979) season.[51] He was head coach from 1979 until 1985.[52]
He was considered to have had one of the most innovative offensive minds in football and is credited for inventing the wishbone formation.[51] Bellard spent seven seasons as head coach at MSU.[52] His best years as the Bulldogs head coach were in 1980 and 1981, when his team finished 9?3 and 8?4, respectively.[52] Also, Bellard was the coach when Mississippi State defeated number 1, undefeated Alabama 6?3 in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1980.[53] Bellard left coaching after the 1985 season[52] but would return in 1988 to coach at the high school level in Texas.
Rockey Felker era (1986?1990)
Rockey Felker returned to his alma mater, which was coming off four consecutive losing seasons, from his post as a position coach at Alabama.[54] At 33, Felker was the youngest coach in the country and the first Mississippi State coach in 30 years to start his career as MSU head football coach with a winning record (6?5).[54][55]
However, the Bulldogs never recovered from four consecutive blowout losses at the end of the 1986 season, during which they scored a total of nine points, including a 24-3 loss to Ole Miss. Felker suffered through four losing seasons (4?7, 1?10, 5?6, 5?6) between 1987 and 1990, and only won a total of five games in SEC play. He was only 1-4 vs. Ole Miss.[55] He resigned under pressure at the end of the 1990 season,[56] but would be brought back by his successor, Jackie Sherrill, as running backs coach for two seasons and in a non-coaching position in the football program, where he serves to this day.[54]
Jackie Sherrill era (1991?2003)
After three years away from the game, former Washington State, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M head football coach Jackie Sherrill was hired as head football coach at Mississippi State in 1991.[57] He took over a program that hadn't had a winning season since 1986 (and had won a total of 14 games in that stretch) and hadn't had a winning record in Southeastern Conference play since 1981. Sherrill began his Mississippi State career with an upset victory over a familiar foe from his A&M days, the Texas Longhorns (who were the defending Southwest Conference champions).[58]
In thirteen seasons in Starkville, Sherrill coached the Bulldogs to a record of 75?75?2.[59] His 75 wins are the most in school history. He led the team to an SEC West title in 1998, and a berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic.[59] A year later, he notched a 10?2 record and #12 final ranking.[59] That #12 ranking was the highest final ranking achieved by any NCAA Division I-A school in Mississippi in over 30 years. Sherrill, along with Bill Snyder of Kansas State, were among the first to use the rich JUCO systems of their respective states to help their programs progress.
Although Sherrill won only eight games in his last three seasons, he built Mississippi State into a consistent winner despite playing in the same division as powerhouses like Alabama, Auburn and LSU. He also finished with a winning record against in-state rival Ole Miss (7?6). Under Sherrill, the Bulldogs went to six bowl games;[59] before his arrival they'd only been to seven bowls in 96 years of play.
Sherrill also achieved notoriety by having his team observe the castration of a bull as a motivational technique prior to a game versus Texas. Unranked Mississippi State subsequently beat the #13 ranked Longhorns.[60]
Sherrill retired after the 2003 season,[61] which was followed by the NCAA levying probation for four years on the program.[62] Despite a prolonged 3-year investigation by the NCAA, Mississippi State was [63] not found guilty of any major violations, and Sherrill was never personally found guilty of any NCAA rules violations at either Mississippi State or Texas A&M.[61]
Sylvester Croom era (2004?2008)
Sylvester Croom, a longtime assistant in the NFL, was hired to replace the retiring Sherrill.[64] Croom is a significant figure, because he is not only the first African American head football coach in Mississippi State history, but also in SEC football history.[64] When Croom was hired at Mississippi State, he inherited a program that was riddled with NCAA sanctions and had not won consistently since the 1990s.[64]
After the 2007 season, during which his team won eight games, including the Liberty Bowl,[65] Croom garnered Coach of the Year awards from three organizations.[65] On December 4, 2007, Croom was named coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association for region two.[65] The AFCA has five regional coaches of the year and announces a national coach of the year each January.[66] That same year, on December 5, Croom was named SEC Coach of the Year twice, once as voted by the other SEC coaches and once as voted by The Associated Press. It was the first time a Mississippi State coach received the AP honor since Charley Shira in 1970 and the first time a Mississippi State coach received the coaches award since Wade Walker in 1957.[67]
After a 4?8 record in 2008,[65] culminating with a 45?0 loss to rival #25 Ole Miss, Croom was asked by school officials to resign as the coach of the Bulldogs.[68]
Dan Mullen era (2009?present)
Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen was hired as Mississippi State's head coach in late 2008.[69] In Mullen's first season, the Bulldogs finished 5?7, ending upbeat with a 41?27 victory over #20 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.[70]
In 2010, they started 1?2, and then they had a 6-game winning streak to make their record 7?2 before losing to Alabama and Arkansas, but defeated Ole Miss.[71] The team participated in a bowl game for the first time since 2007, soundly defeating Michigan in the Gator Bowl 52?14.[71][72]
In 2011, the Bulldogs entered the season ranked #19 in the country, and they started 1?0, before losing to the defending national champion Auburn 41?34.[73] Mississippi State entered the Ole Miss game in Starkville needing a win to qualify for a bowl bid for a second straight season.[73] The Bulldogs won 31?3, earning Mullen the distinction as the first coach to beat Ole Miss in his first three tries since Allyn McKeen in 1941. The Bulldogs capped off the season with a Music City Bowl win over Wake Forest in Nashville, Tennessee.[73][74]
In 2012, Mississippi State defeated Tennessee 41?31 in their sixth game of the season to become bowl eligible.[75] After a 7?0 start the team won only one of its remaining five games to finish 8-5, including a 41-24 loss at Ole Miss and a 34-20 loss to the #21 Northwestern in the Gator Bowl.[75][76] This was the first time Mississippi State appeared in a bowl three straight years since 2000.
In 2013, MSST under Mullen became bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive year following a 17-10 overtime win over Ole Miss.[77] MSST defeatedRice in the Liberty Bowl December 31, 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, by a score of 44?7.[77][78] It was MSST's third bowl win in the last four years.[79]
2014 turned out to be the most historic run for the team, as the Bulldogs reached a #1 ranking for the first time ever, doing so in both the Amway Coaches Poll and the AP Poll, after beating 3 consecutive top-10 teams (#7 LSU Tigers, #6 Texas A&M Aggies, and #2 Auburn Tigers). As a result, the Bulldogs became the fastest team in AP Poll's history to reach the #1 ranking, from being unranked, in only 5 weeks. However, at the end of the season, only one of the three teams remained ranked. Auburn finished 8-5 (4-4 SEC) and ranked #22, and lost to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl, Texas A&M finished 7-5 (3-5 SEC) and beat West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl, and LSU finished 8-4 (4-4 SEC) and lost to Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl.[80][81]
The Bulldogs couldn't sustain that momentum, and lost two of their last three regular season games, first to #5 Alabama 25?20 and then two weeks later to #18 Ole Miss 31?17. That loss knocked the Bulldogs out of playoff contention, leaving them 10?2 and ranked #7 by the College Football Playoff Committee in their final rankings. As a result, they were awarded a trip to the Orange Bowl against #10 Georgia Tech on December 31, 2014. The Bulldogs lost that contest 49-34 and finished 10?3 and were ranked #11 in the final AP Poll.[82]
In 2015, little was expected of the Bulldogs. It was believed they would do well, but still finish near or at the bottom of the SEC West...and this is exactly what happened. The Bulldogs went 4-4 in the SEC and finished the regular season with an 8-4 record. State was 0-4 versus ranked teams. Once again they fell to #18 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl, this time by a score of 38-27. It was their third loss to the rival Rebels in four years. Still, they reached the 2015 Belk Bowl and crushed the NC State Wolfpack by a score of 51-28. It was Dak Prescott's last game as a Bulldog, and he was named the game MVP after throwing 4 touchdowns.