STARKVILLE — From the moment he set foot on the Mississippi State campus as the school’s new football coach in late 2008, Dan Mullen has stressed the importance of one game.
This year, that game is more important than ever.
At 2:30 p.m. Saturday (WCBI), Mullen and MSU (10-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) will head to Oxford for the annual Battle for the Golden Egg against Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3) with SEC Western Division and national championship hopes. For a coach who built the rivalry up from the beginning, the stakes have never been higher for Mullen.
“You kind of work year-round for this type of game,” Mullen said. “It will be fun. I know we will being going into a hostile environment. It’s a tough place to go play. I don’t think they are big fans of mine in that part of the state. It should be a great challenge for us.”
Mullen and the Bulldogs will enter the game with everything to lose. MSU, which owns a tenuous grip on the No. 4 spot in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s weekly rankings, is tied with Alabama for the SEC’s Western Division lead. A win by MSU and a victory by Auburn against Alabama on Saturday would give the Bulldogs the division title, but a loss to the Rebels would end the Bulldogs’ championship aspirations.
To Mullen, the rivalry has the added bonus of postseason implications, but it doesn’t need them.
“Every one of these is as important as the other one,” Mullen said. “This is my sixth time playing in this game, and I view the other five as equally as important as this one. I know this is the biggest game of the year for us. As far as the records, none of that stuff really matters coming into this game. It’s all about winning the game and getting bragging rights in the state for a year.”
Ole Miss had as much to play for as MSU as recently as three weeks ago. But losses in each of their last three SEC games have the Rebels, once 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country, on the outside looking in when it comes to the division race and the hunt for the national title.
“There’s disappointment any time you lose a game,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said at his weekly press conference. “You don’t like the fact that everything has happened right at the end of the season. That’s disappointment when a month and a half ago we were on cloud nine and had some disappointments. You have to learn how to handle those.
“The big picture is I still think we’re ahead of schedule. We’re disappointed but ahead of schedule. We have a lot to play for with pride on the line and eight or nine wins in the regular season.”
For MSU’s players, the implications that will result from Saturday’s games will take a back seat to the rivalry.
“There’s not any pressure,” MSU quarterback Dak Prescott said. “We’re not worried about playoffs. We’re not worried about anything except this game and how important it is to us, this university, and the people of Mississippi.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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