Viva, Starkvegas!
Rarely have there been football games played in Starkville, Miss. -- affectionately dubbed Starkvegas by residents and visitors alike -- as big as today's matchup between No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 12 Mississippi State.
It's the opening game of a huge doubleheader in the Magnolia State on sort 'em out Saturday in the SEC West, but don't dare call the Aggies-Bulldogs matchup the undercard.
While ESPN's College GameDay will be about 90 miles up the road in Oxford for No. 3 Alabama's game against No. 11 Ole Miss, the SEC Network will set up shop with its pregame show in Starkville.
"Everyone around the country gets to see what Starkville, Mississippi, is all about," Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen said.
They'll probably hear a cowbell or two as well. Noisemakers are banned in stadiums by the SEC, but don't be surprised if a few Bulldogs fans sneak their beloved clangers past security.
The first of six games today that match ranked teams around the country -- three of which are in the SEC's daunting Western Division -- features two offenses that have been humming.
The Aggies (5-0, 2-0) rank among the top of five nationally in scoring, passing and total offense behind first-year starting quarterback Kenny Hill, who is putting up passing numbers reminiscent of Johnny Manziel with 1,881 yards and 17 touchdowns.
Hill can move around, but he isn't the improviser Manziel was for the Aggies. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Coach Kevin Sumlin's offense creates plenty of mismatches and open receivers for a quarterback content with being a distributor.
Mississippi State quarterback Dak Prescott has a little of that Manziel magic in his game, which showed on his weaving 56-yard touchdown run in the Bulldogs' victory at LSU. He has three consecutive games of at least 200 yards passing and 100 rushing for the Bulldogs.
"You know you're going to have to score," Mullen said of facing the Aggies. "They're averaging 51 points per game. If they hit their average, it means we have to score 52. If you hold them just below the average, we'll have to score 50."
Texas A&M has already played 14 true freshmen, including defensive end Myles Garrett and defensive back Armani Watts. Garrett leads the team in sacks with 5 1/2 and made his first start last week in a victory against Arkansas.
The inexperienced players have helped the Aggies field a better and deeper defense than they did last year, although Sumlin said it was the older players who made the difference in last week's overtime victory against Arkansas.
"The older guys pulled us out of it, the more you look at that video," Sumlin said. "The young guys you didn't see have an impact as much as they did at South Carolina; they were a bit overwhelmed. The intensity of that game was pretty high."
It will be interesting to see if Mississippi State (4-0, 1-0) tries to slow it down against Texas A&M, which prefers a fast pace. The Bulldogs can get up and go, too, and offense hasn't been a problem. Mississippi State has topped 500 total yards in each of its games, and Prescott has drawn comparisons to Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner who Mullen coached at Florida as offensive coordinator.
"Dak Prescott is a great player," Aggies defensive end Julien Obioha said. "You watch Mississippi State film, and there's a lot of things they're good at and things they're great at, but one thing you see consistently is a quarterback run. We're going to have to study film, pick up tendencies, find something that takes the quarterback run away."
Mississippi State's defense is big and athletic along the front seven and good at getting into the backfield. The Bulldogs lead the SEC in tackles for loss with 34.
The secondary, though, has been leaky. The Bulldogs rank 124th in the nation in pass defense, so the Bulldogs' pass rushers -- defensive end Preston Smith, defensive tackle Chris Jones and linebacker Benardrick McKinney -- will need to put plenty of heat on Hill.
The last time two top-15 teams played at Davis Wade Stadium was 1986. That didn't work out for Mississippi State. The Bulldogs lost 35-6 to Auburn and didn't win another game that season.
Sports on 10/04/2014