In Sylvester Croom’s first three years at Mississippi State, the Bulldogs went 9-25, winning three games in each of those years. Wins over Florida in 2004 and Alabama in 2006 showed glimpses of hope, and I was one of those that thought it was just a matter of time before State returned to a decent level of respectability.

Not sure many expected it to be last year though. MSU swept Auburn and Alabama, beat Kentucky (#14 at that time) in Lexington, and beat Ole Miss in thrilling fashion to clinch a bowl game, the school’s first since the 2000 Independence Snow Bowl. They followed through by winning the Liberty Bowl against C-USA champion UCF.

They did this with basically a true freshman QB and tough, opportunistic defense, so saying Croom had the Bulldogs a year ahead of schedule, despite the swirling hot-seat discussions, would be accurate. State has a pretty good core group of players back on both sides of the ball for 2008.

Let’s start on defense, where it all starts and ends with Derek Pegues, arguably the SEC’s best safety. Despite being seventh on the team in tackles, Pegues was easily the Bulldogs’ most well-known defender. Here’s some of his work from ‘07…

(Nice work by sfslickdawg)

MLB Jamar Chaney led the defense in tackles and fellow backer Dominic Douglas was #2 – both return. Around Pegues is a talented, deep, and experienced group of DBs to form one of the league’s better secondaries. Up front, getting pressure on opposing QBs may be a question, as both DEs Avery Hannibal and Titus Brown have left. State wasn’t very good up front last year anyways in terms of sacks and stopping the run, but they should at least be better in stopping the run.

Offensively, Wesley Carroll didn’t blow anybody away with his play last year, but 9 TDs and 7 INTs in a run-oriented offense as a true freshman in the SEC is by no means horrible numbers. The horse of the offense is HB Anthony Dixon, who ran for over 1,000 yards and 14 TDs last year. His backfield mate Christian Ducre is back as well, and keep an eye on redshirt freshman Robert Elliott.

Leading receiver Jamayel Smith returns, but MSU lacks a playmaker at WR now that Tony Burks is gone. There is some concern on the OL, especially after the dismissal of 2nd Team All-SEC T Mike Brown left just two returning starters. For an offense that likes to run the ball, it should be interesting to see how a slightly inexperienced OL opens up lanes for a good group of RBs.

MSU won all four of their games decided by less than five points last year and they’re going to have to fare similarly in 2008 to reach a bowl, which I think they can do. Keep in mind they lost defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson to South Carolina this year, and Johnson was pretty good with lesser talent in his years in Starkville.

State has winnable games at Georgia Tech and at home against Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas. I don’t think we’ll see any upsets a la Auburn last year, as MSU won’t sneak up on anybody anymore. All of that said, reaching a second consecutive bowl game this year would prove that last year was in fact no fluke.