FAYETTEVILLE — Mississippi State came into this season with a No. 20 national ranking and high expectations of moving up in the SEC West after going 9-4 last year, capped by a 52-14 pounding of Michigan in the Gator Bowl.
But it hasn’t been a breakthrough season the Bulldogs envisioned.
Mississippi State (5-5, 1-5 SEC) will come to Little Rock for Saturday’s game against BCS No. 6 Arkansas (9-1, 5-1) looking up at every team in the West except for Ole Miss.
After opening with a 59-14 victory at Memphis, the Bulldogs went from No. 20 to No. 16 in The Associated Press poll. But a 41-34 loss at Auburn and 19-6 loss at home to LSU within a six-day span in September knocked Mississippi State out of the West race and out of the national polls.
The Bulldogs’ lone SEC victory was at Kentucky, 28-16, but Coach Dan Mullen said Mississippi State could be 3-3 in conference play.
“It’s been two plays,” Mullen said. “We need to make one more play to beat Auburn and make one more play to beat South Carolina, and all of a sudden we’ve exceeded expectations this season.”
Bulldogs senior quarterback Chris Relf was stopped inches short of the goal line on the final play at Auburn when a touchdown and extra point would have sent the game into overtime.
South Carolina won 14-12 at Mississippi State when Connor Shaw hit a leaping Alshon Jeffery with a 4-yard touchdown pass with 3:50 left to cap a 79-yard drive to give the Gamecocks’ a 14-10 lead, and they hung on to win after Tyler Russell threw an interception.
“I don’t know that we haven’t met expectations this year,” Mullen said. “Those margins for error are very, very small when you play in the Southeastern Conference, and we’ve missed it by two plays.”
The Bulldogs need to win one of their final two games, against Arkansas or against Ole Miss, to qualify for a bowl game.
“Getting to a bowl game is critical for your program,” Mullen said. “We need to get that sixth win to get bowl eligible.
“We have so many young guys on our team that those extra practices really are important in developing the program in the long term.”
Relf started in Mississippi State’s 24-7 loss to Alabama last week. But Russell, a redshirt sophomore, has gotten the majority of snaps at quarterback the past five games after replacing Relf in the second half at Alabama-Birmingham and rallying the Bulldogs to a 21-3 victory after they trailed 3-0.
Russell has completed 62 of 114 passes for 979 yards and 8 touchdowns with 4 interceptions in seven games this season.
“He’s done a pretty good job for us,” Mullen said. “He’s still getting into the flow of being an every-down quarterback in this league and against the quality defenses you play in this league, but I see him playing with more and more confidence every single week.”
Relf sustained a mild concussion against Alabama in the first half and didn’t return. Mullen said he didn’t expect Relf to practice Monday, and that his status is day-to-day.
Mississippi State redshirt freshman quarterback Dylan Favre also got some snaps against the Crimson Tide.
“The coaches tell us before the game that we should always be ready, because you never know when you might come out of the game or when you might go in,” Russell told the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss. after the game.
Relf has completed 94 of 158 passes for 1,013 yards and 7 touchdowns with 6 interceptions and also rushed 98 times for 262 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Senior tailback Vick Ballard is the Bulldogs’ top rusher with 143 carries for 811 yards and 7 touchdowns. Their leading receivers are juniors Arceto Clark (7 catches for 391 yards) and Chris Smith (27 for 258).
The defense is led by junior tackle Fletcher Cox, who has been SEC defensive lineman of the week three times this season and has 9 1/2 tackles for 31 yards losses.
Junior linebacker Cam Lawrence has a team-high 90 tackles and senior linebacker Brandon Wilson has 81. Junior cornerback Johnathan Banks has a team-high five interceptions.
The Bulldogs will be without sophomore safety Nickoe Whitley, who ruptured an Achilles tendon against Alabama and will miss the rest of the season. He had four interceptions this season.
Seniors Charles Mitchell and Wade Bonner will get more playing time in Whitley’s absence.
Place-kicking has been a problem area of the Bulldogs as Derek DePasquale and Brian Egan have made a combined 9 of 16 field-goal attempts. De-Pasquale has missed 6 of his past 7 attempts, the last miss coming from 41 yards against Alabama. Mullen tried Egan on the next attempt, and he missed from 29 yards.
“I’ve been very disappointed with our kickers, but we don’t have free agency in college, so I can’t cut them and go hire a free agent,” Mullen said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting them coached up and get them straight for this week.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 11/15/2011