UMass @ Mississippi State preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 24, 2016 ) Mississippi State 47, Massachusetts 35

No. 22 Mississippi State will try to avoid looking too far ahead when it puts a three-game winning streak on the line against visiting Massachusetts on Saturday. The Bulldogs have crawled out of an early 1-2 hole in SEC play and climbed above .500 in the conference with last Saturday's 35-14 win at Texas A&M.

That victory allowed Mississippi State to become bowl eligible for the eighth straight season and it can improve its resume greatly when it hosts top-ranked Alabama on Nov. 11, but coach Dan Mullen wants to keep his team focused on the task at hand. "I think this week offers, to me, for us in our growth, the biggest challenge of the season so far," Mullen told reporters. "We're playing against a team in UMass that, despite being 2-6, has been outscored on the season by a total of five points. ... It's a great challenge for our guys this week. If we want to have a great season, we need to continue to take these steps to mature and continue to improve in every facet." Mullen can point to a win at UMass a season ago in which the Minutemen led midway through the third quarter before Mississippi State turned it on to triumph 47-35. The current UMass squad has won two in a row since its 0-6 start and turned heads with an overtime victory against a solid Appalachian State squad last week.

TV: Noon ET, SEC Network. LINE: Mississippi State -28

ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS (2-6): Quarterback Andrew Ford left last week's win on a stretcher after a big hit and fellow junior Ross Comis stepped in to help get the Minutemen to the finish line and an eventual game-winning field goal. "I'm coming off getting the start at Georgia Southern and playing pretty well," Comis told the Daily Hampshire Gazette. "Being able to get my team down the field into field goal range and putting ourselves in position to win the App State game in overtime, I feel good about myself. The offense feels good as a whole. We're excited." Coach Mark Whipple has yet to name a starter, but either Ford or Comis will lean heavily on leading rusher Marquis Young (590 yards, seven touchdowns) and a trio of receivers with at least 400 yards, led by senior tight end Adam Breneman (605, three TDs).

ABOUT MISSISSIPPI STATE (6-2): Nick Fitzgerald has five TD passes and five TD runs during the Bulldogs' winning streak while averaging 107.7 yards on the ground for the SEC's third-ranked rushing attack (260 yards per game). "The thing I'm most excited about is his maturity of understanding of the game at this point," Mullen said of his junior quarterback. "When he comes off the sideline after a series, you're having a much more higher-level discussion about the game of football than in the past, which is what you want to see from your quarterbacks." Fitzgerald and junior running back Aeris Williams have combined for 1,328 rushing yards and freshman quarterback Keytaon Thompson has chipped in 177 yards on just 21 carries with a pair of scores.

EXTRA POINTS

1. Breneman ranks second among tight ends in FBS play with 6.7 catches per game.

2. Fitzgerald threw for 305 yards and ran for 110 in last year's win over UMass, while Young ran 18 times for 125 yards.

3. Bulldogs K Jace Christmann is 6-for-6 on field goals and has made all 25 of his extra point tries.

PREDICTION: Mississippi State 48, Massachusetts 21