Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
Geographically, Alabama and Mississippi State are the two closest institutions in the SEC, a quick trip covering 90 miles and three municipalities (Gordo, Reform and Columbus) along the way.
Historically, the gap between the two football programs has been as vast as the Russian steppes, a distance not measured in kilometers but in championships and hardware, magazine covers and television appearances. A baby born in Mississippi State's last SEC championship season will watch this Saturday's game on television with thick glasses and the volume control at around 35, because that baby is now 72 years old. Alabama has won the SEC around 20 times since then.
That isn't to say that Mississippi State has never had the better team in the series. The Bulldogs beat Bear Bryant once, in 1980, and they bested Nick Saban once, in 2007, and in the tempestuous years between those two tenures, MSU occasionally gave the Crimson Tide a sound thumping. It's hard to single out a low point from the 2000 season for Alabama, but the Jackie Sherill-administered beating in Bryant-Denny Stadium stood out as especially miserable. But there was always the sense that the gap was still there and that Alabama would dust itself off, have its tuxedo pressed and resume hobnobbing with Notre Dames and Texas in a college football country club of which Mississippi State was not a member.
Times change, though. Mississippi State has built wisely, with good administrators and a good coach. The runaway financial success of the SEC has enriched all of its members, and while there is still a big budgetary gap between Alabama and MSU, the influx of SEC money and the financial support of its supporters has enabled MSU to spend competitively on things like facilities and salaries.
That means good players, and when those players mature and a quarterback develops into a star, suddenly it is Mississippi State who is bringing a No. 1 team to Tuscaloosa.
Things change - but sometimes perception has to be altered with a mallet. Regardless of the rankings, Alabama is still a solid seven-point favorite in the game. Even MSU coach Dan Mullen played the simultaneous No. 1/underdog card at his Monday press conference when he noted that the Crimson Tide "probably has more five-stars on their bench than we have on our entire team." The national opinion is definitely "wait and see."
So, while I would defer to Mississippi State historians on this, I can't imagine a more important game in their football history. That may not weigh on their players. To a 20-year-old, 1942 might just as well be 1492. Nick Saban himself is the greatest proponent of approaching games not in the context of the past ("people think because you beat somebody 10 years in a row, you should automatically beat them again," he said after this year's Ole Miss game, "but that's not how it works.") or the future and staying focused on the game itself.
But beating Alabama and essentially (not mathematically, but close) clinching a spot in Atlanta isn't all that is at stake. To anyone who has spent a lifetime watching these two teams along a short stretch of Highway 82, but worlds apart, it will be interesting to see just how the teams stack up, and how hard it is to change - or make - history.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1703255
TideSports.com Columnist
Geographically, Alabama and Mississippi State are the two closest institutions in the SEC, a quick trip covering 90 miles and three municipalities (Gordo, Reform and Columbus) along the way.
Historically, the gap between the two football programs has been as vast as the Russian steppes, a distance not measured in kilometers but in championships and hardware, magazine covers and television appearances. A baby born in Mississippi State's last SEC championship season will watch this Saturday's game on television with thick glasses and the volume control at around 35, because that baby is now 72 years old. Alabama has won the SEC around 20 times since then.
That isn't to say that Mississippi State has never had the better team in the series. The Bulldogs beat Bear Bryant once, in 1980, and they bested Nick Saban once, in 2007, and in the tempestuous years between those two tenures, MSU occasionally gave the Crimson Tide a sound thumping. It's hard to single out a low point from the 2000 season for Alabama, but the Jackie Sherill-administered beating in Bryant-Denny Stadium stood out as especially miserable. But there was always the sense that the gap was still there and that Alabama would dust itself off, have its tuxedo pressed and resume hobnobbing with Notre Dames and Texas in a college football country club of which Mississippi State was not a member.
Times change, though. Mississippi State has built wisely, with good administrators and a good coach. The runaway financial success of the SEC has enriched all of its members, and while there is still a big budgetary gap between Alabama and MSU, the influx of SEC money and the financial support of its supporters has enabled MSU to spend competitively on things like facilities and salaries.
That means good players, and when those players mature and a quarterback develops into a star, suddenly it is Mississippi State who is bringing a No. 1 team to Tuscaloosa.
Things change - but sometimes perception has to be altered with a mallet. Regardless of the rankings, Alabama is still a solid seven-point favorite in the game. Even MSU coach Dan Mullen played the simultaneous No. 1/underdog card at his Monday press conference when he noted that the Crimson Tide "probably has more five-stars on their bench than we have on our entire team." The national opinion is definitely "wait and see."
So, while I would defer to Mississippi State historians on this, I can't imagine a more important game in their football history. That may not weigh on their players. To a 20-year-old, 1942 might just as well be 1492. Nick Saban himself is the greatest proponent of approaching games not in the context of the past ("people think because you beat somebody 10 years in a row, you should automatically beat them again," he said after this year's Ole Miss game, "but that's not how it works.") or the future and staying focused on the game itself.
But beating Alabama and essentially (not mathematically, but close) clinching a spot in Atlanta isn't all that is at stake. To anyone who has spent a lifetime watching these two teams along a short stretch of Highway 82, but worlds apart, it will be interesting to see just how the teams stack up, and how hard it is to change - or make - history.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1703255
