Congrats To Arkansas...Focus Now Turns To TSUN

Last night's loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks was a hard pill to swallow.  The Bulldogs played their guts out and were a very evenly matched opponent for the Razorbacks.  A lot of hog fans thought it would be an easy win for them after the Bulldogs struggled so badly with the Crimson Tide.  Obviously they were badly mistaken. 

The offense put on one of their finest performances of the year.  Chris Relf looked really comfortable and put up 224 yards passing.  The Bulldogs rushed for 262 yards with Vick Ballard doing most of the work and getting three touchdowns.  The Bulldog defense struggled at times to contain Razorback Knile Davis.  Davis managed to get two rushing touchdowns of his own.  It was easy to see that the main gameplan for MSU was to keep Ryan Mallett off the field.  They did a very good job of that, keeping the ball nearly twice as long as Arkansas.  The Razorbacks had to scrape and claw for every crucial point they got.

But, they did come out of Starkville with a win and you have to give Arkansas credit.  They did what they had to do to get a 38-31 win in a very hostile enviroment.  I'm proud of the Bulldogs and the progress that they've made this year.  It was a very pleasant suprise to see them still ranked on both the AP and Coaches polls at #25.  There's a lot to be excited about looking ahead to next year.  However, we've still got one game left. 

In the same way the Harry Potter universe refuses to say the name of their arch enemy Voldemort, the Bulldog universe also has a similar foe that we simply refer to as "That School Up North".  

Last year, TSUN pretty much declared an Egg Bowl victory before the game even started (we all know how that turned out).  I will not be so bold as to do that here, however it's nice to know that win or lose TSUN won't be going to a bowl game this year.  The Egg Bowl is something that Mississippi State takes very seriously, especially given the fact that Coach Dan Mullen is a huge proponent of recruiting in the state.  It's a crucial game that MSU needs to win.  It won't be easy since this year we have to travel into the bowels of hell   Oxford.  If TSUN wins the game, the Egg Bowl is the most important game of the year for them.  If they lose it, then they usually remind us that they consider LSU to be their real rival.  Quite frankly, it doesn't matter to me if they consider Notre Dame to be their real rival as long as we beat the hell out of them again. 

TSUN proved that they are certainly capable of playing good football this past Saturday and nearly upset LSU at Death Valley.  If they play us the way they played LSU (their real rival), we're in for a long day.  On the other hand, if they play the way they did against Tennessee, maybe we can get some more playing time in for Tyler Russell. 

This week is usually a fan favorite for college football fans.  There are so many good rivalry games. 

Whats yours?