In honor of the impressive series win over No. 1 ranked Florida, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the best upsets State’s pulled off in recent history. I’ve put together a list of 3 great upsets all from the modern era, here they are in no particular order:

MSU Upsets UConn, March 31st, 2017

This has to be one of the greatest upsets in college basketball history, men’s or women’s. It’s not that the Bulldogs weren’t a great team that year, it’s just UConn is freaking UConn. The Huskies came in the game with a 111 game win streak, an impressive feat if you were playing 2K— But in real life, it’s downright unbelievable.

It was an overtime finish with Morgan William hitting a clutch mid-range buzzer beater:

What makes this upset even more special than the fact that the girls from Starkville ended UConn’s incredible win streak and would then move on to their first ever National Championship game is the fact that just a year prior the Dawgs had lost to the same team by 60 points!

No. 3 MSU Beats No. 2 Auburn, October 11th, 2014

Maybe this wasn’t thought to be a huge upset, but it’s not so much about this particular game as it is the run that this capped off. This game was the 3rd top-ten ranked opponent in a row for the Bulldogs, and the 3rd TOP-TEN ranked opponent they beat in a row.

Auburn, Texas A&M, and LSU all had 8-5 records at the end of the season, but that doesn’t take away from how good these teams were at the time that the Dak Prescott led Dawgs took it to them. Auburn was coming off a national title game, that they probably should’ve won, they were walloping Florida State for almost the entirety of the first half.

Gus Malzahn had found the perfect QB for his system in Nick Marshall who was having another nice year in ’14, but Mississippi State jumped out to early 21-0 lead largely thanks to 2 Auburn turnovers. The Tigers would come back and make it close, 28-20, before ultimately falling apart entirely in the 4th, the Dawgs would go on to win the game 38-23.

After this game the hype in Starkville was real, it was a fun time.

MSU Upsets No. 25 Ole Miss, November 28th, 2009

There wasn’t much to brag about in Dan Mullen’s first season as head coach; the Dawgs finished last in the SEC West with a 5-7 record. You could say that the season finale against our bitter rivals was a must win if you wanted proof that Dan wasn’t over his head and was getting this program back in the right direction.

Ole Miss had beaten the Bulldogs the year prior by a score of 45-0, almost beating their record 48-0 victory from 1971. The worst thing that can happen happened that year, it always sucks to lose to your in-state rival, but to get shut out is just downright embarrassing. Mississippi State needed redemption.

Senior Anthony “Boobie” Dixon was set out to get it for the Dawgs; he ran all over the Rebels. At the end of the game Dixon had racked up 133 yards on 29 carries, Chris Relf added another 131 rushing yards on an efficient 15 carries— Mississippi State literally ran over the Rebels, winning 41-27. This victory was the type of win that would set the foundation for Mullen’s Bulldog’s for his next nine years as head coach.