In case you need any extra help getting fired up, we’ll be providing a handy pre-game cheat sheet detailing why you should hate each one of the Razorbacks’ opponents this fall. Some weeks will be easier than others…
1. They're Better Than We Are. The Bulldogs aren't Crooming their opponents anymore, they're just straight up beating them. Looking at the matchup with brutal objectivity, you'd have to say that they're better than we are at this point in the season, and with Felix Jones hobbled with an injury we don't like where this train of thought is headed.
2. They Own the State of Alabama (and Kentucky). MSU-19, Auburn-14. MSU-31, Kentucky-14. MSU-17, Alabama-12. Given how our own games turned out at against those three teams, we'd be lying if we said we weren't a little jealous.
3. They're Standing in the Way Between Us and a Crappy Bowl Game. With all but two SEC teams already bowl-eligible (sorry Ole Miss and Vandy) but only limited spots available, this game could amount to a play-in for the Blah Blah C-List Corporate Sponsor No Name Bowl. Think about that for a second. Then think about how much it sucks that a team with Darren McFadden and Felix Jones is having to battle the Mississippi State Bulldogs for the right to play in even the lamest of bowl games.
4. They Get Fired Up in Ways That Make Us Queasy. Or at least they used to...who can forget when Jackie Sherrill, that legendary class act, tried to rally his team before a game against Texas by castrating a bull during practice? (ok, Sherrill didn't actually do the castration, but he made it happen) Of course, the Bulldogs won that game 28-10, which shows you how much we know about motivating college football teams (or at least ones from Mississippi).
5. They Might Not Have the Internet in Starkville. Astute readers of this blog might have noticed that we haven't done a Q&A with a Mississippi State blogger this week. That's because there don't seem to be any Mississippi State bloggers. A search of the Best of the SEC blogroll as well as the Internet at large turned up exactly zero appropriate sparring partners for us. Maybe AOL should drop off a bunch of their free CDs on and around the MSU campus before next year's game.