{"id":17314,"date":"2011-08-29T20:00:55","date_gmt":"2011-08-30T01:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17314"},"modified":"2011-08-29T16:16:01","modified_gmt":"2011-08-29T21:16:01","slug":"2011-college-football-preview-mississippi-state-bulldogs-at-memphis-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/2011-college-football-preview-mississippi-state-bulldogs-at-memphis-tigers-17314\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 College Football Preview: Mississippi State Bulldogs at Memphis Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mississippi State Bulldogs at Memphis Tigers
\nThursday, 9\/1\/11, 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Mississippi St -27.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Mississippi St -27
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 48.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 50
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mississippi State plays two SEC games following this week's contest against Memphis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mississippi State closed out the 2010 campaign with a 9-4 overall record and will look to become the first team in school history to post back-to-back nine-plus win seasons.\u00a0 \u201cOur offense last year was the offense we wanted it to be,\u201d stated Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen.\u00a0 \u201cThis year it will be different because we have different personnel.\u201d\u00a0 In 2010, the offense set new school records for points scored, touchdowns scored, and yards gained.\u00a0 The program has also had great success in the running game, notching 100-yard rushing games in 24 of his 25 games at the helm.\u00a0 Mississippi State is 2-2 ATS versus Conference USA opponents over the past two years.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs picked up a 49-7 win over Memphis in last year\u2019s meeting in Starksville, Mississippi, out-gaining the Tigers by a 569-237 margin.\u00a0 Mississippi State has been solid in its openers under Mullen, picking up two victories and outscoring opponents by a 94-14 score.\u00a0 The program has been great historically when opening the season, posting a 13-4 mark against non-conference competition since the 1991 campaign.\u00a0 Turnovers are a key to the squad\u2019s success, turning the ball over just nine times in nine wins last year, while giving it up 12 times in four losses.\u00a0 Quarterback Chris Relf is an important piece to that puzzle and is one of the most dangerous players in the SEC.<\/p>\n

Memphis trails 32-11 in the all-time series against Mississippi State and will be looking to improve upon a 1-11 record that it posted under second-year head coach Larry Porter in 2011.\u00a0 \u201cFor us, it\u2019s about being improved,\u201d Porter commented.\u00a0 \u201cI think this team is ready to roar back.\u201d\u00a0 If any improvement is going to be made, it first must come on the defensive end, allowing 460.7 yards per game a year ago.\u00a0 Memphis is 7-16 ATS over the last two seasons, including an 0-4 ATS mark versus teams from the Southeastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The Tigers will begin the season with Andy Summerlin as starting quarterback, as he beat out true freshman Taylor Reed and senior Wake Forest transfer Skylar Jones.\u00a0 He spent a year playing at Coffeyville Community College, where he earned first-team all-conference and MVP honors.\u00a0 His main target will be wide receiver Marcus Rucker, who led the team in yards, receptions and touchdowns a year ago.\u00a0 Memphis is 3-7 in its last 10 season openers and 44-45-5 all-time in such games.\u00a0 A win may be hard to come by in this contest, but the Tigers have posted one win in 13 previous tries over the Bulldogs in a season opener.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Tigers due to the Bulldogs looking dead ahead at two upcoming games against SEC opponents.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on an incredible season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports go to work for you. \u00a0Get in the game today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mississippi State Bulldogs at Memphis Tigers Thursday, 9\/1\/11, 8:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Mississippi St -27.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Mississippi St -27 Opening Total:\u00a0 48.5 Current Total:\u00a0 50 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Mississippi State closed out the 2010 campaign with a 9-4 overall record and will look to become the first team in school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":16566,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[5359,5358,2558,586,33,2898,739],"class_list":["post-17314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-andy-summerlin","tag-chris-relf","tag-conference-usa","tag-dan-mullen","tag-memphis-tigers","tag-mississippi-state-bulldogs","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17316,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17314\/revisions\/17316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}