This weekend, the Mississippi State Bulldogs will get a shot at proving that last year’s struggles are over and they can (very much so theoretically) do so in a pretty convincing way this weekend (if things go exactly right and work out perfectly and nothing goes wrong at all) as Jeff Lebby and the Bulldogs bring No. 12 Arizona State to town.

While the Bulldogs are trying to showcase that they’ve improved, Kenny Dillingham and the Arizona State football team have a fair bit to prove as well. The Sun Devils, fresh off an appearance in last season’s College Football Playoff and winning the Big 12 in a pretty fun way, are looking to showcase that last season wasn’t a fluke. 

Both of these teams have some pretty big goals in mind and this game can impact the outcomes of each team’s seasons in some pretty significant ways depending on how it plays out.

Key storylines to watch as Mississippi State faces Arizona State in Starkville

• Will Arizona State be able to hold onto a lead if they can get one?
  • Mississippi State mounted a pretty impressive comeback attempt last season after falling behind early. It was 27-3 at halftime in Arizona State’s favor and Jeff Lebby’s Bulldogs had the audacity to give me hope that they might be able to win. And the game ended up at 30-23 in the Sun Devils’ favor! It was a lot closer than it could have been? 
• Cam Skattebo ran for a bunch of yards last year and he’s not there anymore
  • THANK GOODNESS. For Mississippi State, not having to keep up with Cam Skattebo has to feel pretty refreshing. That dude ran for 262 yards in last year’s matchup and he absolutely punished MSU’s defense. It’ll be interesting to see who helps to fill that void for the Sun Devils. The duo of Kyson Brown and Raleek Brown, alongside QB Sam Leavitt, will be intriguing to keep up with.
• Arizona State and Mississippi State both need this win
  • For the Sun Devils, this game isn’t a Big 12 conference matchup, but getting this win would allow for some bragging rights for that conference, even if MSU hasn’t been all that good following Mike Leach’s death. As for the Bulldogs, they need a signature win of some sort. They need something to prove that things are improving. They need to give fans something to brag about. 

Important numbers to know for the Bulldogs and No. 12 Sun Devils

• Arizona State
  • Ranked No. 12 in most recent AP Poll
  • Ran for 199.9 yards per game in 2024
  • Returning 16 starters
• Mississippi State
  • Beat an intriguing Southern Miss team by 17 points
  • Fresh off a frustrating 2-10 season
  • Blake Shapen looked sharp vs. Southern Miss, completing 26/34 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown

History and context to keep in mind

This is just the second game in this series for the Bulldogs and Sun Devils. So far, Arizona State leads 1-0 after last year’s win in Tempe. It’ll be fascinating to see how the Sun Devils perform when playing in Starkville this weekend and how their defense looks against Mississippi State’s veer-and-shoot offense that is a bit more established this year. 

Similarly, Mississippi State’s defense was a disaster last season. There were a few changes on that side of the ball, but the Bulldogs decided to stick with Coleman Hutzler at defensive coordinator. Will things be better against Arizona State this season?

What fun images did the WordPress AI Image Generator create for this article?

GREAT question! And this is a fun new segment for me for all of my new game previews going forward.

There is a new feature in WordPress that allows for me to create an AI-generated image based on this article. I can either let it populate the prompt for said image for said article OR I can generate one myself.

I chose neither of those options.

Instead, I fed this article to Claude and allowed that lovely AI to develop a prompt for the images.

And this is what came out:

I love how we got new logos for both Mississippi State and Arizona State here. And a new stadium. I don’t know whose stadium that’s supposed to be? The light up board in the upper left corner almost looks like it’s trying to say Kansas State?

That looks like a lovely new logo idea for an Oklahoma State football team playing in some weird NOLB stadium for DAVISSESTATE?

Beautiful stadium. Great, photographic shot. Plenty of people showing up to support a team of giants. The scaling of this stadium is perplexing to me because the folks in the stands look tiny but the players on the field look gigantic. I’m FASCINATED.