The first sign that the Mississippi State Bulldogs might actually have a pretty good team? The players don't seem all that enamored with their 4-0 start.
"Our guys have not been pleased with their performance as a complete team yet," Bulldogs coach Dan Mullen told me this week. "They keep themselves in check. They say, 'Hey, this is not good enough yet.' "
That's probably fair, to some extent. Mullen reminds me that Mississippi State, which is off this week, still hasn't seen a ranked team on its schedule -- although defeating Auburn a few weeks back was something of a mini-breakthrough for a team that's trying to climb up the SEC West ladder.
There are reasons, whether it's personnel or the team's schedule, to believe Mississippi State might be something of a darkhorse to get to 10 wins -- and maybe, just maybe, sneak into a BCS game as an at-large team. (I'll get to a few other quiet contenders for BCS berths a bit later in this post.)
To read Travis Haney's full blog on Mississippi State's BCS potential, in addition to seeing the three other teams that fit the bill as BCS sleepers, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Travis Haney
ESPN Insider• Joined ESPN as Insider's national college football writer in April 2012
• Previously wrote for The Oklahoman and The Post and Courier
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Travis HaneyTravis Haney joined ESPN in April 2012 as Insider's national college football writer. He previously covered the University of Oklahoma Sooners for The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman for one season, and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks for The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier for four. Additionally, Haney has contributed since 2003 to ESPN publications and projects, including ESPN The Magazine.
A native of Cleveland, Tenn., Haney's initial introduction to a college football cathedral was Neyland Stadium. He later graduated from the University of Tennessee, in 2003, and has spent time covering the Volunteers, the University of Georgia, Clemson University, and other schools. Safe to say, football, and football in the South, was injected into his bloodstream at a young age.
Haney is the author of three books -- Gamecock Glory and Gamecock Encore, which chronicled the South Carolina baseball team's run to the 2010 and 2011 national championships, and State of Disunion, a historical look at the Clemson-South Carolina football rivalry that he co-wrote with Larry Williams.
Haney resides in Charlotte, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter here.
