Where Mississippi State Ranks Among All 130 FBS Teams

Here's where the Bulldogs landed in the CBS Sports rankings ahead of the season.

Looking at the roster and Mike Leach's reputation of helping turn around even the poorest of teams gives us reason to believe that Mississippi State could be a team to watch in 2021.

That notion wasn't strongly reflected when Chip Patterson of CBS Sports released his preseason rankings of all 130 FBS teams, placing the Bulldogs at No. 55 overall (10th in the Southeastern Conference.

That put them directly ahead of Tulsa -- the same team they defeated in the Armed Forces Bowl in the postseason -- and just behind Colorado.

Here's a look at what Patterson had to say about Colorado, a team that we don't usually hear a tremendous amount of buzz about:

"The Buffaloes were one of the real surprises last season, and Karl Dorrell was one of the few winners in a year where the Pac-12 struggled to make as much of a splash with its much-delayed campaign," he wrote. "Jarek Broussard is a first-team all-conference running back, but our voters aren't respecting the results of 2020 with this ranking."

As for where the rest of the SEC is concerned, Patterson ranked Missouri (47th overall, ninth SEC), Kentucky (35th overall, eighth SEC), Auburn (30th overall, seventh SEC), Ole Miss (23rd overall, sixth SEC), LSU (14th overall, fifth SEC), Florida (12th overall, fourth SEC), Texas A&M (seventh overall, third SEC), Georgia (fifth overall, second SEC) and Alabama (first overall, first SEC) all in front of Mississippi State.

Arkansas (61st overall, 11th SEC), Tennessee (68th overall, 12th SEC), South Carolina (93rd overall, 13th SEC) and Vanderbilt (105th overall, 14th SEC). 

It will be interesting to see how closely these projections end up aligning with reality, and where MSU stands in the same rankings when this year is in the books.

The Bulldogs open the season against the other Bulldogs when LA Tech travels to Daivs Wade Stadium on Sept. 4.