The No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs will look to build on their massive opening-season victory when they take on the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Mississippi State started the Mike Leach era in the best way it possible. The Bulldogs went on the road and beat up the defending national champion LSU Tigers, which had no answer for the Air Raid offense. In his first game with Mississippi State, Stanford transfer quarterback KJ Costello set an SEC record 623 yards, completing 36 of 60 passes. He threw for five touchdowns with an interception. Three players reached over 100 yards receiving including Osirus Mitchell, Kylin Hill and Javonta Payton.
Arkansas has a new head coach as well with Sam Pittman, and it looked like the Razorbacks had a real shot to pull off a massive Week 1 upset. Arkansas led Georgia 10-5 halfway through the third quarter before the Bulldogs scored 32 unanswered points for the victory. In his first game since transferring from Florida, Feleipe Franks completed 19 of 36 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown. He also threw two interceptions in the loss.
Mississippi State won the last three games of this series including a 54-24 victory last season in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Game Time/TV Channel/Streaming
Saturday’s game will start at 7:30 p.m. ET at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi. This game will appear on SEC Alternate.
Point Spread, Totals, Odds, Trends
Point spread: Arkansas (+18) vs. Mississippi State
Point Total: O/U 69 (-110)
Money line: Arkansas (+575), Mississippi State (-910)
- Arkansas is 5-10 against the spread in its last 15 games.
- Arkansas is 0-10 straight up in its last 10 games.
- Mississippi State is 4-2 against the spread in its last six games.
- The total went over in four of Mississippi State’s last five games.
The Best Bet
I was ready to go all in on Arkansas to cover in this one. After such a massive win, how could Mississippi State possibly get up for a game against Arkansas? However, this spread seems way too low. The Bulldogs picked apart LSU’s athletes on defense, so what do we think they’re going to do against Arkansas? The Razorbacks could very well go 0-10 this season, and they will struggle to cover this spread.
Pick: Mississippi State -18
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