Mississippi State Rolls Over No. 6 Texas A&M

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – No. 12 Mississippi State (5-0, 2-0 SEC) routed No. 6 Texas A&M (5-1, 2-1) 48-31 in front of the second-biggest crowd in Davis Wade Stadium history Saturday afternoon.

Combined with it’s upset at LSU two weeks ago, State has now won two top 10 games in the same season for the first time in school history.

Following the game, head coach Dan Mullen was emotional in expressing his thanks to MSU fans for their support.

“When I got here, we said that to build a winning program, the fans have to start it,” he said. “Everyone bought in to what we needed to do to build a program and it’s so rewarding to see that.”

The Bulldogs racked up over 500 yards of offense, while the A&M offense was held in check after averaging 51 points per game coming in.

Junior quarterback Dak Prescott led the way for State, completing 19-of-25 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns, as well as rushing the ball for 77 yards and three touchdowns.

“He’s gonna get a lot more attention now with his performance,” Mullen said. “But that’s what I’ve told everybody. We expect that from him, we expect that kind of performance.”

Prescott deflected any praise for himself, choosing to share how proud he is of his team and how grateful he is to the fans. Beyond gratitude, Prescott spoke of confidence, as well.

“I felt going into the game that we had it,” he said. “We just had to execute our game plan.”

For the second game in a row, junior running back Josh Robinson went over the century-mark on the ground, rushing for 107 yards and two touchdowns. However, while his success came on offense, he heaped praise on his defense. In particular, as Robinson discussed, the four-down stand MSU’s defense made after a special teams turnover early on is where the game was won.

“If we were the old MSU,” Robinson said, “we’d have gotten down on ourselves.”

Defensively, sophomore linebacker Richie Brown was one of the stars, recording three interceptions off A&M quarterback Kenny Hill (37-of-62 for 365 yards and four touchdowns).

Brown’s three interceptions now lead the team.

Elsewhere, junior cornerback Will Redmond led the team with 10 total tackles, just ahead of the nine by junior linebacker Benardrick McKinney.

“The one thing I think this team has done a great job of all year,” Mullen said, “when we need a big play, somebody steps up and makes a big play.”

With the win, MSU has beaten Top-10 teams twice in a season for the first time ever.

While he’s thrilled with the win, Mullen said the team has the rest of the day to celebrate before moving forward.

“All we are is 2-0 in the SEC,” Mullen said. “Getting two SEC wins was not our goal this season.”

Mississippi State hosts No. 5 Auburn next weekend with time and channel to be determined after all SEC play is complete on Saturday.