AMHERST — While playing its best football of the season, UMass will now face its biggest test. The Minutemen will try to extend their two-game winning streak when they head south to face No. 21 Mississippi State, Saturday at noon in Starkville.
UMass has never beaten a Power Five program (including Notre Dame) in 24 tries, with most of those coming in the five years since upgrading to the Bowl Subdivision. It’s come close a couple times, including last year’s 47-35 loss to MSU at Gillette Stadium.
“I love the competition, especially going into their home field,” sophomore cornerback Isaiah Rodgers said. “No team in history at UMass has beaten a Power Five team. Our main goal is to get to three wins in a row and beat this Power Five team.”
His sentiment was a popular one among the Minutemen.
“It’s a big opportunity for us. We’re not scared of these guys. We know it’s going to be loud. But we’re preparing to win and we believe we’re going to win,” junior quarterback Ross Comis said. “Coming off two wins, including one of the biggest wins we’ve had in FBS, is huge. We love to play on that stage. We live for these moments.”
Junior tailback Marquis Young agreed.
“No UMass team has beaten a Power Five team,” Young said. “We would love to beat one of those teams. It’s not about them it’s about us. If we take care of what we have to on our end we can come out victorious.”
This is a better MSU team than UMass faced last year, especially on defense. The Bulldogs are 6-2 with their only losses coming to Georgia and Auburn. The Bulldogs are coming off a 35-14 domination of Texas A&M on the road.
MSU is fourth in the SEC in points allowed (139) behind only Alabama (78) and Georgia (95), which are second and first respectively in the College Football Playoff rankings, and No. 14 Auburn (125).
Mississippi State’s 281.8 yards per game allowed is sixth best in the nation.
“They’re more experienced. They’re faster at linebacker. They’re more experienced on the back end and their guys up front are good,” UMass coach Mark Whipple said. “They make big plays and they’ve fed off them. They’re playing really well. Especially at home.”
Whipple thought the game at Tennessee helped prepare his team for the atmosphere in Mississippi.
“That certainly will help them having been down there,” Whipple said. “We’re gaining confidence with experience.”
With a matchup against No. 1 Alabama looming next week, Rodgers thought MSU might be overlooking UMass.
“I feel like their main focus is Alabama,” Rodgers said. “I love it when teams overlook us. They think it’s going to be easy, you have to show them it’s not. Our team is coming together right now. We’re loving the feeling of winning.”
MSU coach Dan Mullen said he’s not taking UMass lightly and even praised the cornerbacks, which includes Rodgers.
“UMass, despite being 2-6, has been outscored on the season by a total of five points. Five points is their point differential on the season, so that’s not very indicative of their record. Every game basically comes down to the wire,” he said in his Monday press conference. “They’ve been down here and played in SEC stadiums before. If their quarterback doesn’t get banged up at the end, they might have a great opportunity to go win the game (at Tennessee). They’ve won two in a row. They always play tough. They have a very explosive offense that puts up almost 30 points a game and puts up a lot of yards. They have an aggressive defense; they’ve got some really good corners on the outside to cover you.”
NO UPDATE ON FORD — On Wednesday, UMass’ last pregame media availability, Whipple said Andrew Ford was improving, but hadn’t practiced following last week’s neck injury. Whipple said it was still possible Ford could play. If he did it would be like the Georgia Southern game where Ford and Comis split time.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage