When Mississippi State and Kentucky clash on the field tomorrow, it will not be the first time both have entered the game with losing records. The two schools are traditionally among the Southeastern Conference’s lower finishers.
Kentucky played in the first SEC football season in 1881, finishing with a losing record, 1-2. The programܬs all-time win percentage now stands at .506, logging 533 victories, which average out to be fewer than five per season.
The Wildcats come into this weekܬs contest with a 1-5 record, winless in the SEC. They have lost four straight games.
“Things haven’t gone exactly our way,” UK offensive tackle Hayden Lane said. “We wish we’d get a little more going our way considering all of the hard work we are putting into it.‹¨
Kentucky (1-5, 0-3) hovers near the bottom of every major statistical category, including being last in total defense and second to last in total offense, one spot ahead of Mississippi State.
Like the Wildcats, MSU is also winless in the SEC. This weekend will be a chance for the Dawgs to prove they are mentally tough enough to handle the adversity of losing a game they should have won.
“There was a lot more sense of urgency (in this week’s practices),” MSU head coach Sylvester Croom said. “We have to do the little things right and pay attention to details.”
Mississippi State (2-5, 0-4) has performed similarly to the Cats over its history, winning a total of 469 games since 1890, just shy of the .500 mark. The Bulldogs have won six of the last nine against the Cats but have only four wins in school history at Lexington.
The two programs share many parallels. With historical powerhouses on the schedule every season like LSU, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee, MSU and Kentucky alike have struggled to gain footing in the strongest conference in the nation.
Kentucky’s program bloomed in the mid 1990’s with Heisman-calibur quarterback Tim Couch, peaking with an Outback Bowl appearance in 1998.
But after the dismissal of head coach Hal Mummy and a string of NCAA sanctions, the Wildcats have returned to the cellar of the SEC East, registering losing campaigns in four of their last five seasons.
Likewise, Mississippi State experienced a period of national prominence in the latter part of the previous century under former head coach Jackie Sherrill. Sherrill guided the program to six bowl games including an SEC West title.
Sherrill retired in 2003, also under a cloud of NCAA sanctions, and the program in now mired in its fifth straight losing season, though Croom is doing everything in his power to change that fact.
“Part of the biggest process in building this program is to change the mental mindset,” Croom said. “The sense of urgency, the pride in the program, the pride in the state of Mississippi-that’s what we’ve got to get instilled in our players.”
With rebuilding being the unifying theme of these two programs, tomorrowܬs game becomes critically important to both programs.
Croom hopes his team can rebound from last week‹¨s loss and come away from Lexington with the coach’s first SEC road win, the first for the team since 2000.
When asked about players hanging their heads or feeling inferior, Croom voiced that that was a mentality he would not tolerate.
“That attitude is going to change, and it better change real fast,” Croom said.