Did Mississippi State Football Improve in 2009?

Mississippi State came into the 2009 football season with a new head coach and a new direction. The team had been decimated from poor recruiting and graduation rates before the coaching change. In this article I will try give a fair and accurate picture of any early success with rebuilding this program. 

To find any signs of success a comparison must be made. For this purpose I will use statistics for the 2008 Mississippi State football team, but one factor that must be considered—the 2009 team played a much more difficult schedule.

In 2009 Mississippi State finished the season ranked 66th of 120 in total offense. Their offense produced 4463 yards on the season in 12 games. This was good enough to be ranked 7th in the SEC this year. 

In 2008 Mississippi State finished the season ranked 113th of 120 in total offense. Their offense produced 3566 yards on the season in 12 games. This was last place in the SEC.

This is an 897 yard improvement in one year, which is about 75 yards per game. This is quite an improvement, especially against a much tougher schedule this year.

In 2009 Mississippi State finished the season ranked 63rd in total defense. Their defense allowed 4392 yards of offense against them. This performance ranked 11th in the SEC.

In 2008 Mississippi State finished the season ranked 21st in total defense. Their defense allowed 3981 yards of offense against them.

This is 410 more yards allowed in 2009 than in 2008 or about 34 yards per game. On the surface this seems like a step back. The truth is quite different. Mississippi State played 5 of the most powerful offenses in the nation in 2009. In fact they played better offenses in 9 of the 12 games in 2009 when compared to 2008. 

I think this really gives all the information necessary to declare quite an improvement for the Mississippi State football program in 2009. There was a season swing of 487 yards in one season against a tougher schedule.

The offense was the most evident improvement. The defense had to be improved as well to keep teams like Florida 12, Georgia Tech 11, Auburn 20, Houston 1, and Arkansas 14, all of which were top 25 offenses, to similar numbers with last season.

There is not any area in which the indicators do not point to improvement in the 2009 Mississippi State football team with Coach Dan Mullen.