The Southeastern Conference’s longest bowl wining streak will be on the line during the 2012 postseason. There are two SEC teams that are riding five-game bowl winning streaks, but only one of the teams will have a chance to win its sixth straight this year.
One of the teams is Auburn, but as we know the Tigers will not put their streak on the line because of a disastrous season that cost Auburn not only a chance to play in a bowl but its coach as well.
So who is the other team with a five-game bowl winning streak?
It might come as a surprise to some, but the answer is the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Mississippi State started its streak with a 17-7 win over Clemson in the 1999 Peach Bowl. They followed that up the next season with a 43-41 win over Texas A&M in the 2000 Independence Bowl. Both those victories came with Jackie Sherrill coaching the Bulldogs.
Then came a six-year bowl drought that spanned most of the Sylvester Croom era before Croom took the Bulldogs to the 2007 Liberty Bowl, where they beat Central Florida 10-3.
After Croom contributed to the bowl winning streak, Dan Mullen came to Starkville. After missing a bowl in his first season, Mullen won the 2011 Gator Bowl 52-14 over Michigan and last year led the Bulldogs to a 23-17 win over WakeForest in the Music City Bowl.
This year, the Bulldogs have Northwestern in the Gator Bowl with a chance to win their sixth consecutive bowl victory. Mullen is not taking the Wildcats lightly but he’s following the usual bowl preparation script that most coaches follow — using the extra practices to work with younger players.
“We’re going to shut down a lot of our older guys,” Mullen said. “We’ll spend the first week just working on us before we concentrate on Northwestern. This is the week the 2s get some reps in practice, but this week the 2s go up to 1s and everybody bumps up. The starters don’t get a lot of work.”
Northwestern will bring a 9-3 record and a two-game winning streak into the game and present the Bulldogs’ postseason winning streak with a big challenge. The Bulldogs stumbled down the stretch by losing four of their last five games to finish 8-4. Mullen admits that the Gator Bowl is a nice trip for the fans that have supported the team throughout the season.
“It’s pretty special,” Mullen said. “I expect to have another home field advantage as we continue to build our program. Playing on New Year’s Day in Florida is pretty special. A bowl is a reward and the better season you have the greater reward.”
With 24 wins and three bowl trips in the past three seasons, Mullen feels the Bulldogs’ program is headed in the right direction.
“I think people see the direction we’re headed with New Year’s Day bowls in two of the last three years,” he said. “You don’t just come out of nowhere and build a championship foundation. That’s what we’ve done here over the last two or three years.”
If MississippiState is to win that sixth consecutive bowl game, chances are it will be due to the leadership of the senior class.
“They came in here four years ago and built a foundation that is going to give MississippiState a chance to compete for championships in the future,” he said
One of those seniors is 6-foot-2, 185-pound defensive back Johnthan Banks, who last week was honored with the Jim Thorpe Award, given annually to the best defensive back in the nation.
Banks won the award after a season in which he had 59 tackles, seven pass breakups, four interceptions, two tackles for loss, a fumble forced and a fumble recovery. Among active players in the FBS, Banks ranks first in career interception yards (320), is tied for third with 16 career interceptions and is tied for sixth in interceptions returned for touchdowns with three.
Banks and the rest of the seniors will be trying to extend the Bulldogs’ bowl winning streak in their final appearance as college football players.
“Four years ago, Johnthan Banks made a decision to stay at home and represent the people of Mississippi,” Mullen said. “What a tremendous honor for a young man from Maben, Miss., to be honored with the Jim Thorpe Award for the best defensive back in college football. It is something special for the entire state of Mississippi.”