What Mike Leach can achieve that Dan Mullen didn't for Mississippi State football | Toppmeyer

When considering the outlook for Mississippi State’s third season under Mike Leach, a couple of eggs come to mind.

No. 1: Win the Egg Bowl.

No. 2: Don’t lay an egg.

The first point is obvious. The Egg Bowl’s outcome is a defining moment for each team, and Leach is 0-2 in those rivalry games.

To understand the second point, consider last season’s September games against Louisiana Tech and Memphis.

The Bulldogs needed to block a field goal in the final seconds to defeat La Tech, then lost two weeks later to Memphis, albeit that result carried the asterisk of incompetent officiating. Add the stinker showing in a blowout bowl loss to Texas Tech for another egg. On the other hand, MSU logged notable wins against North Carolina State, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Auburn.

This erratic nature is not uncommon for Leach’s teams, but this season offers the promise of more stability. Experienced teams should be consistent teams, and the Bulldogs benefit from the return of 16 offensive or defensive starters, tops in the SEC.

Leach has the chance to achieve something neither Dan Mullen nor Jackie Sherrill could do: Deliver a Year 3 that exceeds the hype.

A coach’s third season has become a peculiar pitfall at Mississippi State.

Mullen and Sherrill each boasted Year 3 teams ranked in the preseason Top 25, but both finished the season unranked and posted records inferior to the previous season.

If the Bulldogs win at least eight games, Leach would become the first coach in program history to post year-over-year record improvements in both his second and third seasons.

That’s the unplanned genius of Leach’s second season. He raised the bar of success without hoisting it so high that it cannot be exceeded.

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Emory Bellard was the last MSU coach to win eight games in his third season, in 1981, but even that didn’t match Bellard’s nine-win mark in 1980, when the Bulldogs beat No. 1 Alabama.

MSU ranks among the SEC’s most intriguing teams, because of the vast gap between its potential floor and ceiling for success. The Bulldogs will open preseason practice Friday with a third-year coach, an established quarterback in Will Rogers and a dangerous team that remains difficult to predict.

The media picked the Bulldogs to finish sixth in the SEC West. MSU’s abundance of proven starters suggests it is undervalued, but a brutal schedule cannot be ignored.

MSU and Auburn are the only teams that must play Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M this season.

Put aside the schedule, though, and the potential comes into focus. Despite MSU’s history, the third year of a coaching tenure is prime time to shine. That proved true in 2002, when Texas Tech won nine games in Leach’s third season, although his breakthrough at Washington State didn’t come until Year 4.

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Leach applied a selective approach to the transfer portal rather than blitzing it like a BOGO sale. Although MSU’s sandbox isn’t full of a bunch of new toys, that means the players who will be counted on the most are well-versed in Leach’s air raid offense.

“We do have a lot of starts. I think that's helpful,” Leach said at SEC Media Days, in between questions about his Netflix recommendations and Deion Sanders. “So, we do have experience to draw on.”

That experience gives the Bulldogs an opportunity to ditch the eggs and win the Egg.

Blake Toppmeyer is an SEC Columnist for the USA TODAY Network. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer. If you enjoy Blake’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.