Mississippi State and Vanderbilt look to end losing streaks

Posted 3:09PM on Friday 3rd October 2003 ( 21 years ago )

STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI - The combined 28-game conference losing streak held by Mississippi State and Vanderbilt will finally come to end. Mississippi State (0-4, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) will host Vanderbilt on Saturday in search of its first SEC win in 10 games against the Commodores (1-4, 0-2), who have lost 19 straight conference games and 23 of their last 25 against Division I-A opponents. Mississippi State ranks 11th in the SEC against the run, pass and in total defense. The Bulldogs have given up an average of 304.8 passing yards per game. Vanderbilt ranks last in the SEC in scoring offense, averaging 22 points per game. The Commodores may not be high powered on offense, but Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill said Vanderbilt seems to always give teams a hard time. ``Vanderbilt is a well-coached team. They are in position at all times. In the first game against Mississippi, they played very well,'' Sherrill said. ``In the game last week (against Georgia Tech), they took it to overtime and had a chance to win. What is impressive is that they have played very sound and very solid. People have just made more plays than they have.'' Mississippi State has never gone 0-5 to start a season. Vanderbilt's only win this year came against Division I-AA Chattanooga. They have suffered through 20 consecutive losing seasons. Mississippi State fans are growing impatient. A firejackiesherrill.com Web site is up and running. Sherrill spent most of a 40-minute conference call with reporters this week answering questions about his job status. He is the winningest coach in school history, but the Bulldogs have won just six of their last 27 games, their nine-game conference losing streak is the third longest in MSU history and they haven't won a conference game since 2001. Mississippi State was beaten 41-6 by LSU last week, while Vanderbilt is coming off the 24-17 loss to Georgia Tech. Vandy coach Bobby Johnson isn't interested in helping Mississippi State solve its problems. ``We don't try to solve other teams' problems. We try to attack their problems,'' Johnson said. ``I think they are just like us a lot of times ... but they've got good players. I know we're worried about size and speed matchups, which is always a problem for us.'' Mississippi State's defense will get some added help. Safety Darren Williams will likely be back in action after missing two games with a foot injury. What worries Mississippi State center Blake Jones is Vanderbilt's defense. ``Vanderbilt has a good defense that will play hard all the time and are real disciplined,'' Jones said. ``They won't show you a lot of different things, but what they do show you will be good techniques.''

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