Central Florida at Mississippi State

If Central Florida has proven one thing this year, it's that they can really beat up on bad defensive teams. There are 120 teams in NCAA Football. Central Florida played against these nine teams in terms of their overall defensive rank: SMU (No. 118), UTEP (No. 116), UAB (No. 115), Tulsa twice (No. 111), Marshall (No. 109), UL Lafayette (No. 105), Memphis (No. 101) and East Carolina (No. 99). That means of the 22 lowest-possible defensive teams, they played a schedule complete with nine of them! They proceeded to dominate offensively averaging 44 ppg. Well, surprise! Here comes Mississippi State with the No. 29 ranked defense. Central Florida played four games against teams with a defensive rank of No. 35 or better and proceeded to average 288 yards a game. That would put them at No. 116 offensively. The two teams they played that had a defensive rank in the 20s or less, like Mississippi State, held them to 235.5 yards a game which would be dead last in the NCAA! Mississippi State beat Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky. Take a look at Kentucky, a team that outscored Central Florida on the season, but did it against the SEC. Kentucky managed 14 points against Mississippi State on their own field, while being held to 319 yards. Kentucky put up an average of 500 yards a game at home including an average of 484 yards a game against Florida, Tennessee and LSU! Think Mississippi State can stop this Central Florida offense? We do! Wrong team favored in this one.