Mississippi State has played 11 games this season. Well, almost 12 games, but that one only went for 4 innings before it got fogged out. Exactly zero of those games have occurred in Starkville, Mississippi. Three of those games were played under the lead of a coach who quickly got canned. The rest of them led by Gary Henderson.
And now, on a 3 game winning streak, Mississippi State returns home. The Bulldogs had every reason to continue to let the early part of this season slip away. A 12 day road trip across three different states, with the bulk of those games happening all over Texas, shortly after losing the guy trusted to take your team to Omaha is certainly something that would test the mettle of most teams.