2004 Mississippi State

3–⁠8 (2–⁠6 Southeastern Conference), coached by Sylvester Croom. Share

Schedule and results

Biggest upsetBeat No. 20 Florida 38–⁠31Oct 23
Florida was ranked No. 20, above it.

Each game’s margin, wins above the line and losses below; orange marks an upset win.

Date	Opponent	Result
Sep 4	vsTulane	W 28–⁠7	47%
Sep 11	vs18Auburn	L 14–⁠43	34%
Sep 18	vsMaine	L 7–⁠9	67%
Sep 25	at13LSU	L 0–⁠51	10%
Oct 2	atVanderbilt	L 13–⁠31	47%
Oct 9	vsUAB	L 13–⁠27	36%
Oct 23	vs20Florida	W 38–⁠31	20%
Oct 30	vsKentucky	W 22–⁠7	57%
Nov 6	atAlabama	L 14–⁠30	20%
Nov 20	vsArkansas	L 21–⁠24	30%
Nov 27	atOle Miss	L 3–⁠20	28%

Elo: a pregame chance from scores alone.

How it ended: Lost to Ole Miss 20–⁠3; unranked in the final AP poll; 10th in the Southeastern Conference.

In program history: The 115th-best season in program history by end-of-season Elo (of 124 on file).

Record: 3–⁠8
Conference: 2–⁠6 10th in Southeastern Conference
AP final: Unranked
Points: 173–⁠280
Coach: Sylvester Croom
Elo: 1354 −29 this season
SP+ rating: -5.7 No. 81 of 120; offense No. 109, defense No. 50
SRS: −7.4 No. 85 of 119 in Division I-A
Recruiting class: No. 56

Offensive coordinator: Woody McCorvey
Defensive coordinator: Ellis Johnson
Offense: West Coast

How good, play by play

Offense67th of 118
Defense52nd of 118

	EPA per play	Success	Explosiveness	FBS rank
Offense		-0.10	34%	1.09	67th of 118
Defense		-0.05	41%	0.89	52nd of 118

How these are measured

Play-weighted averages over games against FBS opponents; raw numbers, not adjusted for the strength of the opponent. EPA (expected points added) measures how much each play changed the expected score; success rate counts plays that kept the offense on schedule; explosiveness is the average EPA on successful plays. Lower is better on defense. Ranked by EPA per play among teams that were FBS that season.

Drives and havoc

	Points per trip inside the 40	Average start	Havoc
Offense		0.0	own 30	2% allowed
Defense		0.0	own 31	1% caused

A trip inside the 40 is a drive that reaches the opponent’s 40-yard line; points per trip is how many it scored on average (allowed, on defense). Average start is where drives began (the defense’s line is where its opponents started). Havoc is the share of plays ending in a tackle for loss, a forced fumble, an interception or a pass broken up. From CollegeFootballData.com.

Top recruits in the 2004 class

Dio Herrera OT	★★	No. 831
Anthony Strauder DT	★★	No. 831
Michael Henig PRO	★★	No. 1761
Roland Terry OT	★★	No. 1839
Titus Brown ILB	★★	No. 1839

247Sports composite rankings via CollegeFootballData.com; national rank in the class.

The 2004 class by position

	Signed	Stars	Rating
Quarterbacks	1	2.0	0.756
Receivers	1	2.0	0.744
Offensive line	3	2.0	0.759
Defensive line	1	2.0	0.789
Linebackers	2	2.0	0.733
Whole class	8	2.0	0.754

High-school signees by position group, with their average stars and 247Sports composite rating (out of 1), via CollegeFootballData.com. Athletes are signees with no set position.

Drafted in 2005

The 2005 draft

Rd 4	David Stewart OT	Tennessee Titans
Rd 5	Ronald Fields DT	San Francisco 49ers

All-SEC

2 first team, 2 second team

First team

Ronald FieldsDTAP-1
Jared CookPAP-1; Coaches-1

Second team

Jerious NorwoodRBCoaches-2
Willie EvansDEAP-2

From Wikipedia’s 2004 all-conference team article, with the selectors that named each player (AP-1: the Associated Press’s first team).

2004 Southeastern Conference standings

Conference page

Team	Conf.	Overall	AP final
Auburn	8–⁠0	13–⁠0	2
Tennessee	7–⁠1	10–⁠3	13
Georgia	6–⁠2	10–⁠2	7
LSU	6–⁠2	9–⁠3	16
Florida	4–⁠4	7–⁠5
South Carolina	4–⁠4	6–⁠5
Alabama	3–⁠5	6–⁠6
Arkansas	3–⁠5	5–⁠6
Ole Miss	3–⁠5	4–⁠7
Mississippi State	2–⁠6	3–⁠8
Vanderbilt	1–⁠7	2–⁠9
Kentucky	1–⁠7	2–⁠9

Ordered by conference winning percentage, then conference wins. Division splits and tiebreakers aren’t applied.